Fair Go: Hot rod dreams turn to smoke as car waits at garage to be certified

Hot rod dreams turned to smoke for one Upper Hutt couple who claim they’re getting the run around from their mechanic.

The road to petrolhead heaven can be a bit like the proverbial road to hell - paved with good intentions. 

Ian and Linda Worrall have had a rough ride on that road, trying to get their hot rod rebuilt.

“It’s quite disappointing,” Ian told Fair Go. “You put your trust in these people, you pay them money and expect an outcome, and it's not there.”

In their case good intentions and poor communication have led to a long pitstop for their beloved T bucket.

Problem one was their kitset car based on a 1923 Ford Model T needed to be certified. The place they found in Lower Hutt had their car for two years and they paid the firm over $22,000 in installments, only to find little had been done.

Linda learned of in a panicked call in the middle of the day at work: “You need to get a truck and come and get your vehicle now, because the liquidators are moving in and they won’t let it leave.”

The Worralls only just got the car back and it was in pieces, like their shattered trust.

Another mechanic looked it over and offered by email to take it on - $5000 to $6000 and the hot rod would be returned to them fully certified. They paid $3000 up front and waved goodbye to their car.

“He said it would probably take him six to eight months,” Ian recalled. That part was verbal. 

The project stretched out longer. That suited all parties: the Worrall’s had a health scare and money was tight. They finished paying and expected after two years the project would wrap up soon.

As time passed the emails were more erratic, phone calls too. The Worralls feared the worst, again. 

“It was going to be ready Christmas 2017... it was going to be ready Christmas 2018...and here we are,” Ian recounted.

By January, they’d gone nearly six months with zero reply from the mechanic.

When Fair Go called on the garage, it was open, bustling even; a good sign.

The Worrall’s T bucket was there – a bit dusty - but not completely in pieces.

The mechanic was very insistent that he was not about to become the bad guy in a Fair Go story. 

We hear that a lot. Actions speak louder. Thankfully, this time, there was action, quick-smart.

The mechanic ramped up work and found over 70 hours of skilled labour to put the project into overdrive. He was emailing regular updates with photos and the customers could feel that trust return.

He even offered to give them back their money until he’d completed the job as planned and then take payment.

For all those reasons and more, Fair Go has decided this is one occasion where we don’t need to name and shame a business.

But the lessons are clear. Don’t over-promise and under-deliver. Make sure you have some sort of written understanding between the business and customer from the get-go and for heaven’s sake, if you can’t keep up, front up and talk it over.

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