R & B Automotive

This was a job that I didn't want to tackle myself because I was a little nervous as to if the valves bent and I figured for a 300 dollar estimate it was not a bad price to pay for the headache.  This was for labor only as  the mechanic advised me to buy the parts that needed replacing before bringing the car to his shop. The chilton's manual calls for this repair to take about 4 hours, but I understand if things happen and sometimes it takes longer. I told the mechanic I was in no rush for the car and he told me he had one car in front of mine.  I checked back every couple of days to see if the car was being repaired and it took a little over three weeks for him to do the job, this did disappoint me as I often came and saw other people stopping off with their car and it going before mine, but as I said I told him no rush  ( although three weeks is a little rude and excessive I felt and it was taking advantage of my good will.) I stopped by one day and found him working on my car and he told me that a new part was needed by the throttle body and he already ordered it for 95 dollars. This seemed kind of weird to me as it was no where in the vicinity of the repairs he was making so I asked to see the part. He told me he didn't have it anymore but thought he left it at the auto parts store. I went to the auto parts store to see if I could find it but it wasn't there, but they did show me a display of what the part looked like. I returned to his shop ( while he was out on a test drive for another client) and found the part on one of his benches. It was broken in two with a big dent on one side. I got to looking in the area the part came from and found that not only was this part now damaged but the wiring harness cover that was right beside where this part should be mounted was now damaged. Having turned many a wrench in my day it wasn't hard to figure out that what had happened was when he lifted the engine the part hit up against the firewall and broke off. I told him it was quite evident that this was due to his error and a broken not faulty part and he should pay for it not me ( didn't even mention for him to repair my wiring harness cover which may lead to future problems) Well naturally he got mad, but said he would pay for the part fix the car and then we were to be done.  I stopped by the next day and he had gotten the part out of a junkyard for 45 dollars.  I then took about four more days for him to complete the car. Once the car was completed he told me the battery was dead and would not accept a charge, so I brought a battery out of one of my other cars to get the car running. I paid him for the repairs plus for 2 parts I didn't know he bought until after they were installed ( though I did see the old parts and am familiar enough to know they were parts off the car so I know they were installed) and I told him I would even halve the price of the broken part with him and gave him 20 extra for it. Upon driving the car home we found the transmission no longer shifted, so I brought it back to him. Turns out since the car sat so long with the battery disconnected the computer had to go through a relearning process, which he performed on the car the next day or the day after ( don't really remember). I then took the car home and it has been fine since. Oh and the battery I brought it home put it on my own charger and the next day stuck it in her car and it has worked fine ever since. So was I happy with the quality of his work, yes definitely, he repaired it and ensured it worked right. Was I happy with the time it took, no not really I thought telling him no rush meant it would be done in a week or less as there was only the one car before me when I brought mine in, but yes I am partly maybe even mostly to blame for telling him no rush. Am I happy with the way the whole broken part went down, not really  because if my own knowledge wasn't there I would have been stuck paying full price for a part that it appears to me he had broken. Will I go there again, maybe not quite sure to be honest ( I mean he did do top quality work), but I will have a more thorough agreement on when the car is repaired and what place in line I will occupy and continue to occupy when it comes to working on my car. Oh and to boot I gave him a 200 dollar snap-on collectible Harley Davidson wrench for  hurrying with the transmission ( which I offered on my own free will, nothing was requested) though looking back now if he didn't have the battery disconnected for so long it never would have needed that done and all  that had to be done was his computer hooked up to the car and a few buttons pushed and the car to sit and put itself through the relearning mode.