06/30/2026
So I need to get serious for a moment on a growing situation in our area. There seems to be a growing community of random people that think they can approve work to be done and then turn around and try to blackmail and stop payments on credit cards. I have heard it from other businesses in the area as well. I get that we have more than a few fraudulant repair shops around our area. People get sucked in by the lower hourly rate, just to end up with poor repair work or being charged a lot more hours than they should. This causes their bill to be higher than a reputable shop would have been. I get that it leaves a feeling of extremely poor faith in the next shop you try. Rest assured...reputable shops DO EXIST! You know by their majority good reviews and by the awards they have won. (Patting our crew on the back right now as they have won multiple local, and national awards for their work and honesty and have great reviews.) So when a new customer that has work done and then has unrelated future issues, comes back and says they want to talk to the owner about a...quote: "refund for the work already done or they will stop payment on the credit card and write bad reviews"...they need to understand this is illegal and can lead them to getting a felony charge. Stopping payment on a credit card when the agreed upon work is completed can get you in a lot of trouble with the credit card company as well. Once the credit card company confirms you did owe the money, they can immediately deactivate your credit card, ask for immediate full payment on the card, deactivate all checking and savings accounts that you have with them, and associated banks, AND put you on a banking blacklist for 5 years. Blackmailing someone by demanding a refund to not put out bad reviews will also get you to a felony charge by stating you want money in return for NOT giving bad reviews. So please stop before you get yourself in real trouble with the Federal and State authorities. To the people who want to find a reputable shop, please give us a look. We make sure we are honest at the front end instead of charging more in labor, time, or parts markup and pretending we are doing you a favor by giving part of the money back if the repair is not completed as agreed upon. Be aware, be vigilant and ask around. Let's do better at the conversation and not at blackmail and extortion tactics before even talking to people. In the end, it isn't going to work out very well for the accuser. Unfortunately, we had a customer that tried this and failed. We haven't pressed charges as I don't think they realized what they were doing and I don't think it would be in anyone's best interest to persue further and ruining their life and credit. We can all be better if we start talking to each other and having faith in human kind. Long op-ed over. I truly hope everyone can learn from this and strive to be a better community. These are stressful times and we need to be able to lean on each other, not create more enemies within. We have great return customers that we appreciate more than they know. Building these great relationships has benefited both sides. Take care...perform random acts of kindness...and keep hope alive.
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