Posted by Tony Sefton on December 19, 2004, 12:34 pm, in reply to "Re: Call out charges "
I would have promptly gone back under the dash, removed the fuse, and popped a blown fuse back in and then said, that's ok sir, you don't owe me anything. and then when he complained that that the indicators didn't work, you could have said, well you don't get owt for nowt in this life sir, see you later. Bye. I Was asked by a Paki, sorry coloured gentleman, No on second thoughts, he was a paki. (I am not a racist and try to treat everyone as equal, as long as they do the same to me). He brought his car in for a starter motor fitting, So I estimated £70.00 + vat to replace the starter motor, Which he appeared happy with, so he left the car for repairing, I then checked it over, and found out that the battery was flat, the starter was burnt out and the engine was full of water and had hydraulic'd due to him driving through a flood and the intake pipe was hanging down at the back of the engine, so it sucked all the water up. I rang him and explained that it wouldn't be ready that day and I would see what I could do with it, I drained out the water through the glow plug holes, charged the battery and fitted a recon starter motor, It started fairly easily and a quick run around and the car ran like new, I thought that he would be Really happy that his car had survived, so I rang him to tell him that it was ready and that I would only charge him for the starter motor. The guy came down to collect the car with his interpreter, (why do they do that, This guy runs a chip shop and he suddely couldn't talk english). ?? His interpreter said that he had changed his mind and didn't want the car repairing, but he was prepared to give me £40.00, But it wasn't worth £70.00 + Vat. I explained that he had been quoted for the job and I had spent an extra 2 hours for free,(only because the car was a pile of junk and I didn't think that he would spend much more on it) but he was determined not to pay, So I got the watering can, filled the engine back up with water, fitted a knackered starter motor back on, and drained the battery. We shoved it into the middle of the yard and told him to take it away. The Funny thing is that he still sends his sons down for their cars repairing, (It took me a while to realise that it was the same family).