Stayed in most of the weekend.
Monday, I leave for work, and my car is gone. It's been towed for being in a held parking spot. I call the office and speak to the manager. He says that he's sorry that happened, but he wasn't given the updated papers and he checks the lot every day. He lets me get my car from the impound for free, but that means me having it towed back home, which costs around 80.00. So basically I had to pay the parking fee AND the towing fee.
So, I call a mechanic. He's local and I'm in a bind. I tell him I need a quote for work and ask how much he'll charge me to get the car towed, and he says "75 normally, 40.00' if I let him do the work. I give him my information and the key, as well as a list of things I believe/know to be wrong with the car in other ways*. He gets the car from the towing place the next day.
I don't get a call after a couple days so I call and find out if they know anything. The mechanic says that he's sorry but hasn't had a chance to look at it. I inform him that it's not a rush, and I'd just like a quote anyway (We were going to borrow the money to have it fixed and needed to know if it would be worth the price). He says he'll let me know by the next Friday.
We're at about a week and a half now. On Friday I don't recieve a call. I figure I'll wait a while since he was busy, and I still was not in a hurry. Another whole week goes by, and then another. I get a call on the following monday from him.
"Your car is finished"
*WHAT?*
I never got a quote, which I explained. He said there must have been some misunderstanding. (Even on the bill, you can see that I didn't sign the paper stating that I was ok-ing work)
Luckily, I could afford to have it fixed, but at the same time, I didn't NECESSARILY want him to do the work. Also, he ONLY replaced the brake lines and didn't address and of the other problems. So when picking it up, I had to bring a new battery with me to have it installed.
Also, he charged me 65.00 for the tow, which is certainly not 40.
I'm not saying he did bad work. I'm going to have it looked at by another mechanic that I know to be pretty trustworthy, but honestly- I didn't sign any paperwork telling them to go ahead. I would have paid for the quote even.
*Wipers, dry rot on the tires, back trunk won't close, needs new batteries/etc, loud muffler (though newer), oil change/tuneup