Do you have a written warranty policy? If so then that is your best defense if the policy clearly states that all warranty work must be done at your shop.
Look at what the big chains do on this.
If not then refer to the UCC and see if it address a warranty and that someone offering a warranty is not liable for incidental costs or costs if the user chooses to use another business.
Imagine if I could by a washer at Sears, it breaks in two months Sears say we will send a repairman out, and I say no I called ABC repair shop and I will send you the bill. That would not work, it would be chaos.
How do you even know the part you repaired was the problem? Any heavy rains and flooding, maybe she ran though a deep puddle and got some electrical control units soaked? How do you know there was actually any problem.
Tell her you asked her to bring the car to you and you offered a free tow.
My warranty policy does not obligate me to other repair shops so I will not be paying for this repair. It was your decision to go to another shop.
DO NOT get into a debate or long discussion or say you will think about it etc.
That is all you can do.
No you told her you would repair it if it was your fault and to bring it into you. You can do no more, and how good are you to be so polite, most would tell her to stuff off, as you probably find that she cannot drive and rides the clutch, how can you control that. Actually a mechanic should go for a drive with these idiots to see how they drive after repairing and then saying no warranty as yiu cannot drive. A cutch can last a very long time if one knows how to drive. It takes a fraction of a second to get a car from stopped to going with foot completely off the clutch. The longer a foot is on the clutch the more wear, and changing gears really their should be no wear at all, as their should be no slip, if one can drive the engine speed should be synchronised to the same speed, so absolutely no wear. You have been a very good person and she is not, and you are best to be rid if her, you do not need bloody clients such as her. Let the other rooster mechanic have her. So you did right by offering to repair that is all you have to do by law, she must give you the first Opportunity for you to put right , but she tuned you down, so she is at fault. Do not loose any sleep over her. With yiur attitude I would tell people to come to you, you appear to be good and honest.
She probably rides the clutch and wore it out again. Don't do a thing, she has no right to charge you if she refused to bring it back when you even offered to tow it in for her. Some customers are just plain stupid. A clutch doesn't just fail after 8 months with out a reason. If you had done anything wrong it wouldn't have made it out of the shop for a test drive. If another mechanic is low enough to send you a bill rather than advising your customer she has 12 months/12,000 miles of warranty on your repair just ignore him. If they get obnoxious have your attorney send them a warning about defamation of your reputation.
NO ! and your disclaimer or standard description of customers recourse should say so.
The law requires that you be given a chance to correct her condition whatever kind of vehicle this is...
If it was a part you sold and installed, the warranties are handled through you arent they?
If it was customers parts, Then you would have had to cause the problem otherwise she pays the labor again.
If The diagnosis cannot be verified by you, then who knows what is really going on there ?
I see this on court tv shows sometimes, and the judge always asks if the customer gave the business owner a chance to make it right, and then asks both parties what happened there and wants to see the repair order or any evidence for either side.
In my opinion, you offered to honor the warranty. It was her choice to take the car to someone else. She should not expect you to pay for that. You offer a warranty on your services, not a payment plan for taking a vehicle to your competitors.
I think that if you ignore her attempts at collecting this money that she will just go away. If you think she will try to take it to court, then contact a lawyer and ask about your legal rights. I have no legal experience in this type of situation, but it just seems like you are in the right and she is not.
Chances are good that the clutch went out due to her driving style and not your workmanship. I went through two clutches in a little over a year before learning that resting a foot on the clutch between shifts can help wear out the clutch.
Pay for what exactly . . . it is her choice to not let you look at it to determine what actually failed. Someone probably borrowed her car and burned the clutch out trying to drift it and she is trying to stick you for the complete repair bill saying you are incompetant or that you use faulty parts, all bullshit in my book! I would tell her this, if I don't look at it first, I have to assume that you are responsible for the failure.
I ain't paying you for nuthin, you are choosing to have someone else do for you what I am offering to cover to the extent it is my fault under warranty (for free). It is your perogative to do so, and the cost is all yours! You trusted me to do the work initailly, and now you don't. WTF?
You have already shown her your good faith, by saying you would take a look at it and repair it if it is actually a warranty repair and not from abuse. She won't let you even look at it! I wouldn't give her the time of day, let alone give her what she wants.
Think about this for a minute, even though I do not know you nor do I know how good of a mechanic you are, you are not admitting guilt here, she won't even let you look at her car! Come on! 8 freaking months?
If the rivets failed on the clutch material and it was metal to metal, it woulda happened in 90 days or less! Same with any other failure in a clutch, most in even less time, a lot less!. A clutch can last the life of the car, for crying out loud! This whole thing stinks in my book. I wouldn't pay her a nickle. My money is on the fact that she is hiding something from you. Talk with your lawyer if you like . . . I think you are going to come out of this smelling like a rose, one without thorns too!
She is clearly in the wrong. In 8 months, anything could have happened. Probably it had nothing to do with your repair.
As far as legally, she doesn't HAVE to give you a chance to try to repair it again, but she can't take it someplace else and then hand you the bill. Hopefully if you are firm but polite with her, she will just forget about it. All she can do is take you to small claims court, and you would win for sure. So don't worry about it.
You offered to tow and repair at no cost, chances are she's trying to hide something, maybe a 1st time stick learner, what killed the clutch anyway? Tell her to eff off, it was her decision to go elsewhere.
I own a shop also and know every shop owner nearby, can't you phone the other shop and ask what's going on? Most won't s51t where they eat.
been in business 40 yrs with the best warranty and reputation possible and my answer is ABSOLUTELY NOT.not without seeing the vehicle in its in-op condition. was it a cable or linkage problem, clutch master or slave cylinder, fluid on the disc??? you have no idea what you will be paying for. the fact that the clutch or a component failed or broke so quickly that the car had to be towed is proof enough that it didn't "wear out". w/o knowing the whole story, don't pay a dime
Legally, I don't see you being at fault with anything. You told her that the clutch was still under warranty and you are expected to repair it at no cost, along with the towing. So I am assuming you understand up to this point. Now her taking this to another mechanic and expecting you to pay for it. No, she cannot expect you to pay for it. She did not take advantage of the clutch being under warranty and at no cost for transportation of vehicle (i.e. towing).
She simply failed to understand the obvious, things go bad, not everything in this world is perfect. Therefore you are at no fault. If she does decide to take legal actions against you, I am not sure but I do know that you have to mention about your warranty, you have to mention that you offered to repair at no cost and the free towing to avoid getting in trouble.
You should not be paying anything since she is getting it done from the outside, if she had it done from another shop, say you work for AAA Car care center and she went to JiffyLube for example. That is out of network, she cannot expect you to pay for it. If she had gone to another AAA car dealer, then it would be fair for you to pay and legally you should ONLY if she chose the same car repair company but at different location.
I own an auto repair shop. I did a clutch job for a customer about 8 months ago. She called me about 2 weeks ago telling me her clutch went out. I told her the it was still under warranty and to bring it in so I can fix the problem. She said it wasn't drivable, so I told her i can have it towed in for free. She then told me out of the blue that she wasn't "comfortable" with my work. I insisted she give me a chance to make this right and she refused. She took it to a different mechanic and now she wants me to pay for the repairs. What are my rights here?
How about if she buys a brand new Ford, and it has a problem. She takes it to a Chevy dealer and expects the Ford dealer to pay for it under warranty. Same thing.
Hopefully not the same thing: she has the work done at your shop, takes it to her brother's shop and has him write up an invoice for repairs that were never done, then insists you pay the invoice.
No matter how I look at it you were stand-up and she made her choice.
You own a repair shop and don't know? I don't understand why you would have a warranty on a clutch. New car warranties don't cover them. However, the warranty is invalid if she won't let you repair it.
My guess is you don't have to do anything more. She has the option to sue you but I would think any judge would recognize your position. But if another mechanic could document eggregious errors on your part he might listen to that. If you have a written warranty it should spell it out. If it is just a verbal warranty now she is finding out what the remedy is. I am sure you did not guarantee her her money back?
Of course there is the issue of good will. Was it just one of those things or did you actually botch it? If you think you blew it you might want to make it right. I wouldn't. Furthermore, once it is out of your sight how do you know she doesn't have a son (or daughter) who wrecked it? Some people can wreck a clutch in a short time it seems.
Regardless of what anyone else says, there is one thing you must keep in mind...state laws. Since you never mentioned what state you are in, I can not help you here; however, I do know of a few states that have certain 'second opinion' clauses in their repair laws. In these states, it is a customers right to do what she did, regardless of your warranty. So, best advice? Contact your lawyer and ask what you should do. Though I will tell you one thing. I had PepBoys, a large chain, do a tune up and they didn't tighten my plugs completely. Took it elsewhere and paid for the tightening. PepBoys reimbursed me. Happened again with an a/c recharge and a leak they didn't fix.
You owe her nothing assuming your warranty only covered materials and labor. A clutch can be quickly ruined by not using it properly (riding the clutch). Your warranty should have excluded repairs due to riding the clutch. If not change your invoice to cover yourself in the future.
You shouldn't be paying for someone elses's work. And you offered to tow and make it right , so satisfying those conditions you are clear. Now be careful of he trying to sue you. Those lawyers are downright corrupt and are all money, just have a good defense written and ready to go if anything goes wrong
I have to question your logic and brain activity as to asking here. This sounds fake for a business owners has insurance and should know, way ahead of time, as to the legal liability involved in the offered warranty. Only a lawyer can answer your question. Any answer provided, not matter how logical or correct may sound, has no bearing as to the laws of your state and as to the legal terms offered in your contract as indicated by the receipt. No one here knows those term. It is foolish, immature and illogical to ask your neighbors for advice as much as it is to ask here, invisible strangers from all over the planet.
a clutches life has many factors. if they ride the clutch or are harsh with it, that will destroy it. i can kill a clutch in 5 minutes. that long of a time, the warranty should have lapsed. since the issue was taken to another shop and you did not have a chance to rectify the issue, then you should be fine. i say no.
You offered many times to fix it, We warranty everything for a lifetime at our shop and if something goes wrong and the warranty isn't void and we offer to fix it and our customer tells our boss off... then no cookies for you... bad bad!
You offered to redo the job under warranty. That's all you were required to do. She chose to do something else so she has to accept the consequences. No way are you responsible for her actions.
You don't have to pay her a dime. She breached the warranty by not letting you fix the problem and taking it to another shop. You owe her nothing.
Warranty is for your work. Don't like your work don't come back. I will not be to paying somebody especially if it did not cause any other damage.
That's business dealing with the general public..
Edit: bottom line. back up only your work. warranty should be only 90 days anyway.
It's your warranty and your parts. She's a dreamer.
This is no different than taking a Ford to a Chevrolet Dealership for dissatisfied non-warranty work to be done which had been done originally by a Ford Dealership. I would be happy to tell her to go fly a kite!
You offered a warranty. She refused it. Sounds like end of problem to me.
No, you offered the warranty, she did not accept it. She gave you no opportunity to examine the problem, you cannot even be sure there was a problem.
She can take a running jump!
The warranty offered was through your repair shop, the consumer CHOSE to go to another repair shop at her cost--she pays. Review your warranty information and if needed consult a solicitor if needed. If my warranty is at company ABC and I CHOOSE to go to company XYZ, it’s at my cost, because I CHOSE to go to another company. No worries.
most states NO. you are only responsible if she brought it back to you. its like a state inspection I it failed at one place that place has the right to eat the second inspection any other place would charge her. thinking of it that way let her sue you and she most likely loose and you will win. you offered to have it defected out, and you were willing to do it for free. she chose to go some where else and that is her responsibility. she will have to pay court charges and she most likely lose depending on state for small claims court. once you offered to fix it and she chose to do business somewhere else that freed you from obligations to her
your insurance pays for you
idk
If you told her to that you repair again and she refused to let you repair.I wouldn't do nothing else to the vehicle .just let her know that you tried all you can to help har,
