Considering Small Claims Court

[Cheryl3700]

What is the name of your state? MA

This is a long story that I'm going to try to shorten. Bought a used car in MA, dealer had to fix a check engine light, a wheel bearing and he put 2 new tires on back. OK, car is ready, dealer refuses to let us test drive it, says he doesn't have a plate and will not allow us to drive it with our temp NH plate. We buy the car, figure we are ok because we have a 60 day 2,500 mile warranty. 10 min later the check engine light comes back on, we return the car to the dealer - he keeps it 2 days, returns the car but flat out refuses to give us a receipt of the repair which he claims was a faulty wire to the part they replaced the first time. I asked 3 different times for any paperwork, still I got nothing.

Within 3 days the breaks start to squeak loudly, and our mechanic noticed the right rear tire is not right, that is the one which had the wheel bearing replaced by the dealer. Turns out the wheel bearing is bad and the dealer had put brand new pads on old worn out rotors which is why they were squeaking.

We did not want to bring the car back to that dealer as he has now messed up 2 repairs and refused to give any receipt for the prior repairs. We had our mechanic fix the breaks and wheel bearing and filed a 30-day demand letter to them.

They have responded with a few lies and stated by the warranty law we were suppose to bring the car to him and offered us no money.

Do you feel we are within our right to seek any $ from the dealer? We would be happy if he simply covered the cost of the bad wheel bearing job.

Thanks... Cheryl

 

[seniorjudge]

Cheryl, go to small claims and take your best shot.

You have about a 50-50 chance, more or less, of winning.

Of course, collecting on a small claims judgment is a nightmare.

 

[Cheryl3700]

Additional Info

We found the following 2 MA Consumer Protection Act regulations;

940 CMR 5:02 paragraph (9)
“It is an unfair or deceptive act or practice for a motor vehicle dealer or manufacturer to make any representation or statement of fact in an advertisement if the dealer or manufacturer knows or should know that the representation or statement is false or misleading or if the dealer or manufacturer does not have sufficient information upon which a reasonable belief in the truth of the representation or statement could be based.

940 CMR 5.05 paragraph (9)
(9) It is an unfair or deceptive act or practice for a repair shop to fail to provide to a customer, at the completion of the repair work performed on the customer's vehicle, including warranty repair work, a dated written bill containing the following information:
(a) The name and address of the customer and the repair shop;
(b) The date the customer's vehicle was delivered to the repair shop;
(c) The year, make and registration number of the customer's vehicle and the odometer reading of the vehicle on the date it was delivered to the repair shop;
(d) An itemized list of the repairs performed on the customer's vehicle;
(e) A list of the parts supplied to the customer by name and number, the price charged to the customer for each such part, and the total amount charged to the customer for parts;
(f) If any part supplied was not new, a statement as to whether it was used, reconditioned or rebuilt;
(g) The number of hours of labor charged for the repair work, a designation of such hours as actual hours worked or flat rate hours, the price charged to the customer for each such hour and the total amount charged to the customer for labor; and
(h) The total amount charged to the customer for parts and labor.
If the price charged to the customer for the repair work is a flat charge for the particular repair which was included in a schedule of charges posted in a clear and conspicuous manner on the premises of the repair shop at the time the vehicle was delivered, the repair shop need not list the price of each part supplied, the number of hours charged or the charge for each hour of labor.

We cited these two in our 30-day demand letter. The dealer has responded to us by a phone call in which he proceeded to call us names and vulgar swears - we hung up on him after 10 minutes of failure to get him to speak to us calmly. This was followed by a letter in which he proceeded to state many lies and offered no $.

We ran across this: Per MA Consumer affairs and Business Regulations: “The Court may also find that the merchant’s violation of the Consumer Protection Act was "willful or knowing," or that the merchant’s refusal to settle with you was made in bad faith. In either case, you may receive between two and three times the amount of your actual damages, or $25, whichever is greater.”

After 30-days pass, MA allows us to file in small claims court. We will do so, we have nothing to loose.

Thanks! Cheryl