First let me start by stating that I have secured a Judgement in Court against Gary Claxton/Bugeyed.
Here are the facts that gave me the WIN!
After having bought several cheap parts from Claxton/Bugeyed, Mr. Claxton told me he was the "best" repair shop in the country and no one knew more than him and he convinced me to take my 69 Beetle to him. I did not seek him out. Upon initial inspection of my car, Mr. Claxton suggested I sue the car dealer I bought the car from because the car was a “piece of ______ and I got ____________”. After Mr. Claxton’s initial inspection of the car he said it would cost $1000.00 to repair. I asked him to put other chrome parts on the car and he gave me a cost of $260.00 and I agreed. A couple days after he had it he called me and told me he would have to replace the front end and it would cost $300.00. When he called me to pick up the car he told me it was $2700.00 and I had to pay cash. Mr. Claxton just continues to tell falsehoods. In court said "he would not take an out of state check and I had to pay cash". Even though he had taken my Credit Card several times on other items, now he says "I preferred Cash?" THAT IS ANOTHER LIE! Why would I “prefer” cash if I had previously purchased other items from him using a credit card? I have receipts to prove it. The Georgia Motor Vehicle Act states that a repair shop must supply the customer with an itemized estimate. I never received one. Clearly a violation of the statute. After I was told the car was ready, Mr. Claxton said we should take the car for a drive. He got in the driver’s seat he drove my car and I rode in the passenger’s seat. I told him the brakes worked well but did not state “it was the best it ever drove”. He drove it about 300 yards so If I did not drive it how could I say that.
After towing it home, I noticed grease all over the outside of the wheel and side of my car. I unhooked the car and the front wheel collapsed! I called him the very next morning and sent him photos and he admitted his shop’s mistake. He even showed the Judge an example of the spindle nut that came off. Nuts don’t come off if properly installed. I told him it needed to be flat bed trailered back to his shop. He told me he was not going to pay for that and that he would send me the parts and told me I needed to learn how to work on my car! He told me "James" had done the repair and he was going to fire him. I met James when I took my car to the shop and now he says he never had a guy named James working for him. Did his repair guy lie about his name? He didn't send me any FREE parts but replacement parts for his shop's mistakes! I had already paid him for the repair and he is required by Georgia law to repair his mistakes on the vehicle. The Georgia Motor Vehicle Repair Act is very clear on that! I took it to another shop because he refused take the car back and repair his mistakes. Now it is clear why he demanded CASH. I told him about the passenger's side problem when I was working on the front wheel he messed up. I have an Affidavit from the new repair shop on the BAD parts he put on my car. This is a violation of Implied Warranty of Merchantability of the Georgia UCC . His final bill is required to be itemized and LEGIBLE and was not. Another violation of the Repair Act.
After more investigation I have since found that Mr. Claxton is banned from the national VW forum "the Samba" due several complaints about bad parts and not refunding money. I have the email from the Administrator to back that up. A simple search on The Samba under “porsche999 - [email protected] – Gary” this will show some of the complaints.
I have had my car to his shop in GA and 1 shop in TN to repair his bad work. I am very pleased with the shop in TN and have posted several good comments on line about my satisfaction with the TN repair shop.
Every time he makes a statement he changes his story. He lied in court and continues to do so. I stand by my original statement. I would never take anything to him to repair……..ever!
tony
chattanooga,#2Author of original report
Thu, March 08, 2018
Rebuttal of Claxton’s comments: I apoligize for the capital letters but there was not other way to Differentiate my words from his
by repsonse from his.
Tony brought his car to me. He brought it to me hundreds of miles away from another state because he had taken his car to several different places to work on it and no one could please him. This statement is a lie as I only had 1 man work on it before Claxton and he knows it.
He said that the guy who he bought the car from had screwed him. All the dozens of people who worked on his car he said had screwed him. Again another lie as only 1 perosn worked on the car before Claxton. When he brought the car to me, he already wanted me to be a witness so he could sue the person that he bought the car from and all the people who worked on before. Another lie, Claxton told me I should sue the seller and he would be a witness. Tony is the type of scum who uses the system to get whatever he wants for nothing. He stops payment on his credit card, sues, stops payment on checks, or threatens people so that he doesn't have to pay for whatever parts, cars, or service that he gets. He tries to bully people wherever he goes to milk every situation for his benifet. I have never stopped any payment to him and never offered to pay him by check. He told me I had to bring cash! That's what shops do when they do bad work as I was told this by my attorney. The mistake I made was trusting him and giving him cash.
When Tony came to pick up his car, he came a half a day earlier then I told him to come. I came the day he told me. My wife was on the call and is a witness to that. Why would anyone go early and demand to get their car if it was not completed. I stated in court that I went when he told me to and Claxton did not dispute that but now he does? Hmmm, makes you wonder who is making up things. So I do admit that we rushed to get his car done so that he could take his car home before we closed. We test drove the car and heard a noise. It was in a hurry and said it was alright. I was in a bad situation. I wanted to keep the car longer, but he wanted to take it on. So I gave in and let him take it. So yes, I should have stood up and made him wait longer and got to the bottom of it. It's amazing, this man lied in court and continues to lie. That is why he is banned from the VW Forum "the Samba". I have research this extensively.
On the way home a wheel bearing went out on his car. This is something that is nobody's fault. It just happens. Anything that is man made can go out. Tony called us. I told him to bring it back. I called his shop on the way home when something did not feel right but upon visual inspection I could see nothing wrong. It wasn't until I got home and unhooked the car that the bad repair was discovered. BTW no one answered when I called on my way home. He decided to tow the car on hundreds of miles anyway. As you can imagine... It wasn't that great of an idea. It caused more parts to go bad. I felt partly responsible for this because it was my bearing that I installed that went bad. That's funny, in court he said the bearing wasn't bad and no one at his shop made a mistake. So when he got home I mailed him a new bearing plus the extra parts he said went bad due to towing the car so far with a bad bearing. I did not say it was towing the car because I did not know what was wrong. Claxton told me after I sent him the photos upon arriving home. He told me he was not towing the car back to his shop and that I needed to learn how to fix the car myself. He called a couple of days later and said that he found more additional parts bad due to the bad bearing. We said ok and sent him those parts new also. A few days later he called and said more parts were bad that he just discovered due to towing it home. It seemed that these parts really could not have anything to do with what he was talking about and it seemed that he was trying to milk the situation but without hesitation we shipped him more new parts out of our pocket. No, when the wheel was fixed I told him the suspension on the passenger side was frozen. This was only discovered when the car was lifted off the ground. He stated that probably happened when the wheel bearing went bad. Not my words but his. Then we got a call on Sunday that he needed another part (which in no way fashion could be expected to have anything to do with what was going on, and on top of this he sent a picture of it to us and it looked new) This part we did not have in stock new. Another lie. I had not put anything on the car after Claxton worked on it. We told him that we would take off a used one of a car we had. We would get the best one and clean it up for him. He piched a fit about this. He had to have a new one (even thought the part he had looked to be in perfect condition with no wear). We told him it would take a few days for us to get one, but we would get one for him as fast as possible and we would pay for it. He piched a fit about that also. He wanted us to come up with that part immediately. He wanted to have that part new in his hands the next day no matter what. We told him the reality of the situation. That it was a Sunday, nobody can ship anything to him on Sunday even if they wanted to. And the places that the part would have to come from were so far away they couldn't get it to him next day even if it wasn't Sunday. He piched a fit. He called us names and became even more agressive than normal. Like a child he piched a fit because things didn't go his way. This is when I washed my hands with him and told him not to call me anymore. I didn't call anyone names or raise my voice but only asked when he was going to send the part. He told my GOOD mechanic he would send out the part that day (wednesday). I called Claxton on Thursday to ask if it was sent out and he told me I would get the part on Friday afternoon or Saturday. I then called him on Friday to make sure and he started yelling at me and told me he had not sent it out and if I didn't want to work with him I didn't have to and hung up the phone. I did not call anyone on a Sunday.
I complied with all of his demands but that wasn't good enough for him. It seems like he escalated the situation on purpose with an impossible task because we gave in to him every step of the way and he wanted to see how far he could take this. So he did take me to court some time later. After driving down here again this far, the judge awarded him the price of the part that we originally were going to send to him before he went emo child on us. He initiallly was sueing us for more that his car was worth. Another lie. The lawsuit was for a little over $800 (not including court coasts) and a scrape Beetle is worth more than that. But the judge saw through his crap and awarded him just the money to cover that one part. So if he wants to call that a victory for him, then he can have it. Is Claxton accussing a Judge of a false and unsubstantial Judegement. Claxton stating that a Judgement was made to minimize a Plaintiff's loses? Is Claxton implying that a Judge worked with the Plaintiff to settle a case to help the Plaintiff and not render a decision on the merrits and the law? I would be very careful about making that accusation against a Judge. Maybe we should ask the Judge?
I have been in business for many decades. And I will not let people like Tony run me out of business. I am not trying to run anyone out of business but simply inform the public of my misfortune in dealing with this shop and the unprofessional actions by the repair shop. I go above and beyond to be fair to all my customers. I provide the best service around. I am in a niche business that relies on word of mouth business. I every month I grow and I have been doing so for decades straight so I must be doing something right. Some people you just can't reach and some you just can't please. Tony is one of these people. Tony is a bully and tries to get everything he wants by bulling people around. I stood up to him. So now he can't stand it and tries to muddy my name on sites like this. Well, that is ok. I will stand up for myself here too. I run an honest business who does its best to help people. 99% of my cutomers realize this. If I can't please someone, then no one can. The last one percent like Tony can't be pleased. If he was so honest why is he banned from the Samba? I encourage everyone to read the Georgia law that covers repairs by any Auto repair shop in Georgia. That is how I won my case.
gary
Byron,#3REBUTTAL Owner of company
Tue, March 06, 2018
Tony brought his car to me. He brought it to me hundreds of miles away from another state because he had taken his car to several different places to work on it and no one could please him. He said that the guy who he bought the car from had screwed him. All the dozens of people who worked on his car he said had screwed him. When he brought the car to me, he already wanted me to be a witness so he could sue the person that he bought the car from and all the people who worked on before. Tony is the type of scum who uses the system to get whatever he wants for nothing. He stops payment on his credit card, sues, stops payment on checks, or threatens people so that he doesn't have to pay for whatever parts, cars, or service that he gets. He tries to bully people wherever he goes to milk every situation for his benifet.
When Tony came to pick up his car, he came a half a day earlier then I told him to come. So I do admit that we rushed to get his car done so that he could take his car home before we closed. We test drove the car and heard a noise. It was in a hurry and said it was alright. I was in a bad situation. I wanted to keep the car longer, but he wanted to take it on. So I gave in and let him take it. So yes, I should have stood up and made him wait longer and got to the bottom of it.
On the way home a wheel bearing went out on his car. This is something that is nobody's fault. It just happens. Anything that is man made can go out. Tony called us. I told him to bring it back. He decided to tow the car on hundreds of miles anyway. As you can imagine... It wasn't that great of an idea. It caused more parts to go bad. I felt partly responsible for this because it was my bearing that I installed that went bad. So when he got home I mailed him a new bearing plus the extra parts he said went bad due to towing the car so far with a bad bearing. He called a couple of days later and said that he found more additional parts bad due to the bad bearing. We said ok and sent him those parts new also. A few days later he called and said more parts were bad that he just discovered due to towing it home. It seemed that these parts really could not have anything to do with what he was talking about and it seemed that he was trying to milk the situation but without hesitation we shipped him more new parts out of our pocket. Then we got a call on Sunday that he needed another part (which in no way fashion could be expected to have anything to do with what was going on, and on top of this he sent a picture of it to us and it looked new) This part we did not have in stock new. We told him that we would take off a used one of a car we had. We would get the best one and clean it up for him. He piched a fit about this. He had to have a new one (even thought the part he had looked to be in perfect condition with no wear). We told him it would take a few days for us to get one, but we would get one for him as fast as possible and we would pay for it. He piched a fit about that also. He wanted us to come up with that part immediately. He wanted to have that part new in his hands the next day no matter what. We told him the reality of the situation. That it was a Sunday, nobody can ship anything to him on Sunday even if they wanted to. And the places that the part would have to come from were so far away they couldn't get it to him next day even if it wasn't Sunday. He piched a fit. He called us names and became even more agressive than normal. Like a child he piched a fit because things didn't go his way. This is when I washed my hands with him and told him not to call me anymore.
I complied with all of his demands but that wasn't good enough for him. It seems like he escalated the situation on purpose with an impossible task because we gave in to him every step of the way and he wanted to see how far he could take this. So he did take me to court some time later. After driving down here again this far, the judge awarded him the price of the part that we originally were going to send to him before he went emo child on us. He initiallly was sueing us for more that his car was worth. But the judge saw through his crap and awarded him just the money to cover that one part. So if he wants to call that a victory for him, then he can have it.
I have been in business for many decades. And I will not let people like Tony run me out of business. I go above and beyond to be fair to all my customers. I provide the best service around. I am in a niche business that relies on word of mouth business. I every month I grow and I have been doing so for decades straight so I must be doing something right. Some people you just can't reach and some you just can't please. Tony is one of these people. Tony is a bully and tries to get everything he wants by bulling people around. I stood up to him. So now he can't stand it and tries to muddy my name on sites like this. Well, that is ok. I will stand up for myself here too. I run an honest business who does its best to help people. 99% of my cutomers realize this. If I can't please someone, then no one can. The last one percent like Tony can't be pleased.
tony
chattanooga,#4Author of original report
Sat, December 16, 2017
After winning my court case, the Defendant actually paid the Judgement! I was prepairing to file other court documents but now I don't have to do that. Yeah! This time the Good Guy won and was found to be the conveyor of truth.