My Rights With a Car Shop?

[sptbkfn01]

What is the name of your state? Pennsylvania

Forgive me everyone, because this is a story, but I really truely need help and felt that someone on here should be able to assist or at least point me in the right direction. The shop that installed my clutch 2 days before I bought the car, totally messed the job up. Somehow, the flywheel came loose, there are missing bellhousing bolts, and one of the bolts got stripped, so they siliconed it in to look like it was there.

Before I go any fruther, here is some background information:
The company is named Tweekmods and is just a two-man operation out of one of the guy's personal garage located in Fredericksburg, PA. We have a mutual friend that recommended the former owener to this shop, but the friend didn't know how crappy their work was (he only knew them on a personal level).

When my mechanic found the issue, he called me immediately and told me that I needed to come and look at the car to see it for myself. When I got there, he was holding a bolt that was stripped, but had been siliconed into the bellhousing to make it look like it was there. I forgot to look how many bellhousing bolts were missing, but there were at least 3 missing. The transmission linkage on top of the transmission was about ready to fall off, and when he would put a prybar on the flywheel and wiggle it, you could hear and see the thing wobble a good 1/8 to 1/4 inch.

I called the owner and pointed this information out and all I was told was "thanks for letting me know. I don't personally do the mechanical - the other guy does." In about 3 minutes, he called back and said "I just talked to the other guy, and he said that he never touched the flywheel. He just did the clutch. Dave (our mutual friend) is the one that installed the flywheel a few years back. But thanks for letting us know so we can double check our work the next time before we give the vehicle back to the customer." I was thinking to myself that maybe they're right and the only thing I have is the bolts, but I still don't understand how you accidentally silicone a stripped bolt into the transmission without realizing it.

I proceded to call Dave, and tell him what was said and asked if he did indeed do the flywheel. He told me that:
1) Yes, the flywheel was done by someone else (not Dave) about 5 years ago, but there is no way a flywheel just comes loose instantly after working fine for 5 years.
2) He knows for a fact that they took the flywheel off to machine it or do some sort of work to it while they were putting in the new clutch.

Okay guys, for those of you that are still reading this is where it starts to get really good:
The owner of Tweekmods suprised Dave by telling him: "Prove I did anything. The service was a cash sale and was never recorded in the books. I don't give a f%#$ what is said, there is no proof. I wouldn't care if the original owner would have found the issue after we did the work. Once it leaves the shop, it can break down in the street in front of the shop, and I don't care. We got the money, and that's all that matters."

Dave called me back and said that mutual friend or not, here's what I need to do: Take extensive pictures when the transmission is being taken out (which I did and have them saved on my computer), email him the pictures and either give him the option to reimburse me the $508 it cost me for doing the job, or I will shut his business down.

The reasons that I can shut him down are:
1) They aren't registered with Pennsylvania as a legitimate business. When they filed the paperwork, they messed it up and never bothered to fix it. So Pa doesn't know they exist.

2) They don't claim taxes on any of the money the company makes.

3) They are doing this in a garage that is zoned residential and not commercial.

4) They are spraypainting cars without ventilation systems or paintbooths which is an EPA regulation.

Here's where the question comes into play. I would love to see nothing more than for this company to go under, but I also want my $508 back because that could be used towards many more useful things than fixing ignorance of someone else. Do I have any leg to stand on in small claims court? I'm guessing no since I don't have receipts or anything else. I was also told that it would take a few years to get the money even if I won and the legal expenses would exceed what I got back probably.

I emailed the owner in a professional manner a week ago, and he won't reply back. He thinks it's going to just blow over. My friend that I got the car from said hat he would be willing to go to court, but my mechanic said that he wants nothing to do with it, and I want to keep him out of it because he is a good friend of mine.

Please help me. If you would have additional questions, feel free to ask and I'll respond.

Thank you,
Ryan

No matter how this turns out, whether he gives me the money back or not, I think I'm going to proceed to shut him down because nobody deserves to have customer service that horrible. I am a management major and the way he handled the entire situation is just uncalled for.

So, once again, I would like to apologize for the bible-length post. I would also like to ask you to spread the news that Tweekmods in PA are not worth going to. I know that many of you don't live in the area, but he relies heavily on internet customers, so please help spread the word.