Glenn Lenhard / Glenn's MG Service does a 6 week job in 7 months...
I July 2000 I submitted an extensive list of repairs for my Alfa Romero Spider and paid a $500 advance for parts. The mechanic, Glenn Lenhard of Glenn's MG Service, provided an estimate of about 6 to 8 weeks to do the work. I told him I wanted the work done in three stages so that I will not have one large bill to pay at the end and he agreed. He then removed the transmission then did nothing for 5 months in spite of regular phone calls about every 2 weeks asking for a status on the repair. Each time I repeated my request that he not wait until the last minute then give me a bill for about $3000 to pay all at once.
By November I became insistent that he do the work since I plan to drive the car on a Christmas trip. I gave him another $500 to inspire him to get to work and finish quickly. He had trouble getting parts and did not finish in time but he did submit another bill for $800+. Because of his delay I had to rent a car and had to pay $1300 in a two week period in spite of numerous requests to do the work in stages. He had to remove the transmission 3 times because since it sat on his garage floor for 5 months he forgot what the problems were until he reinstalled it and drove around. He also received the wrong rear brake calipers but tried to use them anyway so he could finish the job and bill me but they would not work so he had to remove them and reinstall the correct equipment.
It is now February and he is still not finished for the rebuilt brake master cylinder he installed is faulty and must be replaced with a new one. The car can be driven so I requested that I take the car home to do some interior work while he waits for the other parts and he refused for it is his policy that cars don't leave the lot until the bill is fully paid.
I want to slam-dunk this SOB for forcing me to pay other people to wait for him. I have high credit card interest to pay because he waited until the last minute to do the work and submit large bills. I had to rent a car for Christmas and pay a large portion of my vacation money to him. Now I have to pay a large chunk of my European vacation money to him now for me to get my car back. His sitting on his a*s for 5 months has cost me a lot of money. It has also cost him a lot of money too but that is his own fault for waiting so long.
4 Updates & Rebuttals
Glenn
St. Petersburg,Florida,
Unusual length of time
#5REBUTTAL Owner of company
Tue, February 26, 2002
This customers car did in fact spend more time here for repairs than it should have. There is no dispute there. In fact many things influenced that: the fact that we are MG specialists, NOT Alfa specialists may have been a factor. I did this work for this person because I knew him from other personal dealings, we both being busy local musicians. I normally would not take on this type of work, as we specialize in long-term projects on English cars. Perhaps this is why I had a difficult time trying to work to his schedule.
Also the amount of work that we were asked to perform was changed at the customers request during its time spent here. At one point we even helped him find a body shop to have the car completely painted, and this was done during this time period. Not a small job.
Although we perform restorations for a living, I allowed this customer (because of our other relationship, having performed together musically) to borrow my tools and facility so that he could completely dismantle his car to prepare it for the body shop. I also graciously allowed him to reassemble it, again with my tools and facility after it came back from the body shop. I find now that he may have even sent in this complaint WHILE he was using my facility for this purpose. Certainly not an action that I would consider to be in good faith.
Im sure the transmission repair was very upsetting for him, as it certainly was an unusual repair for me as well. We had this unit apart three times because of what had appeared to be bearing noise. The first two times were unsuccessful attempts to get the transmission quiet, and in fact many shops may have given up and just delivered the car the way it was. THAT in my opinion would have warranted a ripoff report. However we dont deliver work that is substandard, and after calling in a local Alfa transmission expert, who could not find the source of the noise either, I determined that the noise was actually being caused by an unusual type of wear pattern that was on EVERY gear. This is a most unusual failure, and I have never seen it myself, and I have been rebuilding transmissions for 27 years. We ended up buying a used Alfa transmission, and then rebuilt it using all of the new bearings and other parts I had already tried to use in his original transmission. Of course I charged him for the used transmission, and then only MY cost. After all WE did not wear out the gears! Purchasing a new gear train to repair his unit would have been prohibitively expensive. This event alone caused quite a delay in getting the car back to him, although I readily admit that the car was here too long before I started on the transmission repair. Had this not occurred, perhaps we could have met his schedule.
The brake caliper situation occurred from being delivered incorrect parts. The calipers we received were nearly identical to those on the car, and the difference was only discovered during road testing and the inability to get correct pedal pressure. Again I wonder how many other shops would have just delivered this car with less than perfect repairs.
The parts availability situation on Alfas had made this car quite difficult to get correct. Even a brake master cylinder that we were sold was defective. As far as the major complaint (the length of time) I can accept partial responsibility, but once we got going on the job, only the unusual parts and transmission difficulties kept us from delivering a competed project in time for his vacation.
As far as letting a customer take an uncompleted car from our premises without the bill being paid in full, I would have to say that ANY business that would allow this would very foolish indeed.
As far as us being responsible for his needing to use his vacation money on his car, I can only say that I cant see how we would be responsible in ANY WAY WHATSOVER for his lack of the proper funds to repair his car and go on vacation as well.
He decided to get the car painted while it was here. He decided what repairs were to be done. He was kept appraised of the cost every step of the way. I even let him supply one of his own parts, something else that is not usually done for regular customers.
Here is a list of the work done to his car while here:
Rebuild transmission.
Overhaul front brake calipers and true rotors.
True rear brake rotors and install rebuilt calipers.
Replace brake booster.
Replace speedometer cable.
Replace center link tie rod ends.
Front end alignment.
Replace brake booster.
Replace rear axle bearings.
Overhaul clutch slave cylinder.
While the car was here, the body was totally dismantled for a paint job, sent to the body shop, and then reassembled. This we allowed him to do with our facilities and tools.
The total bill was just under three thousand dollars. This is a lot of work for that amount.
I can only assume the work was satisfactory as delivered, as this does not seem to be his complaint.The tone of his complaint seems only to be that he was inconvenienced by the length of tme it took.
I believe I tried to make amends for this the best way I could, by doing the job right. It IS a shame it took so long because of a bad combination of poor planning on my part AND unusual repair problems encountered.
Glenn
St. Petersburg,Florida,
Unusual length of time
#5REBUTTAL Owner of company
Tue, February 26, 2002
This customers car did in fact spend more time here for repairs than it should have. There is no dispute there. In fact many things influenced that: the fact that we are MG specialists, NOT Alfa specialists may have been a factor. I did this work for this person because I knew him from other personal dealings, we both being busy local musicians. I normally would not take on this type of work, as we specialize in long-term projects on English cars. Perhaps this is why I had a difficult time trying to work to his schedule.
Also the amount of work that we were asked to perform was changed at the customers request during its time spent here. At one point we even helped him find a body shop to have the car completely painted, and this was done during this time period. Not a small job.
Although we perform restorations for a living, I allowed this customer (because of our other relationship, having performed together musically) to borrow my tools and facility so that he could completely dismantle his car to prepare it for the body shop. I also graciously allowed him to reassemble it, again with my tools and facility after it came back from the body shop. I find now that he may have even sent in this complaint WHILE he was using my facility for this purpose. Certainly not an action that I would consider to be in good faith.
Im sure the transmission repair was very upsetting for him, as it certainly was an unusual repair for me as well. We had this unit apart three times because of what had appeared to be bearing noise. The first two times were unsuccessful attempts to get the transmission quiet, and in fact many shops may have given up and just delivered the car the way it was. THAT in my opinion would have warranted a ripoff report. However we dont deliver work that is substandard, and after calling in a local Alfa transmission expert, who could not find the source of the noise either, I determined that the noise was actually being caused by an unusual type of wear pattern that was on EVERY gear. This is a most unusual failure, and I have never seen it myself, and I have been rebuilding transmissions for 27 years. We ended up buying a used Alfa transmission, and then rebuilt it using all of the new bearings and other parts I had already tried to use in his original transmission. Of course I charged him for the used transmission, and then only MY cost. After all WE did not wear out the gears! Purchasing a new gear train to repair his unit would have been prohibitively expensive. This event alone caused quite a delay in getting the car back to him, although I readily admit that the car was here too long before I started on the transmission repair. Had this not occurred, perhaps we could have met his schedule.
The brake caliper situation occurred from being delivered incorrect parts. The calipers we received were nearly identical to those on the car, and the difference was only discovered during road testing and the inability to get correct pedal pressure. Again I wonder how many other shops would have just delivered this car with less than perfect repairs.
The parts availability situation on Alfas had made this car quite difficult to get correct. Even a brake master cylinder that we were sold was defective. As far as the major complaint (the length of time) I can accept partial responsibility, but once we got going on the job, only the unusual parts and transmission difficulties kept us from delivering a competed project in time for his vacation.
As far as letting a customer take an uncompleted car from our premises without the bill being paid in full, I would have to say that ANY business that would allow this would very foolish indeed.
As far as us being responsible for his needing to use his vacation money on his car, I can only say that I cant see how we would be responsible in ANY WAY WHATSOVER for his lack of the proper funds to repair his car and go on vacation as well.
He decided to get the car painted while it was here. He decided what repairs were to be done. He was kept appraised of the cost every step of the way. I even let him supply one of his own parts, something else that is not usually done for regular customers.
Here is a list of the work done to his car while here:
Rebuild transmission.
Overhaul front brake calipers and true rotors.
True rear brake rotors and install rebuilt calipers.
Replace brake booster.
Replace speedometer cable.
Replace center link tie rod ends.
Front end alignment.
Replace brake booster.
Replace rear axle bearings.
Overhaul clutch slave cylinder.
While the car was here, the body was totally dismantled for a paint job, sent to the body shop, and then reassembled. This we allowed him to do with our facilities and tools.
The total bill was just under three thousand dollars. This is a lot of work for that amount.
I can only assume the work was satisfactory as delivered, as this does not seem to be his complaint.The tone of his complaint seems only to be that he was inconvenienced by the length of tme it took.
I believe I tried to make amends for this the best way I could, by doing the job right. It IS a shame it took so long because of a bad combination of poor planning on my part AND unusual repair problems encountered.
Glenn
St. Petersburg,Florida,
Unusual length of time
#5REBUTTAL Owner of company
Tue, February 26, 2002
This customers car did in fact spend more time here for repairs than it should have. There is no dispute there. In fact many things influenced that: the fact that we are MG specialists, NOT Alfa specialists may have been a factor. I did this work for this person because I knew him from other personal dealings, we both being busy local musicians. I normally would not take on this type of work, as we specialize in long-term projects on English cars. Perhaps this is why I had a difficult time trying to work to his schedule.
Also the amount of work that we were asked to perform was changed at the customers request during its time spent here. At one point we even helped him find a body shop to have the car completely painted, and this was done during this time period. Not a small job.
Although we perform restorations for a living, I allowed this customer (because of our other relationship, having performed together musically) to borrow my tools and facility so that he could completely dismantle his car to prepare it for the body shop. I also graciously allowed him to reassemble it, again with my tools and facility after it came back from the body shop. I find now that he may have even sent in this complaint WHILE he was using my facility for this purpose. Certainly not an action that I would consider to be in good faith.
Im sure the transmission repair was very upsetting for him, as it certainly was an unusual repair for me as well. We had this unit apart three times because of what had appeared to be bearing noise. The first two times were unsuccessful attempts to get the transmission quiet, and in fact many shops may have given up and just delivered the car the way it was. THAT in my opinion would have warranted a ripoff report. However we dont deliver work that is substandard, and after calling in a local Alfa transmission expert, who could not find the source of the noise either, I determined that the noise was actually being caused by an unusual type of wear pattern that was on EVERY gear. This is a most unusual failure, and I have never seen it myself, and I have been rebuilding transmissions for 27 years. We ended up buying a used Alfa transmission, and then rebuilt it using all of the new bearings and other parts I had already tried to use in his original transmission. Of course I charged him for the used transmission, and then only MY cost. After all WE did not wear out the gears! Purchasing a new gear train to repair his unit would have been prohibitively expensive. This event alone caused quite a delay in getting the car back to him, although I readily admit that the car was here too long before I started on the transmission repair. Had this not occurred, perhaps we could have met his schedule.
The brake caliper situation occurred from being delivered incorrect parts. The calipers we received were nearly identical to those on the car, and the difference was only discovered during road testing and the inability to get correct pedal pressure. Again I wonder how many other shops would have just delivered this car with less than perfect repairs.
The parts availability situation on Alfas had made this car quite difficult to get correct. Even a brake master cylinder that we were sold was defective. As far as the major complaint (the length of time) I can accept partial responsibility, but once we got going on the job, only the unusual parts and transmission difficulties kept us from delivering a competed project in time for his vacation.
As far as letting a customer take an uncompleted car from our premises without the bill being paid in full, I would have to say that ANY business that would allow this would very foolish indeed.
As far as us being responsible for his needing to use his vacation money on his car, I can only say that I cant see how we would be responsible in ANY WAY WHATSOVER for his lack of the proper funds to repair his car and go on vacation as well.
He decided to get the car painted while it was here. He decided what repairs were to be done. He was kept appraised of the cost every step of the way. I even let him supply one of his own parts, something else that is not usually done for regular customers.
Here is a list of the work done to his car while here:
Rebuild transmission.
Overhaul front brake calipers and true rotors.
True rear brake rotors and install rebuilt calipers.
Replace brake booster.
Replace speedometer cable.
Replace center link tie rod ends.
Front end alignment.
Replace brake booster.
Replace rear axle bearings.
Overhaul clutch slave cylinder.
While the car was here, the body was totally dismantled for a paint job, sent to the body shop, and then reassembled. This we allowed him to do with our facilities and tools.
The total bill was just under three thousand dollars. This is a lot of work for that amount.
I can only assume the work was satisfactory as delivered, as this does not seem to be his complaint.The tone of his complaint seems only to be that he was inconvenienced by the length of tme it took.
I believe I tried to make amends for this the best way I could, by doing the job right. It IS a shame it took so long because of a bad combination of poor planning on my part AND unusual repair problems encountered.
Glenn
St. Petersburg,Florida,
Unusual length of time
#5REBUTTAL Owner of company
Tue, February 26, 2002
This customers car did in fact spend more time here for repairs than it should have. There is no dispute there. In fact many things influenced that: the fact that we are MG specialists, NOT Alfa specialists may have been a factor. I did this work for this person because I knew him from other personal dealings, we both being busy local musicians. I normally would not take on this type of work, as we specialize in long-term projects on English cars. Perhaps this is why I had a difficult time trying to work to his schedule.
Also the amount of work that we were asked to perform was changed at the customers request during its time spent here. At one point we even helped him find a body shop to have the car completely painted, and this was done during this time period. Not a small job.
Although we perform restorations for a living, I allowed this customer (because of our other relationship, having performed together musically) to borrow my tools and facility so that he could completely dismantle his car to prepare it for the body shop. I also graciously allowed him to reassemble it, again with my tools and facility after it came back from the body shop. I find now that he may have even sent in this complaint WHILE he was using my facility for this purpose. Certainly not an action that I would consider to be in good faith.
Im sure the transmission repair was very upsetting for him, as it certainly was an unusual repair for me as well. We had this unit apart three times because of what had appeared to be bearing noise. The first two times were unsuccessful attempts to get the transmission quiet, and in fact many shops may have given up and just delivered the car the way it was. THAT in my opinion would have warranted a ripoff report. However we dont deliver work that is substandard, and after calling in a local Alfa transmission expert, who could not find the source of the noise either, I determined that the noise was actually being caused by an unusual type of wear pattern that was on EVERY gear. This is a most unusual failure, and I have never seen it myself, and I have been rebuilding transmissions for 27 years. We ended up buying a used Alfa transmission, and then rebuilt it using all of the new bearings and other parts I had already tried to use in his original transmission. Of course I charged him for the used transmission, and then only MY cost. After all WE did not wear out the gears! Purchasing a new gear train to repair his unit would have been prohibitively expensive. This event alone caused quite a delay in getting the car back to him, although I readily admit that the car was here too long before I started on the transmission repair. Had this not occurred, perhaps we could have met his schedule.
The brake caliper situation occurred from being delivered incorrect parts. The calipers we received were nearly identical to those on the car, and the difference was only discovered during road testing and the inability to get correct pedal pressure. Again I wonder how many other shops would have just delivered this car with less than perfect repairs.
The parts availability situation on Alfas had made this car quite difficult to get correct. Even a brake master cylinder that we were sold was defective. As far as the major complaint (the length of time) I can accept partial responsibility, but once we got going on the job, only the unusual parts and transmission difficulties kept us from delivering a competed project in time for his vacation.
As far as letting a customer take an uncompleted car from our premises without the bill being paid in full, I would have to say that ANY business that would allow this would very foolish indeed.
As far as us being responsible for his needing to use his vacation money on his car, I can only say that I cant see how we would be responsible in ANY WAY WHATSOVER for his lack of the proper funds to repair his car and go on vacation as well.
He decided to get the car painted while it was here. He decided what repairs were to be done. He was kept appraised of the cost every step of the way. I even let him supply one of his own parts, something else that is not usually done for regular customers.
Here is a list of the work done to his car while here:
Rebuild transmission.
Overhaul front brake calipers and true rotors.
True rear brake rotors and install rebuilt calipers.
Replace brake booster.
Replace speedometer cable.
Replace center link tie rod ends.
Front end alignment.
Replace brake booster.
Replace rear axle bearings.
Overhaul clutch slave cylinder.
While the car was here, the body was totally dismantled for a paint job, sent to the body shop, and then reassembled. This we allowed him to do with our facilities and tools.
The total bill was just under three thousand dollars. This is a lot of work for that amount.
I can only assume the work was satisfactory as delivered, as this does not seem to be his complaint.The tone of his complaint seems only to be that he was inconvenienced by the length of tme it took.
I believe I tried to make amends for this the best way I could, by doing the job right. It IS a shame it took so long because of a bad combination of poor planning on my part AND unusual repair problems encountered.