Well this is great......

Went all the way up to the radiator shop this afternoon. We pull in and i get out and go up to the door. The guys house is all closed up with the curtians drawn. The shop is lit up so i go to the door and notice the "Open" sign right next to the "Went out for parts, back in a few" sign with a number on it. I call the number and whoever answers has one hell of an attitude with me for some reason. He informs me hes closed and opens 9am tomorrow morning. He also informs me he closes promptly at 4:30 despite his telling me on the phone there would be someone there, and dispite the open sign on the door.

Well this is great. I drain out the tank and load everything up after unbolting it from the tractor in a monsoon for this. Wonderful.

Heading home my phone starts to ring. Im too steamed to answer it. Later on i listen to my voicemail and some female called from there and said they got back and if had something, bring it in.

I cant even get back up that way until next week. Not sure if i should bother. As of right now, im out $100 for their "services", $20 for the tank full of gas thats ruined and all the time and gas it takes to get up there. Plus if i cant get this crap out of my tank, im out that too. Plus all the time and frustration of having to clean out a brand new carb.

Small claims court is a nice idea, but im a minor and my mom (executive) doesnt have time to get my money back. I want to call anyway and tell them to send me my money or their lawyers number.

Today was a great day. Any ideas now??

Like what was posted before , You need an adult male to go with you with enough finesse, to have these so called mechanics to either make it right or refund your money.

I see he is already crossing the line as he was verbally ignorant to you, and probably seeing you as a kid .

An adult can go in there and calmly direct him that he has a choice,Make it right, or return money.

If that isn't an option to him?--- Call BBB and file a charge. He {will} find time to talk to them.

You are very upset just as we , that this guy seems to have taken advantage of you and don't show no signs of restitution, or remorse.

Lanse, Been following your posts and videos with great interest. You're very entertaining. I have a JD-A that had some rust and dirt in the tank. I jacked up my JD-40, put about 3 lbs of 22 bullit casings in the tank, strapt it to the wheel and turned it slowly for about 30 minutes in low gear. Then took out the casings and took the tank to the car wash. Let it dry in the sun. Came out really nice. Might be worth a try. rw

Lanse, aren't you in Texas? If so, what part. I'm near Hearne. Not sure if I can help with getting your money back, but if you are close enough, I may be able to do something with the tank for you. I usually work on things that have 2 wheels, and have a subtle rumpity-rump sound at idle. I have an 8N I use from time to time here at home, and some day intend to make it look a little better. Spent most of my life retoring cars as well. Let me know if I can help from here.

Lanse,
Before you go putting something pieces of stone, bolts, nuts etc. in that tank to knock the rust loose, make real sure you can get them out. There is an anti-slosh lip around the filler neck on most Allis gas tanks, so you can't just turn it upside down and get everything out. Don't ask me how I know.
Paul

Lance is here in Ohio close to Dayton, Ohio home of the Wright Bros. and where the airplane was develloped.

Per a previous post he had the work done and it was done poorly.

Does anyone live close enough to Lanse to go with him and help him out with this problem?

They either didn"t know what they were doing, Lanse, or they saw you coming a mile away.

In either case, though, I"ve always achieved better results from sugar than from sh*t. Go in with a smile and a chuckle, but be very clear about the error that they"ve made. If that doesn"t go well, start casually mentioning the BBB, small claims court, etc.

I disagree with Nancy that you need an adult male to accompany you. The sooner you learn to deal with stuff like this yourself, the better.

one thing i don't understand. you picked the tank up and didn't discover that it was done that sloppy until AFTER you put the gas tank on and filled it. Seems to me even the curious would have looked inside to see what it looked like before that stage. Not to say we all aren't in a hurry sometime, but that it just seems odd

And how is he supposed to learn if someone doesn't teach him?

Remember Lanse is just a teenager and has lots of learning to do.

Experience is also the best teacher... Sometimes the lesson can be pretty brutal...

We have to remember that Lanse is just 15 (I think maybe 16) and aside from US on this board he doesnt have anyone to give him daily advice on lifes lessons. Such as check everything over before you pay. Or recently after watchin his disking video that you have to set the gangs at an angle to be able to disk the way its supposed to be. ;0)

ALWAYS CHECK TO MAKE SURE YOUR GETTING WHAT YOUR ABOUT TO PAY FOR! NEVER TAKE ANYONES WORD THAT SAID WORK WAS COMPLETED.

None of us are perfect and we all had the screwed over experience at least once in our life times. We learned from them, so it wouldnt happen twice.

If this place has any type of reputation they will at least refund the money or make it right. If not since you are a minor you will have to get your mom to go the legal route. Its either that or just consider this a very expensive lesson learned.(basically how i got fu!ked by so and so radiator repair)

I have to agree with Nancy. They are gonna look at the 15 year old kid and say "what can he do."

I know ive been in Lanses situation. When i was 17 i had a garage do an oil change and tune up, 1 mile after pulling out of the parking lot the engine locks up. No oil, they drained it but didnt put any back in. Needless to say they pretty much told me to take a hike. While i was making a call to dad "i heard the one say hes just a kid what the hell can he do".Well after dad showed up and his less then sugarly conversation i got a new engine.

I have been screwed out of money so many separate times in my life that I've literally lost count. By saying this Im not suggesting that you should not try to get him to make it right with you, Im just saying good luck.

lanse sorry about your luck but i never get a ratiator repaired on a old tractor most of the time you can get one for around 200 bucks unless its a old one with cast tanks good luck lanse

I remember as a kid taking my dad to help me talk a body shop into redoing the paint job they botched on my 66 Mustang I had saved two years to have done. That and get them to also redo the vinyl roof. Instead of the OEM pebbled material I specified, they installed a smooth padded one that looked like it was meant for a 1980 Lincoln Town Car.

So there I am trying to be all growed up and professional and pointing these things out in a calm way to the shop owner who obviously thought he'd blow me off. I had it all worked out how I was going to start nice and friendly, compliment him on his body work (which was crap too but I needed to get off on the right foot) then depending on his responses slowly escalate to the BBB, small claims, spreading the word around town etc.

I had hardly opened my mouth when my dad stepped forward and said "Listen, how about you redo the paint properly on your own dime and we'll pay you to redo the roof properly. That fair?"

I just about sh*$ myself. It was the last time I ever took my dad anywhere near a negotiation.

Sometimes you can learn by watching how badly someone does it.

Anyway, Lanse, I've had more than a few other opportunities since then to rectify crappy work, service, whatever. I find you can get a long way by starting with a compliment, no matter how idiotic it feels. "Hey, I really liked how you guys got right on this job quick" or "My friends and I have used your stuff for years now..." or "I had been hearing great things about your shop and had to try you guys out..."etc. etc.

Then you work in what your concern is. Not like it's the end of the world but more of a minor issue you know he wants to put right.

If you get them off guard thinking you basically like and respect what they do (takes holding your nose sometimes) they often find themselves helping you out on the "minor" issues you bring up before they know what they're doing.

Just as a minor example, I once had the owner of a car dealership personally drive a free shop manual to my office across town in rush hour because I complimented him on his friendly, knowledgable parts counter staff (who had nevertheless managed to lose my order for the manual not once but twice over the five weeks I had been trying to get it ordered).

If I had started by telling him what a twit he was for running such a half-arsed operation and hiring a bunch of knuckleheads who couldn't fill in a piece of paper properly -- although true enough on both counts, I doubt I'd have got myself that $80 book for free.

A little more serious, once I got a marina to waive a $1200 salvage and repair bill because they had bungled the job (taking far too long, further damaged the boat, were clueless dealing with the adjuster, etc.). Certainly not $1200 worth of bungling but they annoyed me enough to go after them and by working them a bit and playing on what they thought was their great reputation I made out pretty well.

I'm not saying it will work every time. I've struck out big time as well and there are definitely people who would rather slit their wrists than apologize or take responsibility for cleaning up their sorry messes...but it's a place to start.

Good luck and don't give up!