Question about independent shops - Did I get ripped off?

[drewman75]

Understood. I know I was naive. He was recommended, so I let my guard down. Funny enough, it was by local PCA enthusiasts since I am a PCA member and he is actually listed on their site as one of the local experts. Won't happen again.

JFP, I certainly understand your point. My brother in law owned a shop for many many years. So I get the business side of it. My main issue was with the increased estimate and final cost AFTER he had my car, I was home and he knew he had me. I agreed to the original estimate. What was I supposed to do when he calls me, has my car apart and tells me the new $1000 extra estimate? Tell him no and then have no idea what the heck he might do to the car or leave unfinished or subpar? There was nothing additional added to the work order for that increase. And had he quoted me that at the shop, I would never have agreed to it. Regrettably, I made the poor decision to hitch a ride home from him after dropping the car. And I highly suspect I got the 'nice neighborhood' adjustment if you know what I mean. How else can you explain the initial estimate of $2200 jumping to a final bill of $3500. He's been doing this 30 years and probably knows part prices and how much a job will cost like the back of his hand. I suspect he was going to charge me honest and then after driving me home, he saw an opportunity to mark me up and make a nice tidy profit because I was a newbie. Hard and very expensive lesson learned. Which is a shame because the reason I got the car is because my little boy has recently become obsessed with cars and it's a nice thing for us to spend some time on weekends taking drives. But now that I just spent about 30% of the cost of the car on this service, I am looking at having to likely let it go to try to recoup as much money as I can since this puts me in a huge hole.

Anyway, the point of the post wasn't to argue with other shop owners. I was just trying to see if this was standard practice. But ALSO to warn other newer owners who are debating the indy versus dealer question to not make the same mistake I made. To make sure they ask the right questions. And to walk away and not get hosed by scare tactics like I did when my car was on the lift.