Hi,
I'm asking for help as I'm in troubles with a mechanic who did some "repairs" on my vehicle and is charging an - to my understanding - absurd amount of money for it. I have to mention that I'm not an australian citizen, so I'm not very familar with the law and hope to get some advice on how I should handle this:
I brought my van to this mechanic as I was planning to do some backpack travelling with it and it would not start up anymore. I still had five weeks to get it fixed, so I was quite confident that it would be no issue. After looking up for a mechanic nearby I chose one and got my car towed there. They took about a week to fix it temporarily, claiming that I must've had contaminated fuel in the tank and that they flushed the engine and now it's fine. They gave me some advice which I followed and I paid around 460$ for the repair. After just one drive, the car failed to start again. I was already getting a bit worries about my time schedule but it was still a few weeks to go. So after I called him up repeatedly, he agreed to send his mobile guy out to me. He came and appeared quite cluesless from the start and didn't even have proper tools. But admitted that the original diagnose by his boss made no sense to him. As I knew that a fuel hose was leaking, I asked him to replace all of them as they are cheap and it would have been an easy fix. He said that there was no need and kept on trying to fix the old hoses for three hours until I told him that I'd definetly want the hoses replaced now. He then apologized and said he'd charge 135$ per hour but only two instead of the three because he did such a poor job. He promised to come back the next day and bring new hoses and put them in and that the car would definetly start. He assured me that they'd get the car going in time for my trip no matter what. I paid another 270$ that day.
The next day he turned up but brought the wrong hoses which did not fit. I said let's get the right ones then but he insisted to keep on trying with the wrong ones for two hours until I told him to stop and to go the store now to get proper hoses, which was 5 mins away. He returned after over an hour claiming he found no hoses but he had a new idea. He then proceeded to try to fix the old ones for another two hours until we called it off. He then apologized again for his poor job and said he wouldnt charge anything, but he'd order the correct ones and bring them in after the weekend. He promised to order them the same day, but never did. I went to the store and bought hoses and told him to come. Then he called in sick for two days. Then he turned up again and put the hoses in which I bought. Depsite his statement of "100% it will start", it did not. He then basically admitted that there was air left in the fuel system to his belief but he was unable to get it out. He then claimed that it was "100%" a battery issue, which was nonsensical as we had the battery hooked up to his car for days. I told him it seemed to me that he was giving up, which he basically admitted. To my utter disbelief he then asked to be paid 1320$ for the two days, he eventually lowered it to 1.200$. Being confronted with his promise from the day before that he would not charge that time he claimed there must've been a misunderstanding and that he would actually just charge one hour less. However, even if I would've paid for all the time he spent on the car it would only be roughly 900$, so they were actually trying to charge me even more.
He then threatened to rip off the repaired hoses again if I did not pay. I agreed to pay 500$ and would check the battery before paying the rest. Naturally, the battery was not the cause.
Not counting in the initial repair, he'd like to charge 1.500$ (!) in total for replacing 3 hoses, which itself was a job of about an hour and the issue is still not even fixed! In the end I had to sell the car broken for cheap because I ran out of time and have to return back home soon. They did not manage to find the issue in 5 weeks.
Now his boss is trying to pressure me into paying the remaining 700$. Not even 2 days after sending an invoice, he sent another mail threatening me with debt collection agencies and more fees.
This has been such a desaster and really ruined my time here entirely. I feel like my situation is just shamelessly being taken advantage of and I do not want to reward that with even more money.
However, I do not know the legal side to this. Can you give me a recommendation on how to proceed?
Thanks for taking your time to read and for any help!
I'm asking for help as I'm in troubles with a mechanic who did some "repairs" on my vehicle and is charging an - to my understanding - absurd amount of money for it. I have to mention that I'm not an australian citizen, so I'm not very familar with the law and hope to get some advice on how I should handle this:
I brought my van to this mechanic as I was planning to do some backpack travelling with it and it would not start up anymore. I still had five weeks to get it fixed, so I was quite confident that it would be no issue. After looking up for a mechanic nearby I chose one and got my car towed there. They took about a week to fix it temporarily, claiming that I must've had contaminated fuel in the tank and that they flushed the engine and now it's fine. They gave me some advice which I followed and I paid around 460$ for the repair. After just one drive, the car failed to start again. I was already getting a bit worries about my time schedule but it was still a few weeks to go. So after I called him up repeatedly, he agreed to send his mobile guy out to me. He came and appeared quite cluesless from the start and didn't even have proper tools. But admitted that the original diagnose by his boss made no sense to him. As I knew that a fuel hose was leaking, I asked him to replace all of them as they are cheap and it would have been an easy fix. He said that there was no need and kept on trying to fix the old hoses for three hours until I told him that I'd definetly want the hoses replaced now. He then apologized and said he'd charge 135$ per hour but only two instead of the three because he did such a poor job. He promised to come back the next day and bring new hoses and put them in and that the car would definetly start. He assured me that they'd get the car going in time for my trip no matter what. I paid another 270$ that day.
The next day he turned up but brought the wrong hoses which did not fit. I said let's get the right ones then but he insisted to keep on trying with the wrong ones for two hours until I told him to stop and to go the store now to get proper hoses, which was 5 mins away. He returned after over an hour claiming he found no hoses but he had a new idea. He then proceeded to try to fix the old ones for another two hours until we called it off. He then apologized again for his poor job and said he wouldnt charge anything, but he'd order the correct ones and bring them in after the weekend. He promised to order them the same day, but never did. I went to the store and bought hoses and told him to come. Then he called in sick for two days. Then he turned up again and put the hoses in which I bought. Depsite his statement of "100% it will start", it did not. He then basically admitted that there was air left in the fuel system to his belief but he was unable to get it out. He then claimed that it was "100%" a battery issue, which was nonsensical as we had the battery hooked up to his car for days. I told him it seemed to me that he was giving up, which he basically admitted. To my utter disbelief he then asked to be paid 1320$ for the two days, he eventually lowered it to 1.200$. Being confronted with his promise from the day before that he would not charge that time he claimed there must've been a misunderstanding and that he would actually just charge one hour less. However, even if I would've paid for all the time he spent on the car it would only be roughly 900$, so they were actually trying to charge me even more.
He then threatened to rip off the repaired hoses again if I did not pay. I agreed to pay 500$ and would check the battery before paying the rest. Naturally, the battery was not the cause.
Not counting in the initial repair, he'd like to charge 1.500$ (!) in total for replacing 3 hoses, which itself was a job of about an hour and the issue is still not even fixed! In the end I had to sell the car broken for cheap because I ran out of time and have to return back home soon. They did not manage to find the issue in 5 weeks.
Now his boss is trying to pressure me into paying the remaining 700$. Not even 2 days after sending an invoice, he sent another mail threatening me with debt collection agencies and more fees.
This has been such a desaster and really ruined my time here entirely. I feel like my situation is just shamelessly being taken advantage of and I do not want to reward that with even more money.
However, I do not know the legal side to this. Can you give me a recommendation on how to proceed?
Thanks for taking your time to read and for any help!