Around The World RV

I took my 1993 RV in for service on Saturday, July 16, 2011. It was not running good, with rough idle, backfire under load, and loss of power. On Wednesday, I got a call from David Sparks. He said he was the one who does the engine work on the RVs. He told me at that time that i needed a new timing chain. He also said he was in the process of checking the compression in the cylinders. He called me again on Friday, saying that I had a "dead cylinder", and that he needed to check the cam. On Saturday morning (one week after i dropped off my RV), I made a visit to the shop. He told me he pulled the valve cover and said the rocker arms on #3 were not even moving and that i needed a new cam. He gave me a verbal estimate of $2600.00. I left the shop feeling suspicious. I went back that afternoon. My RV was sitting outside, so i entered it using my 2nd set of keys. I could tell right away that the valve cover had not been removed as he stated. As far as i could tell, all that had been done to my engine was that the air cleaner had been removed. I put the air cleaner back on, started my rv, and drove it away to another shop. On Monday I spoke with David Sparks, and learned that he was the owner of Around The World RV. We spoke briefly, with him telling me that he would have a talk with his mechanic and that he does not run that kind of shop. He passed the buck onto "his mechanic" when all the while it was him telling me the HE did this and HE did that, not some other mechanic. The second shop i took my RV to called me today, July 27, and told me my fuel pressure was low, that i needed a new fuel pump. Also that my timing was 6 degrees off. I had told them what Around the World RV told me. They said nothing was wrong with my timing chain, cam, or valve train, and that i did NOT have a dead cylinder. So from a 2600 dollar repair, down to the cost of replacing my fuel pump and timing my engine. About a 2300 dollar difference. It isnt that Around the World RV mis-diagnosed my problem,,,but that they didnt diagnose it at all, instead choosing to cheat me out of several thousand dollars.