sue or no to sue

[hondatt]

OK, last year, I had this shop do a conversion (turbo engine for an Eagle Talon) for me and I had nothing but bad things. I've had problems since the beginning. The tranny was leaking oil and the engine was leaking oil as well. I was also blowing blue smoke and losing about a 2 litres of oil between oil changes (synthetic).

After a year I decided to take the head out and see if the Valve seals are gone. Well, I find out the turbo block is actually an Non-turbo with turbo pistons. The receipt or what I paid for was for a total conversion. Turbo harness, ported head, turbo fuel pump, ECU, ect. etc. Well, The only thing they changed was the the ECU and the engine. Even the engine, that I paid extra to rebuild, that I found out that they didn't rebuild.

After I found out that this shop did nothing that I paid for, we have agreed for him to pay me $2000. He has paid half and now still pending for the rest.

It has been almost a month since he last emailed me about the last payment. The email stated that he had the money and will deposit it as soon as the bank releases his account.

What should I do? Civil court?

[GTS Jeff]

u cant take things to small claims court til uve written a few letters to him and junk. basically u have to try your hardest to settle out of court before they let u in.

look for legal aid. its cheap and helpful.

[illeagle]

licenced shop? I'd say, give him a certain date to give you the money, let him know your gonna take him to court if he doesen't cooperate, then go from there..

[WGR4Pussies]

lol, i think i know the shop that did this.

[BebeAphrodite]

Originally posted by GTS Jeff
u cant take things to small claims court til uve written a few letters to him and junk. basically u have to try your hardest to settle out of court before they let u in.

look for legal aid. its cheap and helpful.

You can take whatever you want to small claims court.

I think you're thinking of the Better Business Bureau. For that you need to file letters and even then there is nothing legally they can do. They can only attempt to mediate a situation.

In small claims, it is up to you to prove your case with sufficient evidence. It's not a requirement that you have written letters. You have to pay $100 to file the claim. You don't have to wait until they "let" you in. People settle outside of court that figure its not worth their time/trouble/money to go to court to settle the situation.

My advice to you is that if you want to take him to court, get what has happened in writing and get him to give you a specific date as to when he will be giving you the rest of the money. You're on the right track already, just push for the date. If he hasn't paid you by the specified time then go ahead and file your case because you have a pretty solid case. The time line has to be reasonable (he can't say that he will pay you in another year and you can't say that he needs to pay you in one hour). Basically you can only sue him for the $1000. By you already haven taken half the money, you have agreed to the terms of recompensation. (If I'm understanding your situation correctly).
Hmmm.. it's super late and that's about the best advice that I can give you at the moment.

[sabad66]

which shop is this so others dont make the same mistake

[Talies R]

Originally posted by WGR4Pussies
lol, i think i know the shop that did this.

Please share with the rest of us, why keep it a secret?

[Z_Fan]

Point him to the thread that is at 1320stangs.com - let him know what the internet can do - that thread (same idea) has like a quarter million views in the last week.

Tell him to pay you...like, NOW!

But don't post the shop name...

[hondatt]

Thanx for the advice. Do you guys think I can still file a complaint after we have settled? Or should I file one before the settlement.

Complaint

[hjr]

if you tell him your gonna sue him, he is not gonna pay out the money unless ordered too. so make sure you have enough evidence to confirm he owes you $1000, or else your out the $100 fee and he wont be paying you for sure.

[ninjak84]

I think you should post the shop name.
If you work at a shop, then you should be ready to stand by your work, or take responsibility when it goes wrong.

Some of the people who work at those places don't know their stuff at all.....

If they put the wrong filter on your CAI, then who cares. But they did a massive bullshit job on a turbo motor build, which included cutting every corner to save them money and charge you more. That's WAY too dis-honest for me.

Support the shops who do good work, and drive past the others

[Seanith]

Yeah no shit, out with the shop name!

[BebeAphrodite]

I was reading some posts and some people say to post the shop name and others say not to.

Here's my take:
This is a personal story of yours. The way in which you have described the situation makes it a personal story. You haven't come out to say "these people are greaseballs that steal and scam" nor have you implied such.
You've told your story so if you want, I think you can throw up a shop name. If you want. It is personal choice!

And also, it would be wiser not to tell him you're going to sue. Get the letter with the specified repayment date signed and if he doesn't pay by that date then take it to court. Because if you threaten him you're going to sue you'd better take it to the next level and sue him. Circumstances might arise that would make you not sue and you look like a fool bluffing.
Besides why give the "opponent" the upper hand. Whatever you plan shouldn't be disclosed.

And as for the complaint, file it now previous to it being completely resolved if you would like it to be more damaging.

[GTS Jeff]

Originally posted by CuteAsianAngel



You can take whatever you want to small claims court.

I think you're thinking of the Better Business Bureau. For that you need to file letters and even then there is nothing legally they can do. They can only attempt to mediate a situation.

In small claims, it is up to you to prove your case with sufficient evidence. It's not a requirement that you have written letters. You have to pay $100 to file the claim. You don't have to wait until they "let" you in. People settle outside of court that figure its not worth their time/trouble/money to go to court to settle the situation.

one needs documented proof that one has tried to the best of their abilities to settle outside of court before one can actually go to court. writing 3 letters before going to court is fairly standard practice.

[BebeAphrodite]

Originally posted by GTS Jeff
one needs documented proof that one has tried to the best of their abilities to settle outside of court before one can actually go to court. writing 3 letters before going to court is fairly standard practice.

That's not true.

You can go in however you please, you can go straight to court. It just helps your case if you've shown some means of attempted mediation. You can even win without this attempt at mediation. It's your $100 and time that you're putting into the case.

Trying to settle to the best of their ability out of court can be considered mediation or negotiation. Mediation/negotiation is typically a preferred alternative to court because court is a lengthy process.

There is no standard 3 letter process. I'm in the process of a claim myself and have talked to several members of the law faculty, employees of the civil court, and read resources from U of C Law Library and the Law Library downtown to see what steps I should take. No where have I seen this 3 letter process.

Some more misc info for those interested: http://www.canlaw.com/scc/smallclaims.htm

[GTS Jeff]

ok ure smarter than i

[hondatt]

Thanx Cute Asian Angel.

I was also wondering, since the shop defaulted in the payment, can I claim more then than the amount we agreed?

[Majestic12]

If you contracted the place to do a specific task for you, and you have it in writing, they breached the contract by providing you with inferior service/goods.

You could have likely gotten your money back, and/or forced them to meet their end of the bargain by redoing your car.. but since you agreed to take 2000 instead as compensation, that probably counts as a new contract (do you have it in writing?)

In any case, what you can try doing is going to court to try and get a court order forcing them to pay you the outstanding balance... show to the court that they've had more than enough time to pay you, they have the resources, and you've gone beyond a reasonable time for them to pay you back.

You can't CLAIM more than the amount on the contract, but the court may award more to you for exemplary damages if the store was blatantly disregarding their duties in meeting their end of the bargain.

Blah.

[hondatt]

After reading the link supplied by CuteAsianAngel, It sates that CLAIMING the judgement may be very difficult. Why is that?

[TrevorK]

Originally posted by hondatt
After reading the link supplied by CuteAsianAngel, It sates that CLAIMING the judgement may be very difficult. Why is that?

When you are awarded a judgement I believe you are responsible for recovering that judgement.