Frequently the mention of small claims court can get some results.
I had a similar situations with the local Ford dealer and my Escort
and a clutch stutter.  He knew that me representing myself and him
hiring a lawyer and my complaint being a matter of public record
(not to mention the BBB) would mean that he would loose more money
than just absorbing the cost over-run.  He decided to cover the
whole thing, just as we agreed - before the work started.  For the
record, I never got mad at him, I just assertively suggested what my
options were and that I was prepared to do, and I refused to accept
his explaining away his shop's incompetence of the moment.  I had to
go throught 2 levels of management, but it worked.

Good luck.   Malcolm S

> Hi all,
>
> Well today I went to Hendrix VW in Middletown CT and had a very bad
> experience.  I had told the guy that I had an 87 VW Vanagon Syncro...I
> specifically told him it was a syncro just like Mike Jones which he has worked
> on.  He said he understood and when I asked him to do the starter he quoted me
> a price of 50 bucks well I questioned that with are you sure your talking
> about the syncro?  You do realize some people say that you have to lower the
> tranny to get the starter out.  He said yes and so I made an appointment for
> today.  Well after driver an hour to get there and waiting around for an hour
> and a half waiting for him to have time to put it on the lift he starts
> working on it and has the stupidity to say to me ...."I did not realize this
> was a syncro"  I told him that I specifically said it was on the phone..and
> then said that he's worked on Mike Jones and mine is the same.  Then he tried
> to tell me that Mikes Starter is set up differently.....I dont believe that VW
> changed the placeing of the starter on the 89 syncro did they?
>
> It is just getting to me that mechanics can just quote you a price and then
> tell you they can do the job and then totally revoke everything they said and
> tell you that you were wrong!!  If a mechanic does not know anything about a
> syncro why dont they just tell you instead of lyeing to you and playing guess
> work.....I could play guess work myself but I wanted a professional to do it.
>
> Thank you for listening to me and I hope no one else has experiences like this
> because I left there without my new starter because he didnt have enough time
> today.  Anyone know any shops around the CT and Mass area that have done
> starters on Syncro's.  Thank you .
>
> Tim G
> 87 gl syncro(166k)
>