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“Body shop” is a minor variant of the well-known “Ponzi scheme”, in which no actual business is transacted, no product is made or sold. The source of revenue is MORE CUSTOMERS, and (part of) their money is used to attract new customers.
He did not begin working on the car because:
1. he doesn’t care - you’re not a celebrity or a murderer.
2. he ALREADY SPENT your deposit on rent, crack, payroll, utilities and the supplies for his LAST customer (and won’t have money for yours until his NEXT customer).
3. he really doesn’t care.
Eventually, he will no longer have new customers. At this point, he will allow the shop to go bankrupt by not paying the rent, his employees or his suppliers. When this happens, he will stop answering the phone – he’ll be busy setting up his new shop (somewhere else), and moving all his tools, supplies, etc. so the bankruptcy court and his creditors can’t find them. The customer’s cars locked in the shop will be:
1. sold at auction with fake mechanic’s liens for work that was never authorized and never done, and a release you never signed, and proof you got a lien notice that was never delivered.
2. “stolen” (he takes them himself, to his new shop, for parts).
3. all the parts and spares you gave him with the car “were stolen while it was on the carrier”.
If you go to the shop RIGHT NOW, how will you get the car home (assuming he will give it back)? “I’m real busy right now, I’ll deliver it 1st thing tomorrow morning”.
How will he pay you? “I’m waiting for J-Lo’s $50,000 check to clear, then I’ll mail you the full amount”.
Anything he tells you will be a lie. Your lawyer can’t get what he doesn’t have.
Are they ALL like that? Not all, just almost all.
He quoted you a price & time WITHOUT seeing the car? Let me “translate” the body shop language for you (speaking generically, don’t know him):
1. this scares off people with no money (legitimate but rude tactic, IMHO).
2. it convinces you that he’s legit (price too low = amateur).
3. a year? NO WORK TAKES A YEAR. It may be a year before he “gets around to it”.
4. when the car is there, he’ll stop working on it when he needs more money from a new customer.
5. it won’t be done in a year.
6. it will cost a lot more than $10K.
7. any “special” parts HE buys for you will be re-priced at 2-5 times what he paid.
8. any “special” parts YOU supply with the car will be:
a. “junk, I won’t use it” (“I can’t make money on this”), or
b. lost (“no, you never gave that to me”).
9. he will ask for MORE money, even though no work has been done yet.
10. if you drop by without calling, he’ll be working on someone else’s car which came in AFTER yours.
11. there will be beer cans and McDonalds wrappers ON and IN your car.
12. if you’re really not lucky, the car won’t even be there.
Been there, done that.
9 days; that’s at the usual body shop flat-rate method:
1. arrive hung over at 11AM
2. go to breakfast
3. nap
4. beer
5. lunch
6. beer
7. nap
8. 5 minutes of sanding
9. leave at 3PM
9 days = 72 hours @ $60. comes to $4,320.
How can they get away with that?
Insurance.
Next time you’re in the hospital and vapor lock at those $15. aspirins and $25 local phone calls? Same reason.
Just a guess: when the going gets tough, the tough go running. The plan:
1. Close the store
2. Remove all the inventory
3. Report a “fire”, “burglary”, “theft by employee whose name I can’t remember, who just went back to Mexico”
4. Claim loss against taxes
5. File bankruptcy
6. “I’d like to refund your money, but I’m broke; I promise I’ll pay you – by cheating my other customers”
7. Open new store under name of fictitious new partner (want to bet his wife/girlfriend is a notary?), with old inventory - only this time you don’t file taxes at all, since you didn’t ever own the parts - they were “stolen”, right?
8. Repeat as needed
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