To lawyer up, or to give up?

Hopefully this Friday I can get down there and corner someone face-to-face to get an actual bill and not just this "he said that the other guy said" bill.
My guess is they'll have it scribbled on a napkin, so I'll have to demand an itemized bill...

At this point, I've got maybe 10k into this truck and it's given me maybe 500 miles of service life- over five years. it's hard to really qualify what it's worth to ME, but replacement vehicles of similar standing are cheaper. Either way I don't have any money because I'm in the middle of a real estate transaction

On top of these problems, I just have to figure out how to move the snow plow and sander it used to carry, currently on my landlords property. I've got five weeks or so to move everything I own, plus those...

Nothing worse than a bad shop, I guess.

 

They cannot work on the truck without written authorization.

So in all of this where did they get authorization for all the work that was done?

If they have your signature authorizing the work, you owe them. And I'm not going to lie, if they had a fire under their butt and wanted to they can stop you from closing on your home. So I would keep that fact to yourself so no one gets any ideas to get petty.

I would deal with this and not let it sit. Call managers, district managers, and regional managers, or shop owners until you have talked to everyone. Your truck is more than likely incurring storage fees right now that is going to add to the bill. And eventually they can sue you for what you owe and place a lien on the vehicle.

What would I do:
I would never authorize work to be done on my truck without a full and complete understanding of the costs up front. I also would not have had them do the work for the wiring harness without getting it in writing that they will be footing the bill for their mistake and admitting their mistake caused the issues.

My fear is this, you authorized the work and didn't get it established in writing ahead of time that they are not to charge for work they caused to be done. I fear that because you didn't do that, you screwed yourself and owe the bill and won't win a claim. However all states are different and a call to an attorney doesn't hurt. But I don't think the case is strong on your side if you don't have a paper trail covering your butt.

 

Maybe start with getting something in writing. You can dispute your case to them and the TW jury after that. The only thing for certain about this entire story is you don't know whats going on, because you weren't the point of contact, and you've only (maybe) heard your dads side of the story. Just go talk to the shop; face to face. At this point in time, you owe them $15k, and they owe you nothing but an explanation of their bill breakdown. If they've tallied up $15k worth of work, I can guarantee they'll be happy to tell you exactly what its for. Its very possible its a mistake. Its also very possible $15k worth of authorized work took place. It'd be extremely irresponsible to just turn it into a game, and risk losing your soon to be brand new home over it.

 

Go pee on there doorhandles...

 

Hire a lawyer to write them a letter. Consider how much you consider the work worth and settle with them for that amount. All money paid to date is sunk (lost) costs. This conversation is to close the gap between what they want and what it is worth. Your Dad/hospital trip has nothing to do with anything. The fact you have no contract is both a complete cluster fuck and your only chance of not getting counter sued if you dispute it entirely.

The truck has value. You either keep it, or sell it. If the shop can’t make the title clean, than they owe you it’s value.

 

A settlement is probably the best outcome. Some of their costs you may think is BS and may very well be but they will be looking to recoup at least their cost in parts.

My advice is whatever the outcome you agree to, get it in writing that everything is completely paid in full and nothing else is owed to them.