It’s important to keep a car’s ‘vehicle health’ in check, but that would be at the discretion of the owner, not a mechanic. However, one California auto shop owner didn’t seem to understand that he did some “repairs” to a car he was supposed to be doing a basic oil change on. According to Reddit user Zion01_Archive, when he walked back to the shop to pick up his car after the oil change, the service manager was waiting for him with an invoice for $2,180.
$2,180 for an oil change sounds outrageous, but that’s not why it cost that much. Zion says that the mechanic, with a “straight face,” said he noticed some problems with the car and replaced everything he felt was proper. The issue here is that this mechanic did this without any authorization from the owner, written or verbal, aside from an $80 oil change.
“I never received a single phone call, voicemail, or text message asking for my consent,” said Zion. Naturally, he refused to pay for something he didn’t approve, but the mechanic wouldn’t back down from his entitled extra $2,100. “When I told him I did not approve this work and could only pay the $80 estimate, he refused to give me my keys.” The mechanic then allegedly threatens Zion, saying that he would charge him $65 a day as a “storage fee” until the total $2,100 had been paid.
For anyone who would say they’d call the police, Zion got right on that and called the local non-emergency police line for help. To his dismay, the responding officer said that this was a “civil matter” and refused to help get the owner’s keys back. Confused and frustrated, Zion brought this issue to Reddit, where everyone had the same opinion.
“In California, this is a massive BAR violation. They are screwed,” remarked a commenter, and plenty of others agreed. The “California Automotive Repair Act is extremely clear about written authorization,” explains another user, urging OP to take things up with BAR to get the mechanic to cooperate.
“If you steal from a business, it’s a criminal matter. If a business steals from you, it’s a civil matter,” sighed a third. At the very least, for Zion, as a fourth Redditor put it, “Be glad you live in a state with strong consumer protections.”
