Yeah,  you know, Bill, when I talked over my van's
history/trip plans with Smolens, I made it clear that
it was to be safely *assumed* that when in doubt,
this type of thing was to be done.  Period.
When I picked up the van, I noticed this had not been
done.  Coby asked the young kid, the teenager who
actually did the work, about it.  The kid said, "it looked OK to me"!
Coby did not supervise my van's work adequately.
I am horribly worried about all work--done & not done.  Now, as a result of
repeated bad/expensive/redone jobs, my travel funds are very
low, & they should not be.  I have overpaid, been
overcharged, you name it.
I can only hope for the best & good luck at this point.
Oh, how I wish I were mechanical, I would love to be
competent to do my own work; but I'm not.
And I am not looking to spend my days in Small
Claims Court--which is where this Smolen's work
belongs.
***Below, an interesting pmail I just received:

<snip>I look at it this way - it's cheap insurance, especially with an
unknown history.  Brake fluid is designed to absorb water, so after 2 years,
it's considered to be "contaminated" and should be changed.  Of course, no
one really ever does this except the anal retentive and racers.
However, the cost of brake fluid changes every couple of years I'm sure
offsets the cost of having to replace even one seized brake caliper due
to internal rust.  I changed the tranny fluid in my 86 last weekend (and put
Redline in).  It was a disgusting horrible smelly colour, and the magnetic
plug had a good coating of fur on it.  The "rub" is though, you
can't tell unless you pull the drain plug out, so there's no way to tell if
it needs replacing any other way.  It cost me about $40 CDN for the oil, and
a couple hours of my time, for what I consider to be a vital
part.