Worst mechanic experience

[Gaurav]

As a car enthusiast, I'm sure you must be having tons of experience with mechanics and workshops in UAE.

List your worst mechanic experience here with as much as details, I'll start with mine:

• Back in those when I got my new license and my first car, I was very happy with the first mechanic who has served me honestly and fairly all the times. After I sold my Sunny, I got an Accord, he has been maintaining that as well. Every time I take the car for other jobs, I use to ask him to check everything from engine - gear - bushes etc and every time he used to say yes all done. As few of Honda guys know that Accord is notorious for gearbox failure, so on first jerk or late shifting, I reported to him and ask him to change the gear oil and filter. And after that still gearbox died and I went to gear specialist who showed me stale oil and said it was never changed. That gear rebuilding because of cheating cost me 10 times the price of gear oil change and forced me to not to trust mechanics again. Get a critical job in front of your eyes - no matter how much you trust your mechanic or long relation you had. Then again things change and I met real professionals and start trusting mechanics again but with a "pinch of salt".

 

[Rahimdad]

Thanks for sharing @Gaurav bhai. Now it's my turn. I have never been cheated by a mechanic as I have always been fascinated by cars and from a very young age as my father used to always ask me to help him with small car jobs.

However I never learned to tackle people and have always been straight forward and expect people to treat me the same way. But this is not an ideal world and people don't always mean what they say. Recently I had the small task, of removing the bull bar from my wife's car for passing and put it back on once done. It was a simple task of 15 minutes to remove and 15 minutes to put back. When I asked the mechanic how much it would cost me, he told me what should I charge you for this small job, just give whatever you like.

So he removed the bull bar, I went to pass the car and as it was almost his closing time I called to inquire if he will still be there. He said he would wait and it's just a 15 minutes job to do. So as I reached he left the job with his colleague and left for home. After job completed I paid the guy AED 50/-, he refused saying the mechanic had asked him to collect AED 400/- from me. I was shocked and called the mechanic, to my surprise he was serious. I told him that I could buy and instal a bull bar for that price and why so expensive for a total 30 minutes spend? To this he replied that he had to wait back for me which incurred overtime. This pissed me off as when I called him there was no mention that it would cost me so much or else I could have done it the next day. I was further pissed because once again he told me I could pay whatever I felt right to which I tried to give the other guy AED 50/- again refused saying mechanic asked to collect AED 200/-.

I called him again and confronted him, why he was telling me to pay what I think is right and kept on giving a figure to this other guy which was still ridiculous. To which he replied don't pay anything, I asked him on speaker phone to say the same thing to the other guy, which he did. Now this guy would not accept the money. So I left the AED 50/- in his draw, called him and told him that I had left the money I felt right in his draw, but I would never use or recommend him again. For the past 8 months I've found that there is life beyond that garage and always to confirm the cost before leaving my car for any job to be done.

Rant over.

[Barry]

I’ve always done my own work on my cars. A couple of times I’ve had a bit of extra cash so I thought it would be nice to leave my car into the garage beside my work so I could get someone else to do it and I could just go to work, chill, walk down and collect my car and drive home. 

First time was a Mk3 Astra (don’t laugh), I fitted new shocks and springs all round, changed every bushing and ball joint, put it in the local garage for a steering alignment. Got the car back with the steering wheel upside down. It took them 3 days to get the steering wheel pointing straight. 

Second time, I needed a clutch change on a 4wd Subaru Legacy. I didn’t have time to do it myself so I dropped it in the garage on the way to  work. I paid my money and picked it up on the way home. They neglected to fit 2 split pins for under 25 fils and the front wheels splayed out and the front of the car slammed on the road at 60mph. 

After that I swore to never let anyone touch my car again. If I break something, it’s my problem. 

There are plenty of good mechanics but the bad ones give the good ones a bad name. 

[desertdude]

Fortunately haven't had such an experience, although it wasn't for the lack of grease monkeys trying to rip me off though. 

Also to add to Barry. I've met more good mechanics than bad ones

Also I can take some pride in saying over the years I've probably stopped more people than I can remember from being ripped off too. 

But I do have this one good friend who is a glutton for punishment mostly due to being impatient. Be lazy and knowing absolutely nothing about cars also doesnt help. 

Sometimes he goes in knowing hes getting ripped off but in some weird grand scheme of things in his mind its worth it somehow.