Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Missouri
Good Morning,
I paid a car repair shop to diagnose and repair my vehicle which had stopped running. The gentleman called me the next after the vehicle arrived to say that the vehicle could be fixed for $400, so I advised him to go ahead and fix the car. Two days later the vehicle stopped with the same issue. I contacted the shop and he advised me that he later found out that the car had a computer problem that he was unable to fix and the vehicle needed to go to a dealer. He did try again to repair the car with no luck. The dealer now wants $730 to fix the same problem that I paid the other shop to fix. My question is am I entitled to a portion or all of my money back? The $400 that I paid was for labor since the shop stated that no parts were needed. After the issue with the car arouse the mechanic stated that they charge $75 per hour for labor and they spent at least 5 hours attempting to fix the car. On my receipt is say "$400 paid to fix the car to run." The car was never fixed. Although it's a small amount, it's huge to me. I would appreciate your advise, thanks.
2 Answers from Attorneys
You have about a 50% chance if you take this to Small Claims Court. You can argue they promised to fix your car and did not, and that since they are out nothing for parts, and that the only thing you were charged for is labor, it is simply a breach of contract. They contracted to fix the car to run for $400 and they did not. They will argue thatit was running when it left their shop, and that something you did caused it to suffer some additional malfunction. Like I said, you have about a 50% chance.
You do have one thing in your favor. I've never heard of a mechanic doing a "labor only" repair. This suggests that the mechanic simply billed you for labor and didn't actually do anything. Instead he waited for the car's computer to reset itself. You could argue that the mechanic's "labor" is just a scam and that you deserve all your money back.
Good luck.
This case is probably not worht the expense of having an attorney argue the case in court for you. But, you might prevail at trial in small claims court. It will cost you about $50 to find out. The owner of the shop might not want the negative publicity of a law suit. So, it might be worth yoru while to hire an attorney to write a letter to them, demanding part or all of your money back. This two might cost about $50. Neither is guaranteed to work. The question is, how much will this bother you in the future if you do nothing?
Good luck
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