dont you just hate when u realise you've been ripped off,
whether its work thats been done on your car or parts you have bought...
anyone got some 'getting ripped off' stories to help cheer me up?
:P

i havent come across this as yet but one thing that bugs me is if you get a faulty dexcription about a car and get all excited bout it you get there and its nothing like that! happens all the time!
cheers
rhys

at the action day a couple of weeks ago
I bought a second hand 1916 big bore kit supposedly for a beetle I took the guys word for it and they wernt expensive
but on getting them home a friend had a look at them and said they were type 4 pistons its partly due to my ignorance but its pretty bad form I think
marcel

One owner Karmann Ghia for sale, nothing to spend, show quality finish, 1916cc engine thats only done 20km. Bumpers rechromed but not yet fitted. $25000, reduced for quick sale. First to see will buy!



Mmmm how many of these have I spent wasting a Saturday afternoon on?

Steve

I once helped a workmate buy his first car, for which of course I suggested he buy a Beetle. We went looking and found a nice straight mid '60s Beetle in pale green, hardly any rust but with a stuffed motor (still common in the early '80s).

I then recommended a certain Sydney VW workshop to rebuild his old 1300, and put in 1600cc cylinders and twin port heads at the same time. I picked up the finished motor for my mate the following week, and bolted it in for him. It wouldn't start.

No wonder. The 'VW workshop' had left out the cam followers. And the pushrods. And the rockers. I ended up rebuilding the whole thing for him, since I felt guilty recommending a car with a stuffed engine and a dud garage to fix it!

hahaha! that is really odd... lets see, your torquing the heads down and there are no pushrod tubes there, and there are 8 holes in the case .... makes you wonder

phil thats pretty bad. how much did your mate pay?
anyone else got a story to top these?:o

once many moons ago when i was earning some pocket money to buy a motorcross bike I was working in a wrecking yard on weekends and we sold them some secondhand tires and the boss fitted the tires and I put them back on had put the nuts back on finger tight then i got distracted and never got back to it they got a couple hundred metres down the road and the wheel fell off
needless to say they and the boss were not very happy
i never did earn enough for a motorcross bike I ended up with a $50 postie bike :P
marcel

One of the first things I did when I got my beetle was chase around to get 4 new tyres. Shortly after I had some work done at a place in Perth (quite expensive work) and when I got the car back I found I now had two quite used tyres on the back - one leaking. Also found that the new running boards were attached with tek-screws and many of the tinware screws were now missing. I could go on, but suffice to say I have not spent another cent at that place - that's why I'm always chasing parts and work interstate and overseas.

Didn't happen to me but heard of a guy who had to get an idea on some work to be done on an engine. Got a price but didn't want to go ahead with it.
Got the car back but never went the same.
Found out that one of the front spark plugs had been sabotaged. The mechanic had put the plug lead on but only screwed the plug in 1-2 turns. The owner found the plug, connected, lying on the tin ware.

SHONKS

On a smaller monetary scale, needed some of those clips that hold on the VW emblem at the front of the Kombi. Went to one place I was passing by and got charged $12 for three clips, I thought it was a bit steep for little bits of plastic but hell I was there anyway. So then one of the damn clips breaks later that day when I'm putting the emblem on doh!! That following weekend I thought I'd look for somewhere a bit closer to home, found a place and then the guy at the shop said that'd be $3 bucks so I thought that's not too bad, one dollar less for each clip than I paid for the week earlier but then when he brought the bag of three out I realised he was only charging $3 for another THREE clips!! Sure made the $12 at the other place look a rip-off!

[Edited on 22-9-2002 by KOM123]

what would u do if u agreed on a price for some work, then the price was bumped up abit coz a little more work was needed that previously thought, then u go to pick up the car after its all agreed upon and theyve done work u never asked for coz its work u can do yourself and u never agreed to it and they are charging you alot more than you agreed on.
they had your number to ask if you wanted them to do more work than what u had agreed upon...

'Fraid there's not a lot you can do, especially if you've already paid, unless it's worth enough to take to Small Claims. Trouble there is, these things are usually agreed on verbally, and the nicest seeming guys can turn out to be practised liars! But, tell everyone you know (by mouth, of course,) who they are - and, of course, give them no more business and make sure they know it. [Prolly should try the last one first, sometimes they'll try to redeemthemselves - remember: Be really nice - until they give you no other choice.]

yeah thanks for the advice, ive only payed the original agreed upon price that was bumped up abit, they knew thats all i would have for a while, im a uni student, i got nothing!

I once bought an 1800 type 4 motor, only to find out later that it was in fact a 1700.

On the plus side, it is still going strong 5 years later. :thumb

Just a thought - Maybe the Forum could run a thread on repairers who do a good job. We can't name the ripoffs because of Libel laws (which suck,) but we can help others to find good ones.

Probably a popular idea, but I'm not sure if it would work. Just about anybody who has been around a while would realise that any workshop will have happy and dissatisfied customers. Sometimes customers are happy with a job because the workshop was friendly and fast, but that doesn't mean that they were good! Another customer at the same workshop might be very unhappy with the work they had done. If people start recommending workshops with no rebuttal allowed by others, then you may as well just list every workshop in Australia.

Just my opinion....

good idea autostick, and also good though too kruzinkombi, u do hear mixed reports from every mechanic pretty much. one guy is meant to build great engines, some else felt their engine was garbage built by the same bloke...

better yet, the section should be called "Did i pay too much", and you'd only need to state work carried out, by whom and the figure at the bottom of your receipt. no opinions or emoticons. that way all the other members could draw their own conclusions and post agreeing messages that you did in fact get ripped off, and the truth would be known by all.

Choice only feature products from companies that have agreed to be reviewed. Unfortunately, the truth will not stop you getting sued for libel (that's why I said it sucks.)

As for CIP, I had a similar problem, fortunately I was able to cancel the order. We can say things like that, we just can't point out someone who's a crook.

i know that the most unjust rulings always get the most publicity, hence the wide belief that laws actually prevent justice.
if i have time i will look into this further, but my current understanding is that libel laws are there to protect the innocent from suffering loss as a result of public and false accusations. and further, in this country anyone can sue anyone at any time for any reason, but they would usually choose not to because they either would not win or it’s not worth the effort.
therefore you could indeed get sued for making any statement but you would not lose, and the other party would bare all costs. (and one would know this and thus let it go)

disclaimer: do not take this as legal advice, i'm just a multiple vw owner.

sorry, i know this is a vw forum and not an amateur law forum.

(from my previous post) that should read "you would not lose if your claim was true and you had evidence."

and see the disclaimer again.

also, 70autostick, i agree with you totally. you can't label anyone anything, but that is not what i was suggesting. i'm only suggesting publishing the facts: who did the work and what you were charged.

I went to a non-vw mechanic to get a roadworthy for a beetle, I went there as there were no vw places nearby. They did the work, which included some brake stuff. But then I found it was making a strange noise when I went around corners. I took it back a couple of time, they couldnt find anything, but after the last time I was driving the next day and the wheel did come off. Luckily I could feel something was wrong, and slowed down to pull over just as the wheel came off, lodged under the car so didnt go anywhere.
That same shop had also done a roadworthy on a type 3 for us and claimed the rear torsion bar bushes needed replacing as did the front shocks. I got them to do the shocks but then took it to somewhere else to do the bushes. That (vw guy) said he could tell they hadnt inspected the bushes so I think they just made that up to make out they had given the car a good check. Then when I went back they said they couldnt pass the car because it was now on a slope. After some mucking around I discovered the problem - the pair of shocks they installed were two different sizes!
Useless.

Personnally I have bought thousands of dollars worth of parts from CIP mostly while there in person at their Burnaby shop in Vancouver BC and have had no problems. With phone calls cheap nowadays it is easier to call them for the parts and arrange freight over the phone. Works out a lot cheaper and you know what it costs. They are open Saturday mornings so call them Saturday night our time. Easy. volma1

I know it's a bit off-topic, but that sounds like good advice Volma. I'll try 'em that way.

California Import Parts
7029 Macpherson AVE- Burnaby,
BC V51-4N4
Phone: 1 011 604 434-8300

http://www.partsvw.com/

[Edited on 14-12-2002 by jenz58]

so i finished my trade after 5 years of saving for a as long as it takes trip around aus,thinking the only way to do this is in a kombi, furphy was its name.so i found furphy on mona vale road,this extremely well off guy was selling her,he showed me around the family estate heli pad 10 bedrooms and more the family literally owned a gold mine in WA,this guy tells me how he had looked after furphy and me seeing how rich he was took his word. a new motor,clutch,steering box and a reco job on the 3 way fridge later oh and a complete brake system overhall all my money i had saved was gone ,my first year i was on $180 a week, 2nd 210 ,3rd 250, and 4th 320 now a different story,i was very bitter about this but what goes around comes around. let me just say every cent i spent on that car was worth all that hard work ,i had a trouble free trip around aus and some great times.
just thought i would try to add a pic off my two new busses probly wont work

Our Vee Dubbs are worth the money spent:thumb

Is Furphy the one on the right with the nice eyebrows?

How long were you away? Any tips for other Vee Dubbers planning on doing a long trip around Oz??

no furphy was sold to a lucky guy in darwin he loved the bus so much he didnt even test drive it or start it.i guess a thick book of reciepts and service history was enough for him.i sold the bus for less than i paid for it. keeping it real,i would post a pic but dont have a scanner or a digital pic of her