A question about auto servicing legalities?

Factual Questions
1

True, but long and interesting story: My dad has this brand new Harley Davidson -beautiful bike- that he carried to get it’s first thousand mile oil change. My dad told the counterguy that that’s all he wanted done and if anything else was needed, they should call him. But they never called.

Well, the guy said that it would be 45 bucks (yeah, it’s rather expensive at the dealership) for the oil change and it would take an hour.

He comes back about an hour later and they lay the bill in front of him. It was for seven hundred and some odd dollars. He (my dad) never got into detail, but told me that they told him the extras were a bunch of different items that needed “adjusting”, they added a high altitude, fuel injection chip (for mountain riding) and also they added on costs for labor. He never asked for ANY OF THIS !

My dad is not the type to just bend over and take it, so he started to see red and the bitching and hollering began. Naturally, the salesmen tried to justify the costs an calm my Dad down.

Long story short(er), they told my dad that they will hold his bike until he pays or they could call the police and have him removed and carry everything to court.

They had him by the balls, so he paid to get his bike back and told them that even if he ran out of oil in front of their building, he would walk to Virginia to get more oil before he would give them money again, and he is going to tell everyone he sees that rides a bike about this incident.

That didn’t do much good. He also wrote a strongly worded letter to HD and they said the dealer was in the green. No good there, either.

My question is, how legal is what Harley Davidson did? Shouldn’t they call to notify you first? If they didn’t, is my dad legally liable? I’m sure these places all have their own rules on back of their invoices, but what is the general consensus?

2

This is where he should have called the police himself. A cop is not going to “remove” anyone over a billing dispute. I’m also sure that the dealership isn’t going to be thrilled over having to pay a lawyer to go to court over a $700 charge.

Shops are only allowed to do authorized work. By paying it, he gave the dealer the maximum payoff for minimum effort.

3

Well, it would certainly be illegal in Massachusetts. They’ve got to give you a written estimate, and they’ve got to get your permission again if they’ll exceed the estimate by more than $10. Alternatively, you can give them a blanket “Repair the problem unless it will exceed $xxx, in that case, contact me before proceeding”. Your father should contact your state’s Attorney General’s office.

4

I agree and that’s what I told him. But after he calms down, he’s the type that says, “ahhh, screw it, what’s done is done.” Oh well. But anyways, thanks, guys ! I thought as much.

5

I think every U.S. state has a consumer law regulating auto mechanics. It shouldn’t be hard to find w/ a search. Your state A.G.'s office is the place to file a complaint. The only catch I can imagine is if your dad signed a blank work order, but $700.00 is ridiculous, even if he did. I’d strongly suggest he follow through, if only to prevent his biker buddies from getting ripped off.
How much of that is labor and how many guys can work on one bike in an hour?

6

All you have to do is ask someone to leave*. After that, they are tresspassing and the police WILL remove them. I’ve had it done at my store a few times over the years.

*And yes, I could just pick some random customer and do it to them.

I would go over everything your dad signed very carefully and then call your states attorney general. Seems like a lot of stuff should be easy to fight. If your dad doesn’t do any mountain riding (and doesn’t plan on doing it), it would be very easy to say “No I didn’t authorize that, why would I, I’ve never even heard of it until I got the bill”

Might want to call the credit card company also, if you used one.

7

Agreed, however I’d like to see what happens when you have $10,000 worth of the person’s property in the store, and refuse to let them leave with it.

I would prefer to call first and complain that my property is being illegally kept from me, rather than let you make the initial complaint.

8

Man, what kind of crap Harley dealer did your dad go to?

Post the name so we will all know.

I bought a brand new Harley back in 1992, and the dealership treated me like a king.

I never had a problem such as you are describing.

There has to be more to this story. You drop 20k on a bike, (and that’s on the cheap side) they are NOT going to treat you like that.

So let’s hear the real story.

9

If this actually happened as described and the dealership refused to return the bike until unauthorized work was paid for, IMO any decent lawyer could have made them suffer badly.

10

At the very least your father ought to file a complaint with the state bureau of automotive repair (or whatever the state body is that licenses motorcycle repair shops).

11

Yeah, that makes things a little different. But if the police felt that the person was posing a threat to myself or my employees (yelling and bitching), I’ll be they’ll still remove the customer. Other issues can be taken care of after the threat is removed.

12

So when did this happen?

If it was within the past few months, your dad needs to call the Attorney General.

13

Not worth litigation. You know what kind of jury to expect…grease under thier fingernails, and every one with thier first name emboidered on thier shirt.

14

We have removed the post where Diggleblop gives the name and address of the dealership he has a secondhand disagreement with.

It’s not a good idea to bring your disputes to this board and call people or companies out by name and address. Don’t do it here.

15

Don’t count on it. Judges and juries tend to be very unsympathetic to auto repair providers.

16

One could contact the local newspaper’s consumer affairs writer or or perhaps consumerist.com for help.

17

Whoosh!
:smiley:

18

That’s illegal as crap in Ohio, too, unless you check a special box on the work order authorizing service.
Call the local consumer affairs newspaper reporter. On a slow news day, you might get the dealer’s balls busted.

19

Here is a link to the Auto Repair Complaint form (warning: PDF) from the Maryland attorney general’s office. I assume, but don’t know for sure, that the form applies to motorcycle repair shops.