Milton Collision Center

In early October, I brought a 1981 Firebird to Milton Collision Center for replacement of its leaking heater core. The work agreed upon was replacement of the heater core and removal and cleaning of the new rug on which antifreeze had leaked. I was assured that the work would be top notch and take approximately 1 week.
I took possession of the car after paying the bill for these services on 10/14/2013. That week, I noticed several ?omissions? in the re-assembly of interior components that had to be removed for the heater core/rug work:  
1.    Disabled computer wiring harness that was under the center console is stuffed into back of dash!
2.    Indicator light for transmission shifter was also stuffed up behind dash!  More on this later.
3.    Center console missing front two sheet metal screws that mount it to underside of dash!
4.    Right turn indicator light lights up when headlights turned on!
5.     Radio harness unhooked including the antenna.
6.    Glove box door stop bracket was missing!    
I brought all this to the owner?s Jarrett Quick and his sidekick ,Charles?s attention. Milton C.C. did not offer any tow services and insisted I drive the car back to their shop. On a subsequent Friday, I drove the car back to Milton C.C. and supplied the list of the above problems to them ? along with the three service manuals I also supplied to them for the heater core work.  Of special note here, I placed the three manuals in the rear seat ? the manual they would need for the interior console, being sandwiched in the center of the stack upside down to the top and bottom two books. Jarrett stated it would only take a day or two to correct the problems. I would be able to pick up the car on Sunday if I wanted.
That Saturday, Charles called stating that he could not find the center console light harness. I told him it was there originally and that perhaps it got ?tossed? during interior disassembly as did the glove box arm, screws, etc. I told young Charles to have Jarrett call me. Jarrett never called.
I called ahead of time on Sunday to see if my car was ready ? no one was answering the phone.
By the end of the week, I finally got another worker ? Jack ? on the phone. He stated that everything was fixed but the continuous right signal indicator problem ?was already like that and it was nothing they had done?. Ah-huh.
I made arrangements to pick up the car on Saturday. Jack told me someone would be there as they were open until 1pm. I again drove the 25 miles to Milton C.C. When I arrived at 11:30 on Saturday, no one was there! The place was locked up ? my Firebird was sitting in the driveway ? unlocked! Luckily, I had my spare ignition keys. I drove the car home and noticed my Tachometer and radio were not working (they were when I brought the car in initially) and that several heater system components were missing. I found them in the car?s trunk. I also found the three manuals mentioned earlier stacked in the same place,  in the back seat - in the same order and arrangement I had left them. ? indicating no one had bothered to refer to them in the course of repairing the problems. All this necessitated my son and me having to take the interior out yet again and replace damaged parts, repair wiring, figure out how to undo shoddy work, and replace proper fastening hardware.
I took photos of all disassembly. I discovered that, rather than re-remove the carpet (too much work, I guess in removing seats and console to get at the shift indicator bulb under the carpet which covered the shift indicator light, Charlie and his crew just cobble some other vehicle?s (it could be yours) side marker light and drilled through the shift indicator housing and attached it with a plastic tie strip. They then hacked into my car?s stock wiring harness and spliced the power to a wire. And this place wants to do your classic car restoration. The repair work my son and I did took over 10 hours in addition to a parts expense. A nominal rate for body work is $75.00/hour. My time is as valuable as anyone else?s.
I filed a small claims lawsuit for my repair work in nearby Marlborough, NY. No one from Milton Collision Center ever bothered to call to see if some settlement could be made. The court suggested mediation which I readily complied with. Sadly, all that Milton Collision would offer for my trouble was the cost of the shift indicator mounting they drilled through which I secured on the internet. I showed them that their laziness in not re- removing the rug to get the shift indicator light made a lot of work for me
We went to small claims and, again, at the urging of the judge, I attempted to come to some settlement with MCC before the hearing. The owner, Jarrett smugly told me that he would rather take his chances in court rather than recompense me.
Incredulously, I lost my claim to MCC as the judge felt I should have spent more money (??!!) and had a professional do the repair work rather than accept my documentation (in clear photos) about the repairs I and my son did ourselves. I really did not have the funds to pay TWICE for the same work. The judge had hinted - several times - to the MCC owners to try to come to an arrangement (i.e. give me something) but Jarrett and Charles stubbornly refused. In the end, MCC only paid for the replaced light bracket housing. My labors in repairing the DAMAGE they caused went uncompensated.
If you are thinking of restoring a classic car, you might want to give some serious deliberation to the facts I have related here.
I'm thinking you don't want to have the same work done twice- once poorly and the other correctly (by someone other than Milton Collision Center.
Caveat Emptor.