1. Had new CV joints at Ocean Works. Two days later the car stops working leaving my wife stranded. Angus tells me that the problem was a loose bolt and although his mechanic didn't cause the problem, he should have noticed it and therefor he will fix it for free. I have a shop manual for the car which tells me that Angus's explanation is a bunch of hooey and that problem was caused by his mechanic. A couple of months later I noticed that one of the new rubber boot that protect the CV joints had several cracks in it and needed replacing. (The old boots after 10 years and 65,000 miles had no cracks.) Before he looks at the broken boot Angus tells me that these problems are usually caused by string that gets wrapped around the boot tight enough to break is. He looks under the car and declares that this is exactly what happened. Can he show me any string. Well no. Can he show me any marks on the boot where the string was wrapped so tightly that is broke the boot. Well no. Can he explain how this string that was wrapped so tightly managed to unwrap itself and disappear. Well no but he can tell me that this is what happened. He can fix the problem for around $200. I fix it myself with 1 hour of time and $18 in part.
This was of course last time I took my car to Ocean Works. I did return one last time to ask for a refund on some earlier work. I was told by a front end alignment shop that there was a problem with the left front suspension that I should have fixed right away. Took the car to Ocean Works and Angus told me there was nothing wrong. I took the same problem to my new mechanics and they replaced a part that was broken more than half-way through. When this part failed it would have caused loss of steering control. Worst case it could have actually resulted in fatalities. I showed the broken part to Angus and said I wanted a refund. He agreed he had missed the broken part but refused to give me a refund for two reasons: 1.I hadn't been specific enough about where the problem was (ie left front suspension apparently was enough for him to find a bad left front suspension part) and 2. (and I swear this is true) that the part was hard to find.
A final note-the first time I rotated the tires after the front end work at Ocean Works one of the lug bolts snapped off. My new mechanic told me that the only reason he's ever seen this happen is when the lung nuts are put on to tightly with an impact wrench.
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