So here is my story. I just bought a new truck from Ebay 03 Ram 2500. I got it for a great price because the previous owner had swiped a guard rail and messed up the right side of the truck. I bought the truck thinking I would just buy parts at a salvage yard and fix it up myself. So I started looking for parts and the one thing it needed was a new bed side. I didnt know if it would be cheaper to buy an entire bed or to see if having just the side changed out using a body shop would be cheaper. There was a spot on the corner of the cab that needed to be fixed at a body shop anyways so I figured I would get in touch with one. I am new to this area so I started with the phone book and called around. I found one called Auto Color Systems (WWW.AUTOCOLORSYSTEMS.COM)
and He agreed to meet me at my work to give me an estimate. The next day A guy showed up to have a look at my truck. I told him that I just wanted an estimate on the bed side and the cabcorner. He gave me a price and He asked how I was going to fix the rest of the truck? I told him that I found the front and rear doors at a salvage yard that were the exact same color and I was just going to bolt them on for 850 bucks and I bought a fender from Ebay that I would have sprayed and put it on myself. He proceeded to tell me that He could fix my doors and paint them cheaper than me buying ones from a salvage yard and that because He would paint them I was guaranteed to have the color match. I agreed. I dropped the truck off last Sunday.On Saturday He called me and said that the truck was done and that I could pick it up tomorrow. I showed up the next day and to my surprize the doors where still caved in. He told me that there must have been some miscommunication and that I never told him that I wanted the doors to be perfect. That is crap!!! I told him I was going to buy doors that were perfect why would I pay him damn near the same price to fill mine full of Bondo and have them look like they are still smashed? I offered to pay him the original quoted price that he gave me to just fix the bed and the cab corner and He refused. He said He would fix the doors perfect. I left pretty upset. After I calmed down a little I called him trying to tell him that He will never get the doors perfect that they will still be wavy and to just leave them alone. He refused again saying that I never said I wanted the doors to be 100% and hung up on me. I emailed him then Saying the same thing. He then came up with a higher price than we agreed on for me to pick up the truck with him leaving the doors how that they are. My question is--- I never signed anything agreeing to a price. I still have his emails telling me what the price would be for just the bed and cab corner. Can I just pay him the agreed price and leave it at that? I dont know what to do??


Here are some pics that I took today. I finally got my good camera back and I couldnt get real good detailed pics with my old one.

I will start with the before pics:










Now here it is as of today. This is what He calls perfect 100%:









Here is the overspray that is all over the truck:

 

need pics

 

classic problem of not drawing up a good contract. not having one not only hurts the business owner but also the customer, see these problems all the time in contracting. if you have e mails of him saying what the price would be without the doors you might have something to back you up. but youd better contact a lawyer before it gets out of hand.

 

Have a lawyer or someone you know in the legal field contact him about taking pictures. I'm sure that will scare him and also sure he doesn't want to spend several hundred if not thousands on fighting a lawsuit for a few hundred dollars of work.

 

In Jersey, every body shop has a state required placard that lists the consumer rights. Included is the requirement that you get a written estimate that must be approved by the customer before work can be started. If the price exceeds the estimated price by 10%, authorization is required. Check your states web site under the consumer affairs division, normally under the attorney general's office. They should list your state's regulations. If the story is as you tell it, many times if they know you are serious about going to the licensing board, an attorney or the BBB, they shap up. The wrinkle in your story is that a "guy showed up to have a look at my truck." I do not know of anyone here other than a friend who makes house calls.

Good Luck

 

I agree with Wanderer, someone showing up to look at the truck is an alert from the get-go. The first thing a body shop would do, before even looking at the truck, is start filling out an estimate slip. they want to be covered as much as you do. If you didnt sign anything saying you would pay a certain amount, I would try to get the truck without paying anything. see if you can do that legally, since he was out to scam you from the beginning it sounds, and he cant really prove anything either it sounds. In SoCal, when i lived there, there were guys that would drive around buildings and look for damaged cars, then offer to fix them. they would take the car, bondo the crap out of it, cover it with plastic or newspaper, and then tell you to wait 24 hours before removing it and collect the money. then you remove it, and it looks like sh%t! this story kinda reminds me of that, since he inquired about the rest of the work and offered, after "coming over to look at it". feel sorry for ya man, hope someone on here can chime in with some legal advice on it...

 

Wow...where i live if i want an estimate i have to bring the vehicle to the shop. If i cant, it becomes an insurance deal...Good luck getting this mess cleaned up man, i wish you the best!

 

Now he sent me an email tonight stating that the rear door cannot be made perfect so He will just "leave it alone". What the hell did I get myself into here? I offered to pay him a little more than He was asking for in his original price quote He sent me via email because he did do an excellent job replacing the bed side and fixing the cab corner and the paint job is damn near perfect. I just dont want to pay for the doors. He has lowered the price He quoted me for fixing the doors by over 350 dollars and said he will just deduct that from the bill. WTF??? I wander if I can just pay him for the estimate He sent to me and let him drag me into court for the rest? I will drag those doors with me right into the court house and let them be the judge...

 

the hell with that man....if you got e-mails to back it all up, take it to a lawyer and go from there.....best of luck to ya tho

 

Id say, you got an extra set of keys? GO get ur truck and then work out ur problem... LOL dont listen to me, thats just what I would do.