Glad ya got it back; now file a complaint with your BBB, as well as seeing if there have been any other complaints filed against them.

After you file the complaint with BBB, make an anonymous call to INS!

Like my father taught me "Don't get mad, get even!"

I still don't see what your complaint is..
They didn't do any work to it, other than charge you $40 for the teardown.

They *might* have been trying to rip you off with the "requires welding" / leaks / blah blah.. But you won't know for sure until you take it to another shop.

Want to file a BBB complaint, get their cost estimate in writing and then take it to another shop. When the "other" shop says that it's fine - they you can complain. Until then, you're making a guess - and you're probably right - that they were upcharging you on a head for work you didn't need... Without some opinion from another shop, I don't know what good that guess is going to do you.

Oh yea.. Expect the "we were talking about another customer's head" excuse also.

I took my head in to be rebuilt a couple of days ago.

• No Deposit Required (people trust people around here)
  Less than 24hr Turnaround
  Very Reasonable Price

Caution! Political polemic follows:

I'm in Wisconsin where most such transactions are done with a handshake and promises are kept. When I lived in Costal California, more than ten years ago, I ran into a lot of what you describe. Face it, where you live you're at the disintegrating edge of Post Modern America. Sadly, what ever happens in California happens in the rest of the country sooner or later. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/barf.gif" alt="" /> -- Matt

Dcq,
You're exactly right. Shortly after I got the head home, I thought about all. It was only an attempt. But it also came with delays in communication. It cost me over a week's time. As my first post probably indicated, I was venting. Trust in this business is everything. It just pissed me off and I wanted to warn others.

Man, I totally agree with you.. Understand that I wasn't claiming that it was an ethical business *at all* and I'm happy to see you reporting it here as you should locally if you've got any appropriate forums for your neck of the woods.

I don't like it when things I'm working on get delayed, but sure enough - as soon as I'm dependent upon a part, I'm guaranteed not to get it on time...

Machine shops around my neck of the woods had a backlog term of months. Eventually I found a local guy about 10 miles from my house that retired as a machinist. He does all my work for me - he costs a little more, but I know he's being straight with me and I get all my machine work done on time, give or take a day...

Good,trustworthly shop in the SoCal area!!!!!

http://yotamasters.com/