In a message CanineWolf wrote:
<<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.>>
As a former technician who, working in a small shop had to do a lot of phone
answering, I can honestly tell you that 1/2 the people who call want a price
over the phone.  I have had people get very angry, yelling, hanging up the
phone, asking to talk to the manager, calling back and all of the above again
because I would not give out a dollar figure.  As you can see from your
experience, this leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouth. Our policy was not to
give out prices over the phone.  It's not fair to the shop  or the car owner.
Someone get a price on a job unseen, the tech gets the car apart and finds an
extra $400 dollars of work that needs to be done and then gets the extra-fun
task of calling the owner who feels cheated.
BTDT.  As my boss used to say,"Free advice (over the phone from a tech who has
never seen your car) is worth every penny!"   Sorry you and your tech got into
this situation.   Patrick.