Click & Clack Community,
I have one of the craziest car repair stories you’ll ever hear. Are you, or someone you know, interested in the story? Can you help me? It goes like this:
AAMCO Redemption: Deceit, Intrigue, and the Punishment Due
Imagine everything that can go wrong with a car repair. Add lies, video tape and, hopefully, revenge.
Imagine your car breaks down in a far away land.
Imagine it taking 3 weeks to ?repair.?
Imagine taking a bus to the far away land, only to be turned away because the car wasn?t really ready after all.
Imagine waiting at the bus stop, wondering where you?ll stay that night and watching someone you?ve never seen before drive past in your car.
Imagine catching someone, on video tape, pulling a personal bag of theirs from the trunk of your car.
Imagine having the manager lie to your face, telling you your car was safe and ?on the lift all night.?
Imagine the repair shop owner telling you there?s nothing he can do and making you pay $3800 to get your car back.
Imagine the tachometer redlining on the way home in rush hour traffic and your car going limp.
Imagine the owner refusing to honor his warranty.
Imagine, over two months later, still being without a functional car or any resolution.
Now, after being cleaned out for $3800, suffering the indignity of being lied to and the disappointment of seeing someone fail on their guarantee:
Imagine getting even.
Do you want to hear the whole story? I want to tell it.
Richard N. Eikstadt
Applications Programmer/Analyst Senior
University of Michigan Kidney Epidemiology and Cost Center
315 W. Huron St. #240
Ann Arbor, MI 48103
Phone (734) 998-6716
Fax (734) 998-6620
eikstadt@umich.edu
I wanna hear it!
I wanna hear it, too. But if you have not yet resolved the issue, and if what have told us is the unshaded truth, I think you should be talking to the local Prosecutor and to a personal attorney, maybe even before you present your case publicly here.
I have to wash my hair tonight,sorry.
art1966,
I am in touch with a lawyer already. And yes, it’s the truth. However, I’ve been encouraged by the lawyer to see if I can get the story published. I have a friend at Weber Shandwick (a PR firm) who, when he heard the whole story, lost it. My goal is to find someone in Chicago / Detroit / Midwest who can help me get the attention of the franchise which has made me carless for over this long amd get some help (know anyone with some pull?). I’d love to tell the story to Click/Clack. It’s actually pretty funny, even from my perspective.
Cheers!
I don’t know whether to buy into this story or not.
Blabbing this story should be secondary to suing the beejeezus out of them.
The attorney has skewed priorities; publish this before getting it resolved?
You think this is “pretty funny”, even from your perspective?
And people around me think I have a twisted sense of humor. (and I do)
Like ok4450, I am questioning the attorney’s priorities.
Is he/she trying to force an out-of-court settlement by publishing the story, or does he/she have another motive here?
While I find most of the story believeable, and while I wouldn’t send my worst enemy to AAMCO, I also think that there are some important details in this tale that you are withholding.
If you caught someone on video, why are you talking about it here instead of telling the whole story to a lawyer? Do you think your lawyer would want you telling the story in a public forum? Do you think your lawyer would think it is a good idea to publish all of that personal information of yours in a public forum?
If this all really happened to you (which I don’t doubt), I can think of about 20 more effective ways to address it other than posting the details here, even if you only post the vague details.
I would really love the hear the whole story. If you are going to tell it, get it over with already. If you want to tell it, why haven’t you? What are you waiting for?
What, exactly, “broke down”? Details, please.
What, exactly, did they say was the cause of the breakdown?
What was listed on the shop order? What, exactly, was the $3800 for?
What is the status of the car right now?
There could be a number of reasons an attorney didn’t want the case. I’m guessing that if you tell us all the details rather than just some nebulous statements the reasons will become obvious.
“There could be a number of reasons an attorney didn’t want the case. I’m guessing that if you tell us all the details rather than just some nebulous statements the reasons will become obvious.”
I think that mountainbike picked up on a detail that eluded both me and ok4450. We both interpreted the OP’s information to mean that the attorney wanted the case publicized before trying to settle out of court or to adjudicate it–however strange that strategy might be. However, I think that your interpretation is likely more on-target than our interpretations were.
If an attorney did not want to take on this case, then perhaps he/she felt that it was more worthy of a soap opera or a short story publication. If an attorney turns down a case, there must be a significant weakness in the plaintiff’s position. However in the absence of any hard details, we are all just guessing.
This is a civil case.
My real suspicion is that if all the facts are reviewed the maximum possible recovery would end up being $3500 minus the cost of work that was actually performed…which would end up being zip. There’s no “pain and suffering” here, and may not be any real evidence of anything illegal having occurred, only recovery of damages.
Not even worth an attourney’s time…unless the plaintiff were willing to pay the costs. That’s why the rich get justice. They can afford lengthy litigation complete with expemsive investigations and paid testimony. They still only get the recovery that the law allows, but they can afford the cost of “winning”. They can spend $100,000 in lawyer’s fees because someone insulted them.
But yeah, there may have also been a significant weakness in the plaintiff’s position. If not, the average trial lawyer would charge a few hundred for a letter from his office and the defendant would settle just to avoid the cost of litigating.
The attourney general’s office of consumer affairs might be interested, but that’s about “it”.
What do you conclude went wrong. A repair failed and the company is not honoring its warranty and the OP saw someone driving his car? Is this the complete story? This stuff happens everyday,whats special here?
I suspect there’s a whole lot of missing information here. We don’t even know what broke, what the shop did, or what they charged the OP for.
But if the OP is willinng to tell the whole story I’m willing to listen.
I’m not a gambling man at all other than a game of billiards or darts for a cold brew, but I might waffle into laying money that the entire story behind this one will never be told here.
If this situation is as told then it should be a simple matter to sic AAMCO corporate on their franchise. Provide the receipts to corporate along with a veiled threat and use that as the starting point.
If they balk, then it’s time for an attorney and courtroom, where AAMCO will likely lose this one. If the story is true.
I’ve been screwed before too and ended up paying for two transmissions. Mine took 7 weeks though.
I’d like to hear the story too but your lawyer should tell you you are obligated to give AAMCO the opportunity to fix it under warranty. Once they won’t or can’t, you are free to have it fixed someplace else. Then you can sue AAMCO for the cost in small claims court. If you charged it, which you always should for a repair, you may have some recourse through the card company. I didn’t have any luck that way though. Sometimes you just suck it up and tow your car to the good guys and chalk it up to an education. The guy that screwed me I found out owed the state $500,000 in tax so he was in big trouble.
If you are asking if we are willing to pay to read or hear the story, my answer is no…at least based on what little I have read so far.