Location: Alabama, International Student
This happened to me about 7 months ago. I had recently bought a used car, the car ended up having a lot of problems. After a lot of repairs, which included replacing the turbo, it cost me around $2000. The car ran nicely for a few more months, but then it started leaking coolant again. Since I already spent such a large amount of money on it, I wanted this new repair to be as cheap as possible, so I started to look for alternatives.
Through my friend, I came to find out about this guy who had previously fixed some radiator parts on his car. I texted the guy, and he said that he is only licensed to work in Georgia, but he will work on my car. He told me to bring my car to him. This guy said that the timing belt had gone bad on my car, and he will need to order some parts and fix it, since i didn’t know much about the cars at this point, I went along with him. He changed the timing belt on my car but it still didn’t fixed the problem. Around the same time, one of my friend got into a small car accident and messed up his bumper and side door. I went to the same guy, and I asked him if he could do it for a cheaper price than what the Body shops around me were asking for. He said he could do it, but will need to order some some parts, so he asked us for an advance payment of $400. We did as he had told us to do. And about my car, he started working on it, but never fixed the problem, the engine light would never go away, he would come up with new issues everytime and ask me for money. This went on for almost about 2 months. And for my friends car, he said the parts are on their way but they never arrived.
At one point, I felt like he might be scamming me and so i went to a different shop to check if he had indeed fixed the problem, and found out that he had put stop leak on my car, which messed up my oxygen sensor. I had to get my oxygen sensor replaced which costs me more money, and the main problem with coolant leaking was just a small crack in the pipe somewhere below the turbo pump. I don’t have any specific proof against him that he put the stop leak and I still don’t know whether if he changed the timing belt and radiator hoses. But I know he did it since I didn’t take the car to anyone else. For my friend’s car, which he said he is getting the car parts but never did and never paid us the money back? We were about to file the case against him, but we saw lots of student getting their Visas revoked, so we didn’t want to risk it at that time.
We contacted him to give us the money back but he kept on avoiding us saying his son got sick, he will pay us next week and stuff like that? Then summer came and me and my friend were out of Alabama for three entire months. So, at present I wanted to know if its too late for us to file a complaint against him. I have every conversation, and messages. We also have the receipts of the money which he never paid us back? I also have my other friends whom I took to his shop, who are eyewitnesses to everything. I wanted to know what would be my best option moving forward. I don’t want it to be a long and tedious court process since i am an international and tedious process, which would cost me more money. What are my options since I don’t have direct proof he caused extra damage, and how can I get the money back? Please help !!!