legal assistance for hostage refund

[leftyguns21]

sorry for long thread, figured the background story will help with my question. short story. i am attempting to get a refund from a shop that did not provide service. they will only issue this, if i promise to not leave negative reviews.

full story
i wanted to get a clear bra and my windows tinted for my new GX. i found a shop close to my house that happened to also be the cheapest. i got what i paid for. they did an absolutely horrible job, especially on the clear bra. they told me they would wrap in 1 piece they wrapped in 6 pieces. there was several gaps, it looked like a 2 year old cut it. non straight lines, the pieces did not even line up. the tint has specs in it and the corner was cut on drivers door. the other windows the tint is pulling up from the bottom. i had to smash it back down. i took it back and they re-did the clear bra. but again in 6 pieces. slightly smaller gaps but I still have them and still not happy with it. the owner guy told me they have fired 2 installers due to bad work, including the one who did my clear bar. because of my time wasted they gave me $100 credit to use on something else. stupid me i used them for something else. while still trying to get my clear bra fixed i ordered red vinyl wrapping from another company (I paid $60)for my taillights and used the $100 credit for the labor. at no point did they say they do not install customer owned parts and had no issues with the install. this is where it gets bad. again they did a horrendous job. the very next day it started peeling up on each corner. i contacted the company i got the wrap from and he knew right away, it was due to bad install. even the shop admits it was done incorrectly. they didn't get the water out and did not wrap fully around the edges. they went to the edge and cut it. i went back and the "owner" told me he would redo it. i can either order the wrap again myself, out of my pocket, or he can. i said you order it but make sure its the right color. 4 weeks have gone by and nothing. every time i called to get a status i was put on hold for 15+ mins and i just had to hang up. today i got sick of it and drove in. the owner was there again. i told him just give me a refund for the vinyl they ruined, $60, and i will go elsewhere to get it done. he claimed hes been searching every where for the color with no luck. how a shop claiming they do vinyl wraps has a hard time finding red is beyond me but whatever. he said fine hell refund me the money i paid for the vinyl, while he is doing whatever on his computer i told him i took my car to another shop to get a 2nd opinion on the clear bra install too. the other shop literally laughed at their work and said there is no way the car would have ever left their shop looking like that. this apparently set him off. he stopped doing what he was and told me to leave his shop. i said no, i want my refund for your crappy work since you aren't going to fix it. he went and looked at my car again, he had no come back to why they used so many pieces and knows they did a bad job on the lights. i said you guys need to redo it or give me a refund. he continued with no and "sometimes you just have to cut your loss and deal with bad customers". more talking about how bad their customer service is and how i am about to leave negative reviews every where. he then says he will give me a refund for the taillights ONLY if i sign a legal document stating i will not leave any bad reviews but he wont do anything about the clear bra. at this point i walked out.

how can a company hold your refund hostage with the threat of negative feedback? what legal action do i have?

btw, if you are in Denver area, stay the F away from tint my ride on Parker road. the 3 times i have been to the shop for work, my car wasn't the only one they messed up.

 

[BikeDestroyer]

Did you pay with credit card? If so I’d file a complaint with the credit card company and have them help you with the refund.

 

[CdaleR4000si]

^^^This! Definitely dispute the charges if paid by credit card.
If he does not make it right, I am not sure exactly how much money you have riding on this, but given the owner's horrible attitude, I would be inclined to eat the loss and put him on absolute blast. Post negative reviews, including all of the details and even pictures of the crappy work, on every site that he has his shop listed.

 

[leftyguns21]

i paid with a credit card for the clear bra, but it was back in march. and that account has since been closed.

for the vinyl i used their credit to cover the labor and purchased the vinyl from another company.

i reached out to BBB and going to file a complaint with the FTC as well.

 

[wadle5]

Yeah I would definitely just light up there business pages across all social media platforms. Also with that in mind. . . .what was the company????

 

[eyerolleddapiece]

Yeah I would definitely just light up there business pages across all social media platforms. Also with that in mind. . . .what was the company????

He said it above. Tint my ride in Denver I think.

 

[leftyguns21]

Finally!!!

update.
i tried to do a charge back, but the bank has a time frame of when you can request one and i was passed it. so i again tried to go back to the shop and ask for a refund and again i was told no. i finally decided to file a complaint with BBB, if anything they would at least have a ding on their record and that would hurt the business. BBB took my complaint and sent it to the business. 5 weeks of waiting on a response from them, they finally responded and asked me to come back in to the shop so they can take a look at it.....again.

First thing they asked me when I showed up, if i will call BBB and remove the complaint. no apologies or anything else. 2nd thing, they offered me 50% refund if i kept the clear bra on and removed the complaint. he said they will attempt to "straighten the jagged/pealing edges" and "its still protecting" and its a "win win" for both of us. not sure how its a win for me. i politely declined and asked him to remove it fully and give me a full refund. i had already removed the vinyl on my taillights. they ended up removing the clear bra today and issued me a refund. once it clears my bank i will advise the BBB

They kept trying to tell me they have great customer service and want to resolve everything and make customers happy. the guy who did both installs (since they tried twice) was fired and i was just "unlucky". i told them they weren't helping me at all until i called BBB. if they had just taken care of it months ago neither of us would be in this situation and i might have considered the partial refund. i am so relieved to get this over with and not have to look at that horrible clear bra any longer.

i have an appointment with another shop on Jan 2nd. the shop did my other car so i know their work and trust them. they are $200 more, this is what i get for trying to save a few bucks.

 

[leftyguns21]

new update

this company is awful and now they are harassing me. I left a 1 star review on yelp with all truthful facts along with pictures as part of my review, back in December.
its been 7 months now and I just got a message from them on yelp "Please delete this review as we have reviewed it with our lawyers, you have 30 days. We will be taking legal action if the review is not taken down, we have evidence that the work you claim we did was never done by our shop"

He knows exactly who I am cause I worked with him and his dad. He is the one who tried to bribe me, saying he will only refund me if I sign a document promising to not leave a bad review. I replied back and said it was 100% done by your shop. I have the proof it was done there including the BBB complaint info.

he replied "See you in court"

I have already contacted yelp legal counsel, I am pretty sure I am protected and he is trying to bully me since he is losing business. I don't want to remove the review but I also don't want to deal with the harassment. does he have any case at all?

**edit I see why he is making a big stink now. I went on to yelp and my review is the first review based on yelp sort(default). it used to be buried in the reviews unless you sorted by date or actually went through them, now that it is on top its getting a lot more attention

 

[Blue109]

Hes bluffing. "See you in court" is an embarrassingly bad threat. You have a paper trail, including a credit card payment you could probably dig up if needed. What sort of PROOF could he possibly have that he didnt do the work? Your review is doing exactly what its suppose to do and warning other consumers of his crappy service. Consider that email your reward. Even better if you can copy it and add it to your review lol

 

[leftyguns21]

I have the credit card statements but I unfortunately finally deleted the receipt of the refund, didn't think I would need it 7 months later. it will still show on my statements as refund. plus I am in their computer, good luck trying to tell your lawyers you didn't do any work but have me as a customer. they are shady so I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to delete me from their system. that would be a bigger mistake when I can show I made payments to them and got a refund.
this shop is a headache and should not be in business. I shouldn't still be dealing with them a year and half later.

 

[TK-422]

Don't cave in on this, stick to your guns.

 

[leftyguns21]

this dude is going full pyscho now. the first message he sent me on yelp was from his business page, I reported this to yelp. I got another message today from his personal yelp.

Seems like we will have to continue this in court, I would like to respectfully ask you to atop harassing our receptionist at the shop. We have video evidence of you inappropriately touching our receptionist. She is getting a restraining order against you and so will I if you continue to harass me and my company. We also have a lawsuit coming your way. Every lead that comes through yelp is $32.45 worth of advertising dollars, you are reliable for every lead. So far we are at 1,327 leads. I will give you until he end of today before we go ahead and file everything. The restraining order and the lawsuit. We also gathered a lot of evidence from your Facebook and other social media accounts that you leave a lot of negative reviews and you are just a negative person in general. Judging by what you do for a living, I don't think you want this lawsuit. It's simple, you know what to do.

I have not stepped foot in his shop since December, even if I did there is no way I would ever touch or harass the receptionist. there is not one part of this message that pertains to me. he clearly has me confused with another customer. if this is how he treats customers, I am surprised he is still in business.

reported this message to yelp too and blocked him

 

[Rightside Up]

Yikes! What a mess.

 

[jspiv]

Denver local. I'll spread the word and put in some poor reviews myself. Seems like there are already quite a few!!

 

[leftyguns21]

they were revoked on BBB due to their business standards. I can see why. I also saw on their FB page last night another person commented about being threatened with legal action cause of a bad review.
he will be out of business soon. and reopen with a new name

 

[Bumbo]

First off, I agree with the sentiment that the legal threat if a bluff…

It cost a significant amount of money to retain council and sue someone. One top of that, no attorney is going to want to take a losing case with an idiot client. In their own discovery, they would most likely reject the client without seeing some solid factual evidence to support their case.

Alternately, you could respond with a statement that if a lawsuit is filed, that you will retail council and defend yourself along with counter-sue for defamation/slander/libel. You might as well throw in the damages and attorney fees for the initial problem you are experiencing as well.

Bottom line, it would have been substantially more cost effective for him to just refund you and make you go away. If you did retract your claim with BBB, there would be no guarantee he would follow though.

This should be a good lesson in record keeping, note taking for purposes of creating a timeline, along with conducting business in writing.

Obviously your call, but I personally would stand my ground. And thanks for the updates, it made for an interesting read.

 

[jbtvt]

Nice work! I also dealt with a scammy furniture biz owner and did a CC chargeback for $2k, which I won, in addition to leaving reviews on Yelp and Ripoff report. You can post screencaps of his conversation under Yelp's pictures and even if he contests themand wins it won't delete your review, just the photos. At least that's how it was when I did mine a few years ago. Total bluff, BTW, don't worry about the legal threats. If he did sue you it'd be even better really, because you could countersue and win. Make sure to save all these messages, or screencaps of them at least, externally as well. Personally I'd update the review telling people that at first he says he didn't even do the work, now it turns out he says he has video that you WERE in his shop and he's making up sexual harassment charges 7 months later. Should post more reviews to FB etc as well, keep him sweating. F that guy.

 

[Nobody Special]

i paid with a credit card for the clear bra, but it was back in march. and that account has since been closed.

for the vinyl i used their credit to cover the labor and purchased the vinyl from another company.

i reached out to BBB and going to file a complaint with the FTC as well.

BBB is useless. Just sayin'.
The Better Business Bureau is worthless to consumers



Didn't notice this was an old thread.
They really should put creation date on/in/near thread titles. Not just the "last reply".

 

[T4R2014]

BBB is useless. Just sayin'.
The Better Business Bureau is worthless to consumers



Didn't notice this was an old thread.
They really should put creation date on/in/near thread titles. Not just the "last reply".

For smaller businesses, it's a crapshoot. For big businesses it can get them moving quick to make things right. I had a drug test for a new job at a big lab chain. When I went they told me to take off my jacket and placed it on a chair that was soaking in bleach. "Sanitizing for covid", LOL what about if I unknowingly sit on it and get a chemical burn from the bleach? You have enough money for Lysol wipes.

Customer service was giving me the runaround for a reimbursement. Well over a month. I had all documentation and submitted it to BBB. The check got there FAST.