who called the Police?

Wow... sucks that it degraded that fast. If you haven't consulted an attorney.. talk to one now and find out what your rights are in that state. Get all of your documentation together. Write out a timeline of conversations with your emails to back it up. Show that he had no legal authority to perform the work to the $$ he did and if you have any documentation of your agreement have that ready as well. Only thing you can do from here is be organized and have all the facts ready to fight what will likely be an emotional "he-said,he-said" argument from the shop perspective.

Have the police document everything, including the condition of your vehicle and all of your parts. Photograph everything to document your side of the story, your car, and your parts. Unfortunately from here it will likely become a civil legal matter.

Good luck!

Does he have a signed work order!?!?!?!?! He can't lean nothing in ILLINOIS without a signed work order!

Yup what Mario said, and from what you posted before about the laws in that state it's the same there as well.

If he didn't give you a written price or estimate he SOL!!

Also send he him a certified letter of Cease and Desist immediately!! Over night it by courier if you have to but US postal is best!! This way he can't rack up more charges on your car for work.

Now the last part you don't want to hear; I would go back TOMORROW with my trailer and pay him the bill due and pick up my car. Yes it sucks but a civil deal will cost you more in the end with possible damage or worse theft of parts from your car.

Lessons do cost money and that's what this will be going forward, but with your car back at your house.

Good luck!!

Man makes me sick to my stomach to read about this!

Did you get your car back or not?

If that is the case, then get to the Shop with a Trailer and have the Police meet you there. Get your car! Do not pay him! Let him take you to Court.

you can have police there for a stand by. he has no right to keep your property.


i'd like to hear how this degraded so fast but if this is going to go to court I would have this thread deleted and not say anything else.

I had similar situation a few years ago and the shop was forced to turn the car over to me by the police. Without a lean he cant keep it at least here in Texas so I would get there and get the car as quickly as possible.

To Hell and back!
 

Well guys what an exhausting experience to say the least. So the police are there telling me they cannot force him to give me the car., So on the drive in I contaced a lawyer to draw up some paperwork to get my car back. Right now I am loading up all the parts and putting everything into the car and they block the door with an SUV. I go over and talk to the owner one more time to try negotiate again. He wants to have no part in dealing, so I present him with the papers from the lawyer . He looks at the papers goes in the other room and tells the police he has a lien on my car. I asked why he filed a lien on my car and when? He said this morning. I told him why would you file a lien on my car you had no idea I was going to be here today. He said he filed a lien because I owed him money. As he said he does with every car that customer that owes him money. I knew he was lying because he could not present any paper work that has do with the lien, also I cannot happen that quickly. . Any way in the meantime my wife gets out of the car and tell me my son has a fever of 102*. Now all hells is starting to break loose. I start telling the owner we need to come to some sort of agreement at this point he keeps looking at his watch because he has to catch a flight out of town. We finally come to a settlement pretty much the same one we had in the phone conversation 2 weeks ago. I told him I would write him a check. He wanted a wire transfer or certified check.
So we get online and set up a wire transfer we go through the process and the money is sent he sees the receipt and even prints it out. Transaction is done the police leave the owner leaves. I back the trailer up and precede to get my car when the shop manager tells me I cannot have my car till the money hits the account. Now I am pissed. I call my bank and they say it could be 8 to 24 hours and it is now 3:00pm. We drive to a bank about 30 min away and tried to get a reversal on the wire the told me that I can only get a reversal 30 min after it is sent it has been 1.5 hours. They said if the owner called and refused they would write me a cashiers check. I called the owner he said he would but now he wants cash no check. At this point I am F@&!ed. I cannot spend the night here and the shop is only open till 7 so I aske the bank manager if he could put a rush on the wire the only thing he could do was call. At this point the family was hungry and I had the wife looking fo a place to stay. We sat outside the hotel looking at it in disgust. Then I got a notification that the wire was complete. We took off back to the shop it was about 6:45 I went inside and asked the shop manager to check the account. He did the money went through and we were okay to load the car up and the hell out of town. We drove straight home. Got home at 1:45am and was completely exhausted. I got my car BACK!!!!!. I will check on the condition of the car and report back.

OMG what a stressful ordeal.... It was like a mystery novel reading that. I am glad you got it back in the end and you did what you needed to. Now I would get your ducks in a row best you can and see what recourse you have and if it's worth pursuing (only you can decide what your time and money is worth).

Very glad you got the car back! Post more once you are rested and have the family and everything taken care of first.