May 10th (cont'd.)......
After returning home later in the evening, and all family having departed, I still had this sick feeling in my stomach that I was not being told everything that happened.
I felt I had lost control. My car was 4.5hrs away, to which I drove it there running perfectly (and under load mind you, as it was the expressway after all) and now I'm being told a motor drop. Crazy.
I made the executive decision to have a tow company proceed to LMS to retrieve my car. I was in no financial standing to address this issue at the moment, so getting it back in my hands was VERY IMPROTANT to me. Even if it just sat in my garage collecting dust.
I contracted with Grand Beach Towing that evening and then immediately recalled Dan. He did not answer. I left him a Voice Mail. In that Voice Mail I told him that I knew we agreed to talk on Monday, but I had to speak with him, that it was important, and that I had put "some things in motion" that needed to be discussed.
Silence. Crickets. All weekend long. This was the 1st time ever that Dan has failed to return my call.
Ok. No worries. Monday morning May 13th comes and approximately 10min. prior to LMS opening for the day, I send a (group) text to BOTH Dan AND Vince, advising to stop any work on my car and that a tow truck will be arriving to retrieve my car.
See below.
I recieve no reply. Odd. I communicate with my tow driver who tells me that he had arrived at LMS around 11am (EDT) and that upon entry into the front sales area, Vince greets him and shows him my text and says to the driver something along the lines of "Oh yea, this must be you here, Mike texted and we knee you were coming. Let me go get the owner for you".
Ring ring ring goes my phone. Dan calls and sounds startled/surprised. Asks me what's going on and why is there a tow truck at his business wanting to retrieve my car? Dan continues without allowing me to answer saying that he really wished I would've given him a heads up, or told him ahead of time.
I replied to Dan that I tried to tell him. I called on Friday evening and left you a Voice Mail.
Dan says poignantly "Well I'm very busy, I don't really listen to my voice mails, you know, I have like a lot of spammers calling me and what not".
I then inform him that I texted BOTH him AND Vince prior to business opening (look at time stamp below) to inform them of the impending tow.
Dan says that he was busy and "just read (my text) now". Well that's odd, cuz Vince acknowledged reading it and greeted the tow driver as such.
Dan asks again why is a tow truck there? I tell him that it was a very long weekend, my wife was super pissed about this whole situation, and that I can't afford to do this right now, so that's why the tow truck is there. I continue, besides you told me Friday you were too busy to work on my car, and knowing it wasn't going to be able to make the Nat's, I saw no point in my car remaining there.
Dan offers to "eat the labor" on engine removal and the tear down, but proceeds to tell me that I would have to pay for any parts accordingly.
I thanked him, told him that was a very gracious offer, but why would I agree to paying for any/all parts, as he told me previously that he did not know what was wrong with the motor to begin with, and as far as I was concerned, that was essentially an "open ended ticket" (for parts) which could cost me untold thousands. Thank you but no thank you.
Release my car please.
Dan sounds concerned now. He's pleading with me to leave the car there. I decline.
He tells me how he doesn't understand how I could turn down such an offer. I tell him if I were to accept his offer, would he pay for my tow then? He answered with a laugh, NO. Well then just release my car.
He then said well it's gonna be a while. I ask why? He says he started work on it already.
Once again, I was like wait, what?
I said what do you mean you began work on it? I never authorized any type of work, do you have any authorization from me saying to remove engine or begin tearing it down? No you do not.
Well I thought we were friends Mike. I had a guy spend 2hrs on it on Friday (May 10th) and another guy spend 2hrs on it this morning.
Shocked, I asked what work was done, and how long exactly is it going to take? Dan says he doesn't know what was done, maybe the CAI was removed, I'm not sure, I'll have to ask the guys in the shop.
Again, what was done Dan? He replies, that he feels like I'm putting him in a real bind, and he goes back to stating he doesn't understand how I can turn down his offer of "free".
Concerned about how long my tow driver would have to wait (& me having to pay more to him for waiting around) I ask how much longer? Dan says maybe about an hour.
We disconnect so Dan can go talk to his "guys in the shop".
I tell my tow driver of the unexpected delays.
Tow driver tells me that Vince returned to the sales area and informed him the subframe was down, and some other parts removed, and that it was going to be a while.
Dan texts me back, asks if I want the car reassembled. I ask again what was taken apart. He doesn't answer.
I expound that I don't understand what was taken apart, and how the motor broke, especially when I drove it there and it was fine.
Dan then proceeds to clarify his offer of "free" and continues stating that they will fix my car on THEIR TIMEFRAME, and that as long as it's not completely unusable, this "should" not cost me anything. Notice the "should". His escape route to charge me...... ??
Dan continues advising that he would allow me to reinstall it (the motor).
Wait what? Soooooooo you're gonna remove the motor, tear it down, make me pay for an unknown quantity of parts, then allow me to install it myself afterwards?
Ummmm...... doesn't sound free to me.
I tell Dan that I realize I there may be a pending bill and that he probably wants me to pay that to release my car.
Dan says "I don't do billing". Well that's ok Dan, I have the emails from Andy, let me add it up for you. Dan replies again that he doesn't do billing. Ok then Dan, then transfer me to someone who will take my money.
Dan replies "No that's ok, I'll just go ahead and release your car."
I recall tow driver, tell him what's going on. He asked what my car looked like and I sent him pics. He replies to me that him and I needed to talk after he clears LMS.
Tow driver tells me that employees drove my car out to his truck. I was puzzled. Huh, I was told it was "not driveable" but yet they drove it out to you? He then says he proceeds to load up the car while it's running. Gets it on the bed. Goes to shut car off and secure, but has no key. He goes back and asks for the key. Employees tell him they don't know where the key is at. Now he was like you guys just drove the car out to me. They made him wait even longer. Dan offered the driver directly to pay ONLY FOR his additional waiting time. Tow driver declines, just asks for the key again.
So he waits. As do I.
Some time later Vince pops back into the equation, calls me and apologies saying he was removed from the picture and he only heard something went wrong and he seemed genuinely concerned that things didn't go as planned.
Vince tells me I then need to sign a form. I say ok, send it on over. He sends me the same form I signed when I dropped the car off 4 weeks earlier. Puzzled I ask where he needs me to sign? He tells me. Then I read the mumbo jumbo and laugh and tell him I'm not signing that. He asks if he should go get Dan. I tell him politely NO, that if Dan reintroduced him into the equation, then that pretty much tells me Dan's done with me. I proceed to tell Vince what I WILL WRITE (on this form) and nothing further.
15min later (at approximately 1:45pm EDT) my tow driver tells me the vehicle was released and he was on his way. Mind you he arrived at their facility at approximately 10:30am EDT. So that's just over 3hrs of him waiting around.
I ask him what he needs to talk to me about? He tells me that he saw my car parked OUTSIDE the entire time, and that it appeared no work was being done on it. He saw it surrounded by a bunch of other cars, that he watched them moving around to get mine clear.
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
