While I can't say my experience warrants the strength of
@Nors words, I can echo
@cary's experience. I brought my 80 in to get the front brakes done and do a general service (oil change, tire rotation). I dropped it off in the morning and got a ride from Gary into town (Sonoma) to work remotely until it was done. He told me to call him around noon to check in as it should be wrapped up around then. When I called, he said they were still working on it and to call back a couple hours later. Repeated this process twice more only to finally be picked up at 6:00 PM! I came back to his shop to a bill of over $2k. He had done all sorts of work that was uncovered during the front brake work. Now, I probably would have give him the green light to proceed with MOST of what he had done (except rebuilding my e-brake?), but never during our multiple check-ins did he ask for approval to do additional work. At least with me, he seemed to assume I had given him carte blanche. It was a real bummer. I also felt backed into a corner because this community is so tight-knit that you don't want to burn any bridges. I've actually held off on even posting this feedback ANYWHERE online for the same reason. That being said, I feel an obligation to warn people that if they do take their vehicle to him, to be explicit about what you want done and get it in writing that you want to give approval before any other work gets done. When I got back, my wife was absolutely livid, and for good reason. She threw out the question: "What if we were living paycheck to paycheck?". It's just a really unfortunately assumption that someone who brings your vehicle to them can afford whatever maintenance you decide is necessary to complete in that moment. Again, I most likely would have approved most of the work (and I even had them proceed with replacing a master cylinder at the last minute because their mechanic felt like it was starting to go), but not being given the power to choose really rubs me the wrong way.
To top it off, when I did finally get back to the shop, they had completely forgotten about the oil change and the tire rotation was never done.
To throw a bit more salt on the would, two months after the work was done I was driving to a trailhead (having only done about two hours of mild off-roading in the two months since the work) and heard this HORRIBLE screeching from my front DS hub. One of my rotor bolts had completely fallen out and the other was super loose. Thankfully, the front tow point bolts use the same threading (but are a bit longer) so I was able to steal a bolt from there, add a couple washers and keep going.
On the positive, Gary is a die-hard Cruiser fan and seems to a do a lot of good for the community as well. He also seems to always answers his phone, which was greatly appreciated when I was in a pickle on a trail once.
Bottom line: I have reasons to question both the ethics of the shop and the quality of the work. Even if I could get over that, my wife has banned me from going back. So, next time I have serious work that needs to be done, instead of an easy 20 minute drive, I'll most likely be driving almost two hours to Stockton to give Valley Hybrids / Cruiser Brothers my business.
Solid work Joey.
