Scotty,

I'm a long time viewer of your channel and can't begin to thank you for the years upon years you have spent taking the time to explain issues with cars and trucks. The following is something that I am sure you have heard before over your decades of experience. I'm hoping you can give me some advice on what to do. I apologize for the length.

3 years ago I purchased a 1995 Lexus Sc300 with the 2JZGE engine and automatic trans. The person that I bought the car from was in his early 20s and admitted he was in over his head. At the time I was working 12+ hour days following hurricanes that destroyed a good portion of our state. My job at the time sent company vehicles to a local garage (Chevy and Ford authorized repair centers were closed due to hurricane and the next closest were 2 hours away in Houston) for maintenance work and damage repair from the hurricanes. After the first company vehicle was fixed, the local garage offered any employee to bring in their personal vehicles.

At this point in time, I had been informed by the previous owner that my car had been sitting for over 6 years and the fuel had gone bad. I tested and found that the fuel pump had failed. I dropped off my vehicle at the garage and requested the following:
Removal and cleaning of gas tank.
Clean out entire fuel system.
Replace failed fuel pump.

This started a 3 year adventure which has included the following:
First time at garage - informed by garage that fuel pump needs to be replaced. Per my request - gas tank will be removed and cleaned, entire fuel system be cleaned out, fuel pump replaced and tested. This was literally written on the work order. After picking up my vehicle, it made it almost a mile from the business before dying.

Second time at garage - informed by garage the replacement fuel pump failed. Thinking this was due to defective fuel pumps from a parts house, I requested the OEM Toyota Denso fuel pump. I watched as the garage found, ordered and charged me for the correct fuel pump for my vehicle. After picking up my vehicle, it made it down the road 1.5 miles before dying.

Third time at garage - informed by garage the Denso fuel pump had failed and it would be a warranty part replacement. After picking up my vehicle, it made it down the road 1.7 miles before dying.

Fourth time at garage - while speaking with the front office employee, the "mechanic" mentioned that not only had he not cleaned out the fuel system following the written agreement from the 1st visit. But that he replaced the fuel pump with a local auto parts store fuel pump because the auto parts store was 5 minutes away and followed that with using a can of seafoam in my vehicle which he ran at high idle for over 30 minutes. Unfortunately this went on over a period of days with the lights left on and door left open which caused the battery in my vehicle to die (battery was 2 weeks old) and required a jump start of my car. When I asked if they had seen instances of OEM parts failing, the front office employee stated:

"What's this box marked Toyota Denso that has been sitting by my desk for 3 months?"

I went outside, opened the trunk of my vehicle, removed the fuel pump that had failed, and brought it inside. The "mechanic", in front of the owner of the garage, the office employees and customer's became very nervous after I asked:

"Since when does auto parts store make fuel pumps for Denso?"

Realizing I worked for the company that had brought them business following the hurricanes, he attempted to explain that "all fuel pumps are the same" and that he had charged me for the Denso part but never installed it. Scotty, as I'm sure you and many other people are aware, their can be massive differences in the reliability of OEM parts versus auto store parts.

Because of the constant back and forth involving failed parts, I wanted a second opinion and had my vehicle towed to the local Toyota dealership. I was contacted 2 days later by the service manager of Toyota and asked to come down in person. After arriving, I was informed that the entire fuel system and engine were full of varnish. The damage done required Toyota disassembling the engine and clean out the entire fuel system before they would touch anything else. I was asked if previous garage had replaced the fuel pump and after stating yes, the Toyota dealership informed me that the fuel pump in my vehicle was put in incorrectly and cross referenced to a Ford Taurus SHO, while they both are 6 cylinder engines, the Denso part functioned differently than the Ford Taurus part.

I was shown what was removed from my engine which had completely gunked up the injectors, sensors, engine and more. I was also asked by the Toyota dealership if someone had recently jump started my vehicle. I explained the shop that had it prior did jump it and asked why. The service manager and Toyota master mechanic explained:

"Due to your vehicle being jumped incorrectly the ECU suffered damaged capacitors and would need to be sent out to be repaired (recapped) since Toyota does not have any replacements. Until that is done the vehicle will run for limited time in Park and Neutral before dying."

While searching for a company able to repair the damaged capacitors on the ECU, I had my vehicle towed back home and stopped by the garage dropping off the Toyota bill where I was told I would be reimbursed for damages, towing and all.

Following the second attempt to fix my fuel pump at this garage, I dropped off my company's mid 2000's Ford f-250 with the v10 engine. This Ford truck was in for a full tuneup, checkup and suspension, steering and brake work. After being picked up by my coworker and I, on the way back to work from the garage (a 5 mile drive) the truck suffered a transmission failure due to low transmission fluid, and nearly hit multiple cars while barely running into an off ramp girder. The Ford truck was towed back to the garage in question where it was discovered that the garage did not reinstall steering, suspension and brake components as well as not checking fluid levels before returning it for company use.

The garage did not admit this until after being towed from my company to the garage 5 times, and attempted to blame this on:
Brake rotor failing.
Disc brake failing.
Brake pads failing.
Suspension bushings failing.
Steering bushings failing.
They did not fess up that fluid levels were not checked, suspension, steering and brake parts weren't reinstalled until refinery management and insurance got involved. It was then discovered that other than this Ford truck and my vehicle, another refinery vehicle was made inoperable as well as the vehicles of 14 customer's and company employees following the hurricanes due to either negligence of laziness.

One day after the Ford truck suffered the transmission failure and was towed by my company back to the garage, I had my vehicle towed from the dealership to my home. While at the garage, I was notified that the owner sold the franchise. While dealing with the possibility of losing the contract from my company, my boss, coworker and I were informed by the front office employee that the "mechanic" is not a mechanic but a salesman who borrowed the shop mechanic's ASE certified work shirt on multiple occasions pretending to be a mechanic to drum up business. When it was realized by the "mechanic" and office staff that they were potentially on the hook for a liability lawsuit as well as fraud, they scrambled to resolve the situation. Unfortunately, the "mechanic" decided it would be a good idea to grab my keys and attempt to charge me for the last fuel pump cost. Upon being told those were the keys for the Ford truck which they did not fix, I left the garage and contacted the DA of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The DA attempted to mediate wherein the garage admitted fault, admitted breach of contract, fraud (charging for a part that was never installed and pocketing the extra money) and was forced to refund the cost of the 1st fuel pump replacement. The DA informed me they could not force the full reimbursement, they are only able to mediate and I would need a lawyer for that to be done. I noticed the charge for the Denso fuel pump was never refunded and contacted the new shop owner regarding this. The new shop owner fully refunded that charge 7 months later.

I looked for a lawyer to resolve this for a period of 11 months. Any lawyer that spoke with me, informed me that getting to court would exceed the value of the car and it would not be worth it, which is why some garages get away with this kind of thing.

I was prepared to let this go, however recently while in line at a store I ran into the "mechanic" where he asked how my vehicle was running. I explained that due to his incompetence my vehicle was effectively a paperweight and I was never reimbursed for the damages he caused which led to the loss of my job since I couldn't be on call with an inoperable vehicle. Due to being in public and potential customer's witnessing this and him still wearing the business shirt, he promised to reimburse me asap. I made a google review outlying this entire thing.

Two days later, on my google review I was asked to contact the new shop owner who initially seemed like he wanted to resolve this. I explained every thing that had occurred, including the dates and times, the breach of contract, the fuel pumps, the towing bills, the fraud, the damaged ECU due to not jump starting a car the correct way, the dealership damages, etc. The new owner admitted he was not aware of this and was told a different story by the "mechanic." I offered to stop one of his 4 franchises in the area and drop off every single bill and work order up to that point of which the "mechanic" had gotten wrong. I was told that since this happened before he brought the franchise he would have old shop owner contact me.

30 minutes later I was contacted by the old owner of the shop and asked what happened, I again reiterated the damage done and he responded by saying this was resolved because he refunded the charge of the first auto parts store fuel pump. I specified:

"The car does not run, your mechanic breached a written contract and committed fraud, the agreement from day 1 was to reimburse for the damages."

The old shop owner responded saying that I refused work being done on my vehicle (cleaning out the fuel system) to the tune of over $1000. I informed him:

"That was the cost of the Toyota bill fixing what your mechanic damaged, look at the name of the dealership on the top of that bill. The only thing that your mechanic had done to this point was to charge me for 1 can of seafoam, 5 gallons of gas and the cost of 2 fuel pumps, one of which was never installed and he pocketed the difference."

I asked if he had copies of the work orders to prove that I refused repairs and was informed that when he sold the business he removed and threw away the computer system and he did not have any records. I offered to give him (once again) my records and was told that was not necessary, he would contact his bank and make this right. As you can guess, this was another attempt at a run around. 3 days later, I called the old owner of the shop where he proceeded to argue with me over the damages done and said:

"I sold the business, it is no longer my problem, talk to the new owner and mechanic, go f yourself."

Since the google review was still up, the new owner contacted me again and asked for me to remove it. I informed him that since my vehicle does not run that is not going to happen anytime soon. He asked what I wanted and I said:

"For the damages your salesman caused to be reimbursed."

I was told that the new owner is no longer involved and it is now between myself and the mechanic. I again sent the Toyota bill to the garage and days later spoke with the "mechanic". I was informed:

"I'll see you in court and with my years of experience as a salesman, I will win any case against any Toyota master mechanic in the country."

I swear this is not a movie script or a lie, this "salesman" is actually this stupid.

Unfortunately due to the car not being in running condition, even though I have a clean bill of health regarding the drive train and work which Toyota did, it is near impossible to sell and I am not able to part the vehicle out. Is their some sort of ASE certification board that can discipline the garage and mechanic or is this just one of those things that happens and it's best to move on from?