The Big Rip Off

Here's one of life's lessons for you young folks. I'm living proof that we are all ripe fodder for rip off artists.

Last week I got a call from John King to say that the bearings on one of the wheels on our big Weed King trailer had burned out and he was disabled by the side of the road. John is very resourceful and with that and luck he got it back to our yard where we keep the trucks. He talked to a clerk at Arizona Safety House and was reccommended a place in Glendale on Montebello called Arizona Axle Products. He called and they said that if he could get it to them they'd look at it. John got it there and told them what we needed repaired. They said it would be around $300. They called back later and told us all the dire other things that were wrong with the trailer, intimating that if we didn't repair that stuff also the trailer would surely crash and burn. John told them to give us a price on the other stuff before doing anything.

When John didn't hear from them he called back and they informed him they were finishing up and the total price would be $900. The justification was that it "needed to be done". I went with John to pick the trailer up and the owner of the shop did not care that he had done unauthorized work. I offered to pay for the initial $300 worth of work and for all the parts from the other work but felt I wasn't responsible for the labor on work that wasn't authorized. The man wouldn't budge. Now at this point the trailer was hooked to our truck and we could have easily turned and drove away. But, it was the wrong thing to do so I didn't do it. Instead, I paid the jerk with a credit card. I did this because I knew you can call the credit card company and dispute a charge and that is exactly what I did. It is in process and I'll let you know the outcome.

Now here is the kicker. We drove the trailer back and within two miles of leaving Arizona Axle Products the trailer starting squealing. By the time we got the five miles to the yard the new hub that cost the $300 was so hot you couldn't touch it. We had another trailer repair place send out a guy and he spent an hour and a half adjusting everything the other guys had done. They had slapped the hardware on but didn't calibrate any of it. He said the reason the one hub was so hot was because out of the four electric brakes on the trailer it was the only one stopping it. So we not only got ripped off but with shoddy work to boot.

So, what's the lesson learned. First don't pay cash. You won't get it back. Second, I suppose you cannot emphasize enough that you will only pay for authorized work. The attitude of the vendor that the work "needed to be done" doesn't justify doing unauthorized work. Just because I need a haircut doesn't mean the Steve the Barber can start cutting without my permission. Sometimes recommendations don't do the trick. Better to get recommendations from people you know.

So even old dogs get tricked sometimes.