well..i have a bit of a problem...tell me what ya think about it...am i over reacting to this or what?..sit down and grab a cup of coffee on this one lol
well it started about a month ago...i ran out of gas and evidently sucked up alot of trash and water into my carbs , it ran like crap and would not go faster than 3-4 knots .....well my usual trusted mobile mechanic got hired at a dealership and no longer does mobile work....since my motor is a 1990 and has a nada value of $500
..i didnt want to pay dealer prices for the same guy that has worked on my motors in the past at prob half the price a dealer would charge, he would charge me $75 an hour for mobile service...and i never had to pay him for more than one hour + parts for the small problems i've had
so i found this other mobile mechanic from a recommendation on another local fishing forum that said this about the new guy... " *** is the best "handyman" I have ever met. He is cheaper then most and best of all he shows up when he says he will.....that's huge in my book. ".......so i was like great.."this sounds like a good mechanic!..i'll call him"
well i give him a call and he sounds like a professional guy , pencils me in on his "schedule" for 2 days later, thursday at 11am......thursday 11am comes...no mechanic , so i call him up....."oh man..sorry about this i'm on a job and will head right over to your place when i'm done".......hey no problem..i understand things happen...4 hours later he shows up(i had to call in work and take off to be there since i work nights)...i explain to him my problem and ask if he could do a compression check while he was at it...he does that and then checks the spark....then says...."i think your fuel pump needs to be rebuilt, its probably full of trash, and if that isn't it you might have to rebuild your carbs and one of your ignition coils is bad".....ok... this is without even trying to start the motor at ALL...only thing we had done is turn over the key for compression checks and spark test....he then removes 4 screws and disconnects the hoses from my fuel pump and puts it in a ziploc bag...packs up his tools and says "that will be $50 for labor...i dont have the parts so i'll bring the pump home and rebuild it, and i have a used ignition coil i'll give you" and that when he is done could i trailer my boat to portsmouth to the boat ramp next to his shop so we could drop it in the water. well portsmouth is a 20 min drive for me , so i tell him...." well could you come to boat ramp close to my house at willoughby marina? " ...at this point i'm thinking the whole point in a "mobile" mechanic is that they come to YOU..right??..he is like "sure" , i write out his $50 check..this is around jan 15th....
a couple days pass i call him..he says he has the rebuild kit , so we set a day..that day comes and he dont show up at all...wait a couple hours and call him..."can we reschedule?" ....sure.. no prob....well this goes on for the next 20+ days of him saying he's gonna be here and he dont show up and trying to get me to trailer to his shop....many phone calls and atleast 6 "scheduled" appointments later...same thing...more excuses and no shows!!!!!
i called him this monday and say "are you gonna fix this or what?"...he says his same sorry's and then says tuesday ...FOR SURE!!.......tuesday comes..no show AGAIN!!!...by now i'm about to blow a blood vessel lol so i call him last night and he promises me that he will be here today at 11am...i then tell him to be sure its 11am because i go to work at 2pm....he says he will be there
.......2pm today i go to work with another no show
....about 4pm i get a call...its him calling to tell me that he came by the house and put the pump on and the used ignition coil and ran it on the hose and that it runs ok but i prob need to rebuild or atleast clean my carbs and that we need to get together on a day/time to drop it in the water......so i ask him how much i owe him.....and he says $125...$25 for the fuel pump kit and 2 hours of labor......at that point i'm thinking to myself "YEA RIGHT!! 2hours labor my AZZ!"....when i get home tonight at 10:30pm i get my flashlight and go out to my motor and look at it.....i see the old coil on my seat.....i pull the cowling off and look at the fuel pump....there are 2 gaskets i can see on it and the both have MY ENGINE paint on them.....shouldnt gaskets have been replaced in a rebuild kit for a pump???? or am i mistaken??...these are definetly NOT new gaskets....
after all this crap...am i suppose to trust him that he actually spent 2 hours on my motor while i wasnt there? AND trust him that he actually put a new kit on my pump?... another point of me wanting to hire mobile mechanic's is that i want to learn how to work on my engines....i wanted to be there to watch and learn while they fix things....so i dont have to spend alot of money on things that i can fix if i seen it done ...he's knows darn well that i wanted to be there when he came over.
so here's what i'm thinking... if i determine that it was actually a new kit..give him $40 for the new pump kit and his used coil and $50 for 1 hour of labor and never call this guy again and make sure whenever his name comes up on any forum , send the person asking for recommendations a link to this post or blast him in public.........i think i have been pretty patient and gave him plenty of chances....but he has wasted almost a MONTH of prime trophy catfish season , since he had my fuel pump and i couldnt bring it to another mechanic without it.
so $90 and then tell him to pi$$ off? or tell him that he owes ME... $125 for pain and suffering for his lies and lost fishing time? lol
my mobile mechanic fiasco.... 
