AA just ran well in excess of $1,000 over budget on my 914. I dont dispute the necessity of the work or the pricing of the work. However, they went way too far when I told them to what my budget was. The official company line is this was a "misunderstanding".
In all candor, Shon and Daniel in the shop were great to work with. Shon got put in the middle between George and I when George suddenly dropped the problem on his lap.
AA fooled me once on bad customer service. Now they fooled me twice. Shame on me for trusting them. Never again!
To keep a potential flame war off the site, PM me if you're interested in the story.
Konrad

Maybe it was a misunderstanding but sometimes the path from A-Z is costly. Ask yourself this Could the work you whent in for have been done without the extras? Where you imformed that the repairs where going to cost more than the org, est,?
I dont need a reply back on this I just give you something to think about. The Dr has alot on the line here I ? if he would run the risk of getting a post like this without making ever effort to make you happy. If so so be it. I am in Calif, Atlanta is a long way to go for 914 repairs. Good luck on this.

Let me give you the story from the bodymans side of things. Car comes in, customer wants to spend $5000.00 on said car but wants a "nice driver' to get said car to "nice driver" condition I know it needs $8000.00 werth of time and materials. I SHOULD give an ESTIMATE. An ESTIMATYE is an ESTIMATE of what I THINK I can do the car for. Not a GAURANTEE. If in fact you were given a gaurantee or it was specifically stated absolutely not to go over said $$ amount you have a right to gripe. BUT what would you be saying if they had stopped at your dollar amount and the car still needed paint?? Or if the car was painted but the underlying body werk looked like ....lets say.....Anna Nicoles thighs??

I donot know your circumstances but everyone here needs to remember that higher end shops DO NOT want to do the $4000.00 restorations because it makes them look less than capable. If you want a $4000.00 resto go to Macco and then bitch about how crappy it looks. If your already into AA for $7000.00+ and you get an extra $1000.00 on your bill be happy to know the job was done right and that you AND AA can be proud of your car.

You get what ou pay for.

I think one's expectations should be to pay the money - but if you made it clear that the budget was X - then as soon as the bill hits X+1 - you should get a phone call (phone calls aren't very expensive, even for a mechanic/body shop) saying your bill is over the budget: what do you want to do? It's just good customer service.

Unfortunately - anyone who is going to do the job right has enough business that they don't have to have good customer service in order to survive.

I defenitley understand that good work cost money, often more than the original estimate. If I had a million $$$ I would let them go ahead and do whatever needs to be done. However, bringing in a car into the shop doesnt give them free reign to do any and everything to the car regardless of what the budget is set at. If I want to pay X amount of dollars, I realise I'll get X dollars amount of work. Thats fine, some things just need to be put off until the next time around.
If I get an estimate, I expect a 10-20% overrun, but not 100% +. If there is that much extra work to be done, a few minutes for a candid phone call is well worth the hit to reputation that a shop will run into if the work is done regardless.
Konrad

I'd be the first person to stand in line NOT to defend AA or George, but depending on the scope of the project it's very easy to exceed any budget. If you had a guarantee, that's another story, or if you wanted a heads up when it looked like it was going to be more than agreed and you didn't get the heads up, then OK you've got a beef.

What you are saying now is your estimate was $1,000 and the bill was $2,000. That is 100% of $1,000

That is not right by any body shop or repair estimate so there must be a long story and a mistake. So lets hear it!

Bob

OK: I had a rocker arm stud break on me and eventually needed the half stuck in the head drilled out. George quoted me $400 to remove the engine, drill out the bolt, and re-assemble everything. I figured the total cost might be $5-600 by the time it was all done.
George then gave me a call to tell me that every thing was finished, but they had seen some problem areas that needed to be addressed. george said it would take some "tweaks" to get it in perfect running order and it should cast $2,000 to do everything. I thought he ment $2k inclusive of the engine work. But none-the-less I told him "do what you need to get it running, but $2k is way out of my price range."
Total bill- $3175.00 including tax. Things done include replace CV joints, replace wheel bearing, replace shifter bushings, replace muffler bracket, and a few others.
* The work needed to be done and the total price was fair for the work done. However, I had no intention of dropping more than $1500 total. I wasnt explicit about it but "go nowhere near $2k, I thought would cover things.
Never again!
Konrad

if it really is 100% over estimate and they did the work without your consent, I would guess there are some laws in Georgia to deal with that.

We ran into the same situation in new york once and all it took was some research into the laws and a phone call and it was resolved. I believe if the overruns are that large a percentage it can be considered a form of usery (sp?)


EDIT: You posted while I was writing...

And there is the problem. Only PART of that statement was heard. Sorry

That would have pissed me off.
3.1k for that?
Im sure you would have done all that other stuff yourself. Drilling and tapping a engine stud (they probably used a reverse drill bit and took it out in about 5 mins.)
Im going to take a wild venture and guess that 2 guys spent 4 hours doing everything.
Oh btw, the parts were around 400-800 YOUR cost.. depending on how many cv's they replaced.
What probably took the longest was taking the trailing arms off, (since the cv's were out) pressing the bearing out, clean it a little, paint it, press a new bearing in, reassemble.

Ahh. im just making you more mad..
At least they did all the things that really bring a car back to life.. wait, why didnt they do the bushings?? hmm oh ya, those are actually hard to install..

To make these cars correct it can cost a lot of money. Some shops call over and over to update you on you running total so this does not happen. They did not but you did say—

“I told him "do what you need to get it running, but
Konrad ------ As Scotty pointed out.

A guess a lot of AA customers must work like that. And just give the word fix it and trust them. (1) You want a shop that you trust (2) you want to make a lot of money to fix your car

Sorry you are in this spot.

Bob

I probably should have given them a more definite cut off, but I did say that $2k was way too much. I just wish they had respected that.
Konrad

I don't know what legal restrictions are on repair shops out where AA is, but here if you're within an estimate/budget and you approach complications or are projected to exceed a price previously agreed on, you gotta inform the owner and get approval.

At least, that's how the place I work at runs.

Why do you have a 914 and pay someone else to work on it?

Do you think they are supposed to run or something?

Now that it is done- and by an actual business, get explicit warranty info to pin up on the wall in case something goes bad. That is something I never have....

Maybe George will accept a no interest payment scheme to stretch the impact out.

Don't you hate when you delete a big long post. I don't know your What happened in your case. But I can tell you that body work is not like mechanical work. There are often problems with hidden rust damage and poor repairs that are hidden under the paint. There is nothing worse than completing a car on budget by compermising the repair quality. As a shop you are comitting business suicide. It's always fine with the owner when he's at the shop picking up the car. But then he goes to the local hang out and everyone see's the imperfection first. And guess what... the budget conversation never comes up.

I have the perfect example. I have a car in the car in my garage now. The owner was fully prepared to spend near $ 10,000.00 to fix an improper repair done back in the 70's. As I stripped the car I discovered way more damage than was possible to see before I started. I am now faced with removing the complete engine, transmission and front suspension to repair about 16 additional hrs of someone elses work. Should I not say anything and have my friend waste $ 10,000.00?

Some things can't be helped. I think AA should have discussed this with you first but I doubt you would have not wanted the car don't right.

In this state you can not increase an estimate more than 10% without written consent. If the work was truly needed and you would have found a way to come up with the money, work it out. It's only money, you'll make more. Enjoy your car.

I am a General Contractor in MD (bitch of a state to work in BTW) I ALWAYS say to the customer at time of estimate that "more may be ness" but I always call with a price and get confirmation B4 I start addl work....just good practice.

I will not let anyone work on mine except for alignments and tires......just a cheap SOB that knows I can do it too and for le$$......+ its hard to trust shops these days....good luck

I really can't afford it either...hell I've got and easy 20K in mine and I am not done.......Sh!t

Josh

Josh, Im the same way.
The only thing I'll let someone do is the tires (wich I loose in a truck), alignment, and a dyno tune (sbc's.... so much knowlege at the dyno.. those guys know there sbc stuff..)

Chalk it up to a lesson learned. When you said "do what you need to get it running " that is giving any auto repair facility particulary one that does restoration type work carte blanche to do what is deemed nessacry to make it right. Anytime you deal with a repair shop you want to get a written estimate broken down line by line parts and labor w/ labor times. Then you have the right to approve each line of reoair or refuse it. I work in a shop writing estimates and having to sell to customers. Sometimes the buy right then and sometimes they take the estimate and come back when they have the money. But I never have any that say do what it takes w/o knowing what is being done and for how much because they wouldn't do that.

You would think someone would have called and given you a list of things that needed to be repaired and the cost of each. Going in for engine work and coming out with new CV joints and wheel bearing is not even close to the original scope of work.

I take my truck in for X and the the manager calls me and says he found w,y, and z and this is what each will cost. I say do w, y but not z. Thats how it is suppose to work.

I didn't work in a body shop, but when I worked in a repair facility, it was customary to give the customer a written estimate at the time the vehicle was dropped off. If the repair was found to exceed this estimate (it was more extensive than estimated), the customer was notified by telephone of what additional repairs were required. The customer had the say whether these additional repairs were made or not.

I know that this is not apples to apples, but it is how that shop did business.


As another reference, my current employer provides custom equipment and custom integrated industrial systems. We quote a job with a fixed quote. If the customer makes no changes and agreed to items do not change, we provide the system as promised (regardless if we go over budget). If the customer changes the scope of work, we provide them with a change order.

Was this work done according to a fixed quote? If so, you may have reason to complain. If it was done with a written estimate, you should have been notified when the scope of the project was deemed to exceed that of the original written estimate. If you were not notified, you probably have a reason to complain.


That's all I have to say about that.



just my $0.02

You should receive a written quote for the original work and any change order needed as it's discovered. "IF" that's what happened, that may be considered excessive.

"Knowledge is good"

When you want work done regardless of body, engine, etc.... you need to ask yourself if there are any unknowns... often there will be. With an engine, there's always worn parts, with a body, there's always rust, repairs, bolts that won't come off, etc.

That said, most shops will call you and stop the work when they find something that will up the price. Having a $1K surprise on your bill after the fact is not what I would consider acceptable.

A good shop communicates well.

AA?

from AA? Really? nahhh...


they should have called you.

Classic case of getting totally ripped off. I feel sorry for you. I hope everyone who is reading this will pay attention.

First time I took my car to a shop they told me it was a two day job to remove the engine and it'll cost $750 to get it out. I ran away and learned how to do it myself.

I admire AA's willingness to go extensive with the repairs on your car... But they should've contacted you. Even the crummy shop I had my car at (who couldn't tell hydraulic lifters from solid) called me when things were going over estimate.

I sense it would be smarter for ME to hear both sides.

I don't sniff I have read the whole story here. Something sounds like it's missing.

It's time to relax and wait for more facts and the perceptions of those facts.


Clayton

Bottom line: they made a good faith effort to gain authorization for the work, and you gave that authorization with out a full understanding of what you were authorizing.

Same thing happened to me. I had a BMW M3 I was selling. My wife took it to a store and some chick backed into the car, leaving a small dent on the front quarter that needed to be fixed. When I went to the body shop to get and estimate, I was asked did the insurance company give an estimate. I said "yes but I don't have it with me. He went ahead and generated another one.
And then when I found out that they would have to blend the paint into the hood, I asked to get the hood re-sprayed to take care of some paint chips. So he came back and said $750, and gave me the secret coded estimate sheet. So I said wow that is cheap! (seriously I did!). Go for it.

When I go to pick up the car, it turns out I owe $800. I question them and they say that they didn't estimate the insurance portion of the work because the insurance company estimate applied, and that this estimate was for ONLY additional work. I thought that it was a sucky way to do business, but that is the way it works.

Bottom line, I was the one that didn't fully understand what I was asking for, and I am the one that authorized the repair at the quoted price. I bitched and got a small discount on the work and chalked it up to a lesson learned. Be a dummy; ask the question over and over again until you UNDERSTAND FULLY, and then and only then sign! too many people (like me in this case) don't want to seem dumb, and just kind of gloss over the details and say go ahead. I was mad at the time, but mostly at my self for not asking questions and knowing that anything insurance related isn’t done in a logical manner. I think i may have even posted a rant here at the time (old pre-split site) The thing to remember here is that the shop deals with things liek this ALL the time and each time you are required to learn their way of doing things, and shorthand and secret code words. This is your responsibility , because it is your MONEY!

If you ask nice, maybe George will be willing to give a "sorry for the miscommunication problem" discount, but you aren't OWED one.

I can sympathize w/ you & at the same time I can't. I too did a "quick fix" at AA & my final price was nowhere near what the quick fix was supposed to cost. However, I stayed in close personal contact w/ George & no one else on the entire matter. He did nothing without my OK. Every time something came up I made him explain it to me & he realized I understood him. I was a total pain in the ass, for 356 days straight & still am to this day. I'm a retailers worst nightmare- an educated novice. Being an A/V engineer & playing w/ Dads' 914 since I was 11 has made me the way I am. Also, it was my Dads' LE, I wanted it done right & George knew it & I made sure he did. My only complaint, & I have never told George this, was the stickers on the sides. I now have 2 different new sets in boxes & will fix them myself one day. Big deal, they're stickers. He's in Atlanta & I'm in DC so that settles that.
I now have a new project, my '70 6 & will be doing most of the work on it myself. The reasons for this are because I enjoy it, I'm cheaper than AA & I don't care how good you are, I'm supervising. Hard to do unless you're there & I'm sure if George watched me work he'd offer me a job. I ain't movin to Georgia, I'm a Virginia boy.
Good luck & all I can say is you should talk w/ him personally.

Wow a lot has been posted since I last checked the club site!!!! Spent the whole weekend arranging the pictures and descriptions for our great new 914 catalog that will be mass mailed.

I am going to have Sean and Dan post on my behalf as since Conrad chose to vent, and we appreciate that, that they can speak as well. After that I will follow up. Fair enough????

I love happy endings...

I think most states are regulated as it regards what a repair facility can do. Here in California I believe that they have to inform you by phone if the repair is going to be 10% greater than the estimate.

It sounds as if you are saying that AA told you $2K and just snuck up and charged you more than $3K. Not very likely totally true.

It is popular to bash George and Company so this is nothing new. I am sure that George can stand up for himself but... I wonder how much effort was made at working this out with George before spreading peanut butter on his reputation publicly?

The point is and this is the second time I have said this in the last month, work this out toe-to-toe before you trash a man's reputation. Even if it is George and it is popular to trash him...

Last summer my girlfriend dropped her car off at Tires Plus to get her tires rotated and she ended up getting new tie rods and some other stuff, and all of a sudden they wanted like $450!
She pulled the crying helpless girl routine and got away with paying like $300, but it was still pretty un-cool.

Sorry, but I don't buy into the "buyer/customer beware" or "you'll know better next time" disclaimer by those in the business. Any REPUTABLE shop will treat their customers ethically and communicate with them to where BOTH parties are clear on the terms and conditions, or extra work required WHEN required. A reputable business will step forward and make clear to the customer the conditions by which the scope of the work be addressed, rather than defer the questioning to the customer. Keep in mind, the customer is not normally the expert, so the business has the fundamental responsibility of advising them thoroughly (and not simply look at it as a cash opportunity). Conduct you business otherwise, and your reputation and growth will suffer. Rant over.........

Andys

with Andys...

That's how it sounds to me, too.

Bravo, well said

This is not a reflection on either as the old unwritten law rule, let the seller/buyer beware.

People of my generation had to learn the hard way and insist that everything related to a repair or service, be in writing. Why. Because there was dishonest people on both sides of the done deals. This means about anything, not just automobiles.
Once that became the norm, like it is in the defacto business world of today, with all the fine print and legal mumbo jumbo ( not shade tree), an initialed acknowledgement is normally required to be a binding document.

It is sad to say, the days of the gentleman agreement with a handshake or their word as a bond are mostly past history.

Always insist if there are changes to any documents you put your signature on, such as a service or repair order, it must be approved fully by you and initialed by both parties to keep them both honest and above false promises, decit or fraud.

Who is right? Whichever the signed and initialed additionals agreement fully verifies.
BTW, I would never have a problem with AA or anyone else about doing any work. I would practice what I wrote above and you should too.

WWZD?

I wonder if that is what this guy is doing. He's playing a pretty good victim role here. Airing this publicly to get AA to lower his bill. What makes me skeptical of this guy is he published this on both this site and the club site. It seems like he's trying to play this in the court of public opinion.

Like everything, there is two sides to the story. I'd wait to hear both sides before jumping on this guys bandwagon.

JMO.
j.

Making estimates in the wporld of repairing 30+ year old cars and engines is a nightmare waiting to happen...

Variables are abundant and they cost everyone!

Right.... I don't think anyone is disagreeing with that statement. The problem here is that AA has not been heard from so we don't know what AA did or did not tell Conrad.

This is not the place to solve this problem. It is too easy to hurt a mans business by simply giving only your side. I am dissapointed that we are seeing this here on this forum. I have said this before and I will say it again, until your negotiation is at a standstill and you cannot accept the result offered you have no business throwing dirt on a mans reputation. It sounds to me like Conrad hasn't even tried to work this out with George and AA before coming here with this.

I would hope that Conrad would delete the post and take it to AA and George directly.

Here is Mr. Zieglers note that accompanied the car. Please note that Konrad says "needs to be rotated and brought back into running condition with care"

here is our repair order (excuse the messy hand written example we are so far behind in the repair department that we are not using our computer generated invoices! (also for you scrutinizers, the 12 oil is special 80/90 and by the pint (not engine oil!!!!)




Here is Sean's version of the story, along with my interjections:

To preface Sean and Dan's reply, Konrad has a very nice 1971 willow green 914 that is very straight rustfree and a great candidate for a full restoration. We probably love it more than he does!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This issue should have been a non issue as there was some communication breakdown somewhere, and we can only tell it as it is. As we all know 914s these days need more restoration than repair so it is not a simple thing to tell someone: "Yes water pump replacement on your 2003 Ford is 169.53 parts and labor" Every repair must be taken on its own case by case basis and when one has a car towed in and inoperable, and wants to make it operable, the repair shop must analyze the scope of the work, but more importantly address the core issues one by one a penny at a time until able to make the vehicle run, and then hone in on the specifics to make the vehicle operate reliably. Konrad's car was the typical case, a 35 year old 914 that we had not seen before and that had not been running in awhile, had not been serviced properly in the past, and that the customer had given up on making it run, and finally had it towed to a place that would take the time and patience to bring it back from the grave (so to speak)
Konrad's dad first called me saying that his son had tried to work on his car, could not get it running and really did not know what he was doing, and could we help. The current problem was a bad rocker arm stud, and he asked how much it would cost to tap and replace it. I explained over the phone that if we could access it from the outside, around 400 Including parts and revalve adjust, which would cover us removing the trailing arm and dropping down the engine to access.
The car showed up here several days following and alas when the driver dropped it the drivers window immediately fell down! This was the signal of things to come. Below is the narrative of Sean and Dan (I will interject if appropriate):

"Konrad Ziegler brought his car to us and told us he had not driven the car in six months but it had been in great driving order with the exception of a nasty engine noise.
He explained that he knew the car had a broken rocker stud. That being the case George told Konrad that if the engine was to stay in the car the bill could be as little as $400.00. We were surprised to find that when we went to push the car into the shop it was stuck in second gear because the bushings were broken, missing, and worn...not to mention that the shift console, first reverse bias had broken free and the plate had to be rewelded (I must say that we did not charge for this operation on his bill)
After the six of us pushed the car in and pulled the valve cover we could see that Mr. Z had attempted to drill out the stud but to no avail. This made what could have been a very simple procedure, vastly more complicated. Upon closer inspection, we found the cause of the problem: the rocker assemblies were all being held in place with lock washers and nyloc nuts of the wrong thread pitch, and the rocker assemblies were actually installed out of sequence, intakes on exhaust and vice versa. We replaced, retapped, and readjusted all.
Because of the complications, the engine had to be pulled and of course the cost naturally went up. This had been previously established as a possibility with Konrad's dad before the car was dropped off and the line of communication here, seemed to be direct.
While the engine was out we found that a large pair of needle nosed pliers had been in the fan for quite some time (probably some of the noise that Mr Ziegler had described). this of course had broken about half of the cooling fan blades. We then added the cost of a used fan to a list being compiled for round two.
The round two list consisted of cv axle repack, front wheel bearings (about to fall off the car) a leaking left front caliper, shifter bushings, the previously mentioned cooling fan, the alternator belt, the muffler bracket (missing) and the engine mounts. (Mr Z had included two rear 911 mounts to install for the transmission mounts, but we had previously determined that they were ok and he did not need them, but they could be used to replace the engine mounts as one was indeed broken)
At this time Mr Z. was called and told what had been done what he had spent and what was needed to get the car into a drivable state "with care" as stated in his letter. As I understand, the conversation between George and Konrad outlined that Mr. Z didn't have a lot of money and was pushing his budget but understood that the work needed to be done and was willing to spend a "little more." "


Let me (George) interject here. I had a discussion with Konrad here and informed him that we would have to spend about 2500 here to repair all of these things and he acknowleged that figure. I also told him that we of course could spend a lot more including a thorough major service to make the car reliable. He at that time questioned why the cv joints needed to be repacked as he had a fairly recent receipt showing that they had been replaced. My mistake is that I found out when Dan had removed cleaned and examined the cv joints that they were indeed WORN OUT and needed immediate replacement to get the car operable. I took it upon myself to authorize Dan to replace the axles with rebuilt ones as repacking was hopeless. I called Konrad to come out and see the axles for himself which he did, and he saw and acknowledged the rest of the work approved on the phone to get the car operable.
I think that in Konrad's own words, "George then gave me a call to say that everything was finished but had seen some problem areas that needed to be addressed. George told me that it would take some "tweeks" to get it in perfect running order, and it should cost 2000 to do everything. I thought that he meant 2000 dollars inclusive of the engine work, but none the less I told him "do what you need to get it running, but 2000 is way out of my price range."

To return to Sean and Dan's narrative:

"Mr Ziegler even came by once the engine was back in the car and Dan explained in great detail what had been done and what he was doing.
That was Friday. On Monday, Mr. Z. was called and given his total of 3175.52 A total that he disputed. So I went over every part and every hour of labor with him after faxing him a copy of the work order.
Now convinced of the total he argued that he had not agreed to the amount of work that was done and said he had only agreed to 2000.00 worth of work.
He then made it a point to tell me he was an attorney and could "make things very rough for me". I also told Konrad that we would be happy to remove parts from his car (specifically the previously unapproved rebuilt cv axles plus any other parts GH) until we could reach a predetermined budget starting with the cvs. which made up a large portion of the post estimate work. At this time he suggested that I "eat" the $3000.00 plus bill and simply buy the car from him for $15,000.00 (fifteen thousand dollars). As I hate to defame someone's character, Mr Ziegler seemed to me to be overly aggressive and quite dishonest."

(these are Sean's observations and not mine!!!!!!!!!! GH)

" I have abbreviated the extent and depth of the discussion and negotiation. "The simple fact that he said the car was driving just fine six months ago tells me that he knew he was setting us up to get work done for free. In the end he succeeded, I had to do a lot of other "tweeking" to get the car to run. I told him among other things, that I had done my best to adjust the shift rod to regain command of all of the gears, but first gear was entirely gone! He told me this was a fact he had been well aware of and had failed to mention.
The final thing that I think is at the crux of this dispute is that Mr, Ziegler produced a repair work order from another shop showing that they had replaced the cv joints and added one quart of ANTIFREEZE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "

(wouldn't you too be leery about taking your car to the next repair shop after seeing a bill like this????? GH)

Thank you for the narrative Sean. Dan, Sean, and Konrad, are all young guys and often times misunderstanding leads to tempers getting out of hand about something that could be easily be solved. I admire all of our young staff here for ALWAYS remaining cool headed and everyone here treats every customer with respect and courtesy. They will continue to do so, and one can always be assured of a quality repair/restoration here for a very fair price, and we will tell you financially always what you are getting yourself into with these old cars!!!!!!!!

And finally here is a list of other things we noted about this 914


EN 914 ZIEGLER
· Front tie rods and ball joints need to be replaced
· Front drivers caliper leaking (we rebuilt)
· Lug nuts are very loose (we tighened!)
· Rack and pinion cover bent
· Heater control hose is off (we reinstalled)
· Passenger Rocker panel cracked
· Broken engine mounts (we replaced)
· Fuel pump boot missing, gas leaking at injector line (we replaced the injector line
· Shift rod boots missing, shift bushings are bad, needs adjustment (we replaced the bushings and rewelded the shifter base where it was broken
· Rear muffler bracket missing (we replaced)
· Swing arm is loose
· Clutch tube cracked at the firewall and probably at the front, no clutch cable boot installed
· Reverse light switch boot missing
· Starter is loose (we tightened)
· E-brake cable boots missing/ stuck cables and handle (does not work!) has bolts installed instead of pins at the calipers
· Some passenger engine shelf rust
· Shifter bushing “at firewall” cracked in half (we replaced
· Heater hose clamps missing
· CV joints dry, may need replacing were totally shot! (We replaced with rebuilt units)
· Low transmission fluid (we changed the fluid)
· Dash pad shrunk/ cracked dash
· Missing seat belt bolt covers (plastic)
· Seat rails in need of lubrication
· Engine lid cable is missing the cable release back pad plastic washer
· Missing drivers door panel arm rest / pocket (off)
· Battery dead (we charged and checked the charging system
· Back pad light wiring is not making good connection
· Latches in need of lubrication
· Engine lid drain pan off
· 914 badges missing backing
· Targa top latches (in trunk) broken (4 of 4)
· Both trunk (rear) seals cracked and brittle
· Cracked drivers tailligh
· Needs air filter cleanup and relubrication water in airbox (needs cleaned)
· Engine lid seal missing
· Relay board cover cracked
· Bad trunk hinge cup repair (passenger is cracked
· Cracked/ripped intake boot (we repaired as the new part is NLA)


We have been in business now for over 29 years and pride ourselves in knowing our way around a 914. We are not out to take advantage of anyone. Konrad is welcome back any time to continue his restoration and get the other things done as his budget allows. All of our work is fully guaranteed and we stand behing it. We will leave no one out in the cold who owns a 914

I too was curious about this post & PMd' him regarding living in Wisconsin & going to Atlanta to rotate tires? Also, who charges $300 to rotate tires? He replied that this happened in Wisconsin, not AA. I suggested he edit... too late.

Ah, Tires Plus. Thanks.

That pretty much says it. Conrad's signature on the work authorization. Like I said. This shouldn't have happened.

The title of this thread gives away the intent that this person wants to inflict. He says in his first post "I don't dispute the necessity of the work or the pricing of the work" then he says in a later post "I told them do what you need to get it running" and then signs the authorization on the AA slip and has the gall to say he doesn't want this to become a flame war... Isn't the title of this thread "flaming". He is being irresponsible and at the very least should change the title of this thread.

I would bet AA has a whole different version of events...

j.

NO DUDE!!! They charged her $300 because they also gave her new tie rods and some other parts that she maybe needed, maybe didn't, I don't know. The point was that they did more than was agreed upon without contacting her and then she had to pay for it. This has nothing to do with Auto Atlanta or the original post, beside the fact that it was a similar situation. This was at Tires Plus in West Bend, WI. My girlfriend does not drive to Georgia to have her tires rotated.