Complaint Review: Independent Auto Repair

Independent Auto Repair in Chico, CA owned and operated by MIKE TEVIS. I found this man in the classifieds section of a Volkswagen forum, TheSamba.com. He had a presence on the forum and had his own shop in Chico. I fooled myself into believing that since he had a reputation to protect, he should be an honest person to work with. I WAS WRONG. February 2012. After a long conversation over the phone, I accepted his offer and paid him to have a modified engine installed in my van. His competitions perform the same job in 1 week. He estimated the repairs to be completed in few a weeks due to being short handed. I accepted. Months went by with little or no response to phone calls, emails and voicemails. Occasional responses with personal excuses and blaming other merchants and badmouthing his competition. Six months later, no van, no phone calls or emails returned. I demanded a refund and immediate return of my vehicle. He finally responded but refused to giving any refund.

After a detailed investigation, my credit card company reversed the charges and the business owner, Mike Tevis, responded with harassing phone calls and threatening manner both on my cell phone and my workplace. He created quite a disturbance at work by threatening my coworkers and subsequently, the incident was noted in our employment history. I could not handle his threats and harassment so unfortunately, I gave in. He pressured me into signing an agreement to allow him to keep the money and refunding me my money after he sold the kit or installed the kit on another customer's vehicle. Two years later, 2014 winter. No refund. Just excuses. Still very slow to respond to emails or phone calls. Promises never kept. I filed a complaint with the Bureau of Automobile Repairs. The BAR inspector caught him in a LIE and found out that he did not have my kit ready for sale, and did not have my engine on site. He admitted that he had sold it to another party sometime in the past but never forwarded me the money. I think he never even had them to begin with. He kept telling me that he did not have any money and taking him to court would not help me recover my costs.

I gave him a chance to settle out of court by allowing him to complete the project in several weeks prior to the court date but he refused to do so. Later I found out that he couldn't because he had SOLD/PARTED OUT my van, and he had sold components of my kit to another customer. I FILED SUIT against this guy in California Small Claims court in 10/2014. He tried to defend his case by: -pointing out minute discrepancies in the agreement and tried to VOID the agreement -repeatedly stated that he had a no refund policy and he had no obligation to refund me despite all of the lies, excuses, and breaching the agreement He resorted to VIOLENCE in court and threw some paperwork at me. Needless to say, he did not leave a good impression in court. Nor did he have any facts to defend his case. All he had was lies, excuses, and a copy of his non-refund policy which I had never seen before. The judge ruled in my favor and ordered him to return my vehicle and issue a refund immediately, but he remains noncompliant.

He continues to ignore the judgment and sends me harassing emails and demanded to see me in person for a "more productive" outcome. Since I had no intention to meet this guy outside of court, ,I had to turn over the case to the judgment collector. He began calling me on my cell and at work again so the local authorities were notified and finally, the harassment stopped. I searched the web and found some complaints on BBB and negative reviews left on YELP. I was able to contact two other customers caught in a nearly identical scam. Promised repair and collected money but lost contact since payment. One of them eventually gave in and accepted a small amount of money as settlement, and retracted his negative review in exchange. The other victim's review was conveniently "filtered" and no longer visible. TheSamba.com website has some interesting feedback from others who were scammed or nearly scammed by this guy. See link below. Apparently, he has been BANNED from the Samba for having multiple accounts with similar complaints. Stay far, far away from this guy and his business.