Sup misc bros. this thread is just a dear diary rant to share a laughable occurrence that almost had me scared last night.

backstory:

I have a 2014 Tacoma that I've been building out as a wheeling/camping rig with all kinds of mods. One of which is aftermarket headlights (not really a necessity, just for vain aesthetic purposes.) As I'm sure some of you know, aftermarket stuff isn't always up to snuff with OEM equipment, and because of this, the clearcoat on the aftermarket headlights was peeling less than a year after purchase. So I reached out to a detailing company to have them polished and ceramic coated.

Reached out to what seems like the only company I could find locally who would do it at a fair price, and enlisted their services. Could tell off the bat they weren't that professional, as they handled their business by text, had several different numbers on their website, and took hours/days to respond. But I booked it anyways since there weren't many options and their price wasn't ridiculous.

Took about 1 month between initial contact and finally being able to set up an appt, where they came to my work to perform the service. Showed up, and it's two teenagers, 1 boy 1 girl. The female clearly has no idea what she's doing, as I can see through my office window that the guy is showing her instructions on the coating box and even giving her directions on how to polish the headlights. Took them an hour and a half to finish the work (which by any youtube detailer's estimate, shouldn't take more than an hour with 1 person), I tipped them $10, they left, then I paid the invoice sent to me, for a total cost of about $140. Everything's great right?

WRONG. the people who did the coating did an absolutely terrible job, and never wiped off the last coating after it flashed. After a couple days, the coating had dried with a hazed, light output/cutoff diminished, driving at night less safe, headlight plastic housing was noticeably hazy and uneven. I then spent about 2-3 weeks reaching out trying to have them send some people out to fix it, by the third week they finally responded and said they would, but never did.

At this point, i decided to do a chargeback on my card for the service. Opened the dispute with my card, they opened a case, and about 2 weeks ago the card company approved my dispute and credited my account.

Now onto the fun bit...
Last night as I'm out picking up dinner with the lady, I get a text from the owner of the business threatening me with an attorney because of the chargeback lol. I explained to him the circumstances, and his tune changed from "we were never contacted to make it right" to "maybe we dropped the ball because I have to keep rescheduling my son's funeral due to COVID". I provided him screenshots of my attempts to contact, and explained what happened. He didn't fully concede, but ultimately, the conversation ended with him sending me a $1 invoice and telling me to "tip whatever is fair for his worker's time". I spoke to my bank today about the dispute, and they said I'm not obligated to pay a damn thing since they did their due diligence, and if he does pursue it, to direct him to them as they did their due diligence to investigate.

He texted me this morning, asking if I received the invoice. What should I do? Should I : A) ignore completely B) tell him to go fuk himself C) pay the $1 invoice only to spite him D) pay the $1 invoice and tip pennies or E) pay the $1 invoice and actually tip what I think is an appropriate amount of time for his workers (IE minimum wage for 2 people for 1.5 hours, and cost of a cheap boxed headlight coating product, ~$50). I'm leaning towards A-D being my final decision, because this smells like a scam full of empty threats to me. Ain't no attorney gonna do a case over a $130 service, and if he did have one, he wouldn't be talking to me directly or compromising/conceding.

Cliffs:
-got headlights ceramic coated
-"workers" were 2 teens, did terrible job
-tried to have them correct it, either never got a response or was told someone would come out, and they never did
-filed a chargeback dispute with my CC company
-CC company resolved dispute, ruled in my favor, and gave me the credit
-biz owner threatened me with attorney last night
-called him out and provided proof that what he stated in his threats wasn't true
-he compromised and sent a $1 invoice, said to tip "whatever i think is fair" on top
-I called my bank this morning to ask them whether I could have any legal issues or be held liable
-bank said I'm in the clear and basically to tell him to fuk off
-yelp review detailing the instance is live:https://www.yelp.com/user_details?us...RlS5BBuj8sO3ow


Pic of the truck in question for your time

-bank said I'm in the clear and basically to tell him to fuk off

Not reading all that.

His cost is irrelevant - if the service or product you received is worthless, do not pay for it.

I would send him a bill for your time.

pics of the twinks?

The time is irrelevant if the job is that bad. You don’t tip for time, you tip for service.

I’d pay nothing and that would be that. Those kids should learn that if they want to make money they need to do the job right. They didn’t meet the expectations of service...

Pay nothing is the right thing to do IMO
Especially after all the initial threats... if it wasn’t for that, I’d give him the $1, but it’s the principle of the matter

Pay him nothing, and charge him the cost of returning your headlights to their original condition.

Then find someone competent to do the job and stop being so cheap.

that's why I include cliffs you intergalactic *******hm very viable option tbh. can you send a paypal invoice to be paid as a gift?agreed and lol'd when he tried to detail out how long they were there.they've already been fixed by another shop

All this over $130 job?

Brah save your hair and health and don't even think about it anymore.

If you feel generous and/or empathetic to the man with his shoddy business, send him $50, but holy mackerel what a lot of time and energy wasted over nothing.

Lol it's ridiculous isn't it?

I might have been generous if he'd started the convo a different way, but threatening me with an attorney eliminated any good will i might have had.

Was def stressed yesterday, but after speaking with my bank I'm no longer concerned at all. Mostly posted this to share with misc, and work is slow rn

- they were there too fukken long
- he should teach her stuff on their company time, he can’t expect you to pay for her training
- fukked up the whole job








- tried to invoice you for time, since he knows he can’t do it for service since you aren’t satisfied

That guys a clown, he’s a scammer 100%

Spoiler!

lmao i actually did a some digging last night after he first reached out. found his business insta, another biz insta, and his own personal insta. Does seem his son died at some point earlier in the year, how i responded to that after making sure was "Sorry about your son but that isn't my problem. Not that hard to send a simple text explaining your situation and I would have been much more understanding" callous, sure but IDGAF if you gonna make threats.

was also hilarious how he kept signing every text with "Happy New Year" and it would force my iPhone to do those animations lmao. imagine trying to be smug about ripping someone off with lies they can easily disprove lmao

What RTT you go with boyo?

asking the real questions

yeah your cliffs weren't great

I'm going to send you a $1 invoice, you can tip what you feel is appropriate for wasting my time

Block his contact and forget about him. Even delete this fukin thread. Life's to short to be stressing and worrying about random douchebags.

TuffStuff Ranger with Annex Roomwelp I'm always open to constructive criticism

Expect a payment of $1delete yourself bub

not srs. i'm not stressing anymore, was only doing so last night and this morning. now i just find it laughable that I was even worried.

I would opt to ghost him but also get a camera to watch your truck. He has that info and based off his personality and how he has been running things wouldn't put it past him to come fk your chit up, he knows where you work as well.

if the job was truly as pathetic as you say, don't pay. This guy sounds like he's running some sort of sweatshop/autoshop hybrid. I bet those teens were used because he can pay them min. wage (or less) and he probably skimped out on training them. Honestly wouldn't be surprised if they're victims of human trafficking and are being held against their will.

Def. Luckily we have cameras pointed directly at where I park every day at work. Also typing up a yelp review now pre-emptivelylmfao certainly plausible, though not sure i would lean towards that possibility. He is 100% either spread too thin, or offering services he can't provide. Either way...fix ur chit

Tbh as someone who does a self business side hustle I'd say just ignore him and move on. If someone was that unhappy with my service I'd be jumping thru hoops to make it right to avoid a bad review, and it didn't seem like they even needed to jump thru hoops. Even if this business was so busy and fully booked it could have easily been as simple as an employee or the owner (assuming this is a small business) doing an hour or two of overtime to come correct your truck and have a happy customer. Dude doesn't seem like he cares that much so why should you

Okay well that sucks about his son, but if I were in his shoes, I wouldn’t share something that personal with customers under any circumstances but that’s just according to my boundaries of what is and isn’t appropriate.

I think you know what to do brah

You expecting us to read all that?

[QUOTE=freeburn post_id=1626931303]Tbh as someone who does a self business side hustle I'd say just ignore him and move on. If someone was that unhappy with my service I'd be jumping thru hoops to make it right to avoid a bad review, and it didn't seem like they even needed to jump thru hoops. Even if this business was so busy and fully booked it could have easily been as simple as an employee or the owner (assuming this is a small business) doing an hour or two of overtime to come correct your truck and have a happy customer. Dude doesn't seem like he cares that much so why should you[/QUOTE]confirmed. All he needed to do to avoid a bad review was not say a cot dayum thing lmao. Now because of how he handled it, he's getting one. At this point I only care to let other people know my experience so they don't make the same mistake.

So if any of you live in SoCal, use Mobile Headlight Restoration Services at your own risk.

[QUOTE=exyl post_id=1626931403]Okay well that sucks about his son, but if I were in his shoes, I wouldn’t share something that personal with customers under any circumstances but that’s just according to my boundaries of what is and isn’t appropriate.

I think you know what to do brah

[img]https://i.imgur.com/2W2cmtC.gif[img][/QUOTE]also confirmed, lol @ angling for a pity paycheck

[QUOTE=Merovingian11 post_id=1626931413]You expecting us to read all that?[/QUOTE]only the miscers who can read

Calls 'em like I sees 'em.He's definitely up to no good. I have a sixth sense for these things.

Bend business owner over and fist him to assert dominance.

Lol. I’d send him a PayPal invoice for the damage to your truck.

there it islmao not gonna lie, would consider this if I didn't already get the money back.

Update: yelp review is live!

https://www.yelp.com/user_details?us...RlS5BBuj8sO3ow

LMAO at adding money to tip his workers.

First you already tipped them personally. Second they are HIS workers not YOUR workers, LMAO at him having the audacity to farm out his basic payroll duties to the general public. Third they did a chitty job, which is not tipworthy.

So take that option off and select any other option that costs you between $0 and $1. Personally I'd probably pay the $1 to close the business but w/e, he clearly doesn't have a leg to stand on so do whatever you feel.

But no tips OP, you hear me, NO FOOKIN TIPS or I swear on me mum's life I will come over there and hook you right in the gabber M8.