My girlfriend's brother found some guy on Craigslist who claimed to be a "mobile mechanic." I know, stupid. He needed a knock sensor replaced on his Solara and the guy took only 80% of the money claiming that it wasn't as hard of a job as he had anticipated.

The check engine light stayed on and he claimed that it needed to be reset by autozone. Well, I just did a search on this guy/phone number and a few other people had the same experience with this guy. What options does my sister's brother have. Should he file a police report? Confront him?

 

At this point it's about the principle and that he's screwed other people and he'll continue to do so until someone confronts him. I told the brother he should text him stating that he knows his first/last name and the town that he lives and threatens to file a police report if he doesn't give the money back.

 

A fool and their money are soon parted.

Me thinks he is going to need more evidence of fraud to have any chance at a small claims case.

 

I would agree with you if this was an isolated incident, but there are at least 2-3 other people with the same exact experience.

 

Well, that worked out well. He said he's gonna give the money back after being threatened with police report. He "didn't do it because it was too hot, but shouldn't have done that."

 

That's ridiculous. It's not even that hot here lately.

 

LOL, I agree. What a pathetic excuse. I wouldn't be surprised if he's never touched a car before. "It's too hot, but let me take your money." I'm not sure what he was thinking. The problem is that most people probably just brushed it off as $100. But if he does it 5 times a week, that's $500 in his pocket every week for not doing anything.

 

$100 to change a knock sensor.. shieett.. I'll be right over.

 

lol, even after reading the op's story, I thought the same hahaha.

 

There was a story on Dateline a couple of weeks ago about these CL mobile mechanics. They had a "bait" car where they removed a fuse and the guys would tell the Dateline person they needed a new fuel pump or some other large $ item. Then Chris Hansen came out and all hell broke loose...lol

http://www.nbcnews.com/video/dateline/51907390#51907390