I swear to God.. I'm seriously ready to give up! I can't win..
As the majority of you know, I've recently been denied warranty by Volkswagen due to something they have taken it upon themselves to ASSUME.. I had to buy a new transmission and differential out of pocket, and you all know that's not cheap whatsoever. Dealership decided they were going to charge me $700 for labor since they worked on my car and didn't end up covering it under warranty, so I had to cough up another $700 just to get it back from the dealership to take it elsewhere to have it repaired on my dime. We're looking at close to $3000 already, you follow?

Well I've been without my car for a full month now since this all started with Volkswagen. My transmission and LSD arrived at the local shop on Friday, and they started working on my car. I dropped my keys off overnight a few days previous to the transmission arriving, in an overnight deposit envelope.. and on the envelope I clearly wrote that I was not authorizing them to do any work until I received a written estimate. Well, needless to say, I never received a written estimate OR a verbal estimate. I ended up calling on Monday to determine when they were going to get my car to me, and how much it was going to cost. Turns out they had already started on it, but had no idea what they were getting themselves into. They managed to push it off another day, then another day.. After having words with the shop manager about how long it was supposed to take (7 hours on average for differential and transmission install, and he says they're booking it for 11.5 hours), he assured me that I would be able to pick it up today before work at 11AM. It was supposed to be done this morning, so I called bright and early at 8AM and he said there was no way it would be done before I went to work.. Disappointed yet again, I let him off the phone and go on with my day. I got a call from him around 4PM today and he leaves me a message saying they've got a big problem . . . the transmission is the wrong transmission, and it won't fit in the car for some reason. Great! Fantastic. What's it going to be, another month without a car?

So I get ahold of the distributor that I bought the transmission from, and he gets ahold of the company that actually sent out the transmission, and it turns out that they sent a VR6 transmission. Well, the problem with that is that I've got a 1.8T. He ordered the correct transmission, but they sent the wrong one out. Wonderful! They say they will put out an order to send the correct transmission out tomorrow, and pick the wrong one up from the shop. The snag with that is that they have already installed the LSD in the incorrect transmission, which creates two problems-> 1) The transmission has been opened to install the LSD. The company COULD refuse to take it back since it has been handled and opened up. 2) The shop still wants to charge me for the labor on installing the differential on the wrong transmission. They say they have no responsibility for it. It took them 7 hours to install a differential that I've been told any competent mechanic could install in 2 hours! That means they're going to want me to pay that, twice!

Here's another funny thing.. they apparently haven't done a LSD install in a car like mine before, so they took my blown transmission out of the car and apart for educational purposes, but they didn't manage to see that the two transmissions were different? I mean, how was I supposed to know? I never saw the transmission. It was shipped directly to them. They opened the package, and I assume they had to sign for it as well. I never even got to see it.

WHAT DO I DO? I truly feel like I can't win for losin'. I've tapped all of my resources to borrow money from, and there's nothing left to borrow from. I was so close to being out of debt, and this comes along... I've taken on more than I can handle. How would you guys handle this? I don't want to hear advice like "oh, I'd kick their asses" - I want honest, good, resourceful advice. How do I get what I feel is owed to me at this point? I'm paying high dollar labor costs already, and they seem to think a transmission and differential equate to an 11.5 hour job, when everyone else says 7. Big difference in time, and money. What's fair here? Do I have any ground to stand on based on the fact that I never got a written estimate? What about the fact that the company sent me the wrong transmission and that the shop had no idea? Would it be fair for the shop to either not charge me labor for the first tranny, or for the transmission company to pick up the tab on the first install out of their error? What's fair? I'm willing to pay what I thought was initially fair. They installed my clutch setup previously for $400. That was supposedly a 5 hour job. I've been told differential is a 2 hour job, so doesn't $600 sound fair to you guys? Their labor rates are right at $75/hour, so it would actually only be $550 at that rate... but I'm willing to pay them a maximum of $600 in all fairness. Is that unreasonable on my part? I NEED ADVICE!

To be a little redundant, I did have the transmission shipped directly to the business. I never signed for a package, nor did I open the 'crate' or freight box from the shipping company. Does that have any impact in the situation?

Sorry ladies and gents.. I know this is long, but I've got to vent before I pop. I've been without my car for a month, and the bill just keeps adding up. I feel like I've been wronged in every way possible in the last couple months.

 

if they didnt give you a written estimate before starting repairs...then you legally can refuse payment. however, if you authorized anything, they can and will put a mechanics lien on the car.

i dont have my ALLDATA on this PC, but i will look up time to install the diff and such tomorrow if i can get a chance. it may take 2 hours with a good tech doing it, but more then likely the book time is more. 11 hours does sound rather reasonable to be honest.

what did VW check out that cost 700? did they do a full teardown? why didnt you have them install the new tranny instead?

as a shop manager/owner/technician, they should not have begun work without authorization. most shops get pissy when a customer brings in their own parts (mainly due to warranty issues, i cannot gurantee someone elses parts) and there are some people that will be complete dicks about that situation, sucks, but they are out there.

lemme get this straight: you bought a new (to the car, more then likely a reman) tranny, had it shipped to a shop, wanted them to pull the old tranny, install the new LSD in the new tranny (no swapping from one tranny to the other?) and install new in the car?

if you were having a diff swapped from one trans to the other, that is more labor (obviously)

also, i know from first hand experience, being a dick to the person doing the work will get you nowhere (asshole customers.....i hate them)

they should have ID'd the tranny before tearing it down, but they can say it was your responsibility to make sure its right (they didnt order the parts)

yet another reason not to make some cars fast unless you have the means of fixing your own fuckups

 

wow....this thread hurts me right here <---*points to heart*...one reason i'd rather spend 24hrs under my car myself with all my friends tools with me, instead of giving it to some ass that i had never seen before to knew anything about with "a certification."

I wish you the best of luck.

 

You could always push it across the finish line...

This is a perfect example of why you go to Joey and not some shmuck

I say if you did not authorize in any way the work they did you call them, alert them to the fact that you never authorized the work and tell them your coming to pick up the car and parts with a rollback. Of coarse that’s coming from a guy named Richard who’s is a self-proclaimed giant dick

Then proceed to take it to Joey... You will get a better labor rate and hella better work done that way...

 

I'm not a mechanic (although I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night), but something that is "supposed to take" 7 hours and actually taking 11 is not unusual. If it took them 11 hours to change your oil or something, that's one thing. But changing a transmission is pretty major work. Actually 11 hours sounds pretty quick to me.

But, all that aside, if you never got a written estimate and they worked on your car without notifying you of the price, I'd go talk to a lawyer. Hell, I'd do it anyways. It wouldn't hurt.

Just remember what my mamma always told me: "You draw more flies with sugar than with lemons". I understand you're pissed about your car. You have every right to be. But, as a business owner, if someone has a problem, I'm more likely to want to help them and see it their way if they come in here and calmly and politely tell me what's wrong, rather than calling and yelling at me. I honestly doubt that the shop set out to screw you over. There aren't many shops around here that do that, and the ones that do don't seem to stay around long.

 

No.. it was a brand new transmission, and a new differential. The reason why I bought my own parts and took it to them is because I got a deal, and I'm getting better than stock parts. 3.94 r&p transmission, and LSD.. for quite a bit less than what the dealership wanted to charge me for replacing my stock transmission, but then you have to figure in the $700 I had to pay the dealership to get my car back after they tore my transmission apart.. 11 hours, to me, is not reasonable for a competent mechanic. I've been told by more than a handful of people on VWvortex who have had the same job done that it is a 7-8 hour job if the mechanic knows what they're doing. That's a large gap between 7 hours and 11.5 hours, and these people aren't pulling numbers out of their asses.. you know? They've had the install done before, and they paid 7-8 hours worth of labor.

I have been nothing but understanding and polite with the shop doing the work. I haven't been rude to anyone, despite the fact that I've been without a car for a month now. There are several people to be angry with, in my opinion, but I'm not taking it out on anyone because I don't want to burn any bridges. I feel like I'm getting fucked from every direction. This has turned into a $4000+ dollar job.

 

i still dont see why you didnt have VW install the trans while they had it out


5.2 hrs for R&R clutch disc, 4.9 to R&I transmission, and it calls for 6.2hrs to R&R the ring gear (out of car) no specific times for diff, but you have to remove the diff to install the ring gear, so that is about right.

i dont care what some people say, no shop will charge you for how long it took them to do the job (unless it was a nightmare job, additionals such as bolts broken, rust, etc) they will charge book time. if it had come into my shop, it would have been about 11.5 hours in the estimate.

 

Because they denied my warranty and wanted nearly $4,000 to install another stock transmission.. that's why!

I figured since they were denying my warranty, and I've made a lot of friends during the networking process, I could get a better transmission AND lsd for a substantial amount LESS... and have it installed somewhere else. I'm perfectly okay with admitting that it's not something I can do myself, which is why I'm fine with paying someone else to do it.

The new transmission was assembled.. All they had to do, since the new transmission was shipped directly to them, not in the car.. was install the LSD.

I'm currently looking for an attorney to pursue VW/First Team legally over my warranty.

 

Just to give you a rough idea.. VW had quoted me $3200 for a transmission, plus labor.

I managed to get a *new* transmission with 3.94, and Peloquin LSD for $19xx shipped door. Regular retail on that is $1600 for the transmission, $400 for that particular r&p, and usually about $900 for the differential. That's not including shipping with the retail prices, so I saved well over a thousand bucks by purchasing the parts elsewhere at my discount. They could have NEVER found those parts for me that cheap. I got them at cost.

 

1. why was your warr. denied?

2. they already had it out.....it seems rather unintelligent to me to have them put it back in, just to have another shop pull it out again. do it less times, less shit is gonna happen. you may not have had a warranty on it, but they could have installed it.