Complaint Review: Midlands Motorworks - columbia South Carolina

I went in recently to get work done on my 2001 Nissan Altima. I am an intelligent guy, but not an expert when it comes to cars and engines. I started to get some oil drops on my driveway and thought it would be a good idea to get it checked out here. I was concerned that they did not have a website but I thought I would go check out the place anyways. Chrys Zouras introduced himself as the Co-owner of Midlands Motorworks and seemed pretty polite initially. 

He showed me the shop and some of the cars they were working on and quoted me a price to fix the damages. Initially he said it would be a quick job might not even to get the engine replaced just some minor work. I agreed to the estimate amount of $570 and they started working. A week later, I still did not have the car, although this was supposed to take "just two days" according to Chrys. I come and see my car parked in the same spot I parked it when I showed up the week before, these guys did not even touch my car in over a week. I call Chrys, he assures me the car is being worked on and he would call me when it would be ready. A week later he calls and states that I need a new engine in my car and quoted me a price.

I immediately made my way down there and met with Chrys. He apologized for the time taken to inspect the vehicle but stated that the motor suffered too much damage internally and needed to be replaced. This is when I started to become worried, I often heard of stories that mechanics initially offer great prices but then when they have your car in their possession, drive up the prices and "damages". However, against my better judgement I agreed to the repairs that were estimated at $3100 at this point. 

One month goes by and I still do not recieve my car back. I start to call Chrys and he says that the car is being worked on and he would give me a call as soon as it was finished. I explained to him that I needed the car back and I was using a rent-a-car in the meantime. Thats the last conversation I had with Chrys Zouras for about 3 weeks. Midlands Motorworks refused to asnwer my calls or emails and even deleted my face book posts for the entire 3 weeks. I even drove by the shop and did not even see my car at the shop. I was worried that I got scammed and thought the worst. Finally Chrys calls me after I threaten legal action and acts as if nothing has happened and says "Your car is ready". I ask him why they have been avoiding my calls and he responds they were busy and apologized.

At this point I just wanted my car back, 2 months removed from me intiially dropping my car off at Midlands Motorworks. I drive off and my car literally starts spewing coolant from the hood. I drive back to Midlands and they say they need to take another look at it. At this point, I caught on to their game of holding cars and extracting money for no repairs. I asked to take a look at my old parts and old engine and he made up some story that he already got rid of it and forgot to save it so I can take a look at the damages my old engine needed repaired. The entire experience was just a continious stream of lies, fees, and frustration.

I highly recommend you chose somebody else to work on your car Chrys Zouras is the prototypical scam artist in the automotive industry; overcharges, overpromises, and never never delivers.