Shady Mechanic

I took my suv to a mechanic to have a brake booster I purchased put on. He put on a different booster, evident from different letters from my booster and the one affixed to vehicle. My booster started with AEJ… The one affixed started with AAGP. I have my packing slip for my purchased booster. He denies any wrong doing. How do I prove this? If I can obtain information from the barcode numbers, maybe that would help. Any suggestions

Just to clear up any hint of fuzziness…
Are you saying your original booster was AEJ or is it the one you purchased?
What does the packing slip show? This an eBay deal? If so, what about verifying it with the seller?

If the brakes work fine I’d be tempted to just move along and not fret over it. Proving it could be difficult.

Seems unlikely that a mechanic would purchase a second booster and keep the first one, it might be many years before a use for the first booster is found.

Seems far more likely your purchased booster did not fit and he did you a solid and installed the correct one.

But if your vehicle works correctly, why do you care? Most mechanics use better quality parts than most customers buy off the internet and bring in.

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Did you actually take the booster out of the box and look at it before handing it over to him? Sometimes the lettering on the product is different from the lettering on the box/product page because they updated something on the part for whatever reason without changing anything else.

All the shop did was put on the part you furnished and by you furnishing the part the shop does not have to give you a warranty of any kind. Proving they did not use your part will be impossible and you would have to pay labor again even if they did .

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No offense, but I suggest that next time you need replacement parts, let the mechanic pick the parts. The mechanic only guarantees that he installed this replacement brake booster correctly. You are on the hook if it fails within warrant period, and he is not on the hook for replacement labor under those circumstances either.

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Both were AEJ.
The packing slip has the part number accompanied with another long number that starts with a W.
It was our chased from Parts Geek. I contacted them to ascertain if there were anyway to verify the pet I purchased via the barcode that was on the purchased part. No luck. There should be some way. It’s there for a reason.

The brakes do work fine. If he’d just Swapped parts, it be the principal of the situation but he told me the new booster had a bad sensor and charged me $93.00 for it. Now you’re take more money from me. It may be difficult to prove. I’m up for the challenge to expose this mechanic.

I rarely shop online, cause I’m leery of getting the wrong part. So, when the booster came I opened the box and matched the letters AEJ and part number to mine.

When I look up AAGP it comes up for a caddy but we know they fit the Tahoe & Denali and maybe much more.

The parts department at the deal tells me those letters represent the brake/braking options for the particular vehicle.

There’s gotta be a way to prove this.

No offense take. :blush: Guess I’m from the old school where they up the price on parts, sometimes. I’ve noticed parts online aren’t to far of from one another, depending on the seller(s).

Was the 93$ for just his time sounds high for a booster replacement or did that include the new booster that he supplied and did he give back the one you had?

I’ve thought of that as well. But he purchased a connector from a salvage yard to fix a wire he claimed to have found broken. I didn’t doubt that. He showed it to me. It fixed a Cruse control issue. His booster was cleaned up and put on my vehicle. I put a mark on the barcode label before he did the work. No mark on the installed booster. There was an initial or something on it that he or someone tried to wipe off.

The $93.00 was to install a sensor on the booster I supplied. $112.00 to install the Power b booster, $187.00 to install the master cylinder. This was labor.

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Yeah, I understand the warranty aspect… I’m hoping to do the impossible. I wouldn’t let my vehicle back in his shop for work. There’s gotta be a way to verify my part and the barcode is the key. But how?!

Sounds like not just a connector but a salvage yard booster was installed since you mention cleaning it up and the attempted removal of some identifying marks. Were those marks yellow or could you tell? Most boneyards in my neck of the woods mark everything in yellow.

If that’s the case I’d want that Parts Geek unit back for refund purposes.
You could call some local yards and ask if that shop has purchased a booster lately.

Yes, salvage yard booster and connector. I found it odd, but not uncommon, for him to turn to a salvage yard. The odd part concerned the connector. I feel a dealer should have or could get it in their possession shortly. The markings on the booster were of a blue pen.

He owes you the booster you handed him back and has no right to keep it.
I’d like to hear his justification for doing this. Unless he has someone on the line for your part and figures to cash in a bit.

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