Barler Autoworks

I called this mechanic and had him do some work on my VW. He talks a good game so I figured he knew what he was doing. «ASE Certified» he told me. Unfortunately the quality of the work was very subpar.
I asked him to replace the strut bearings in my car because the steering had gotten really stiff. I had another shop replace the bearings, but they seemed to have messed it up, since the steering was even stiffer when I got it back from them.
Its an easy job, and the bearings are cheap so I figured I would give him the work to replace them. When I got the car back I was presented with a bill for $ 480 and was told it was all fixed. However, the steering was the same as it was before, so the problem still existed, so I called him back and gave him the car again.
When I got it back the second time, I noticed that the nut at the top of the strut had been backed out 3 or 4 threads… I guess this guy figured he could simply loosen the nut at the top of the strut to fix the stiff steering and charge me $ 480 for 5 minutes of work, while never actually disassembling the strut.
I just disassembled my struts, and the strut bearings were in pieces, and the ball bearings fell out all over my floor. It was obvious they were never replaced, or even checked. so clearly he never took them apart, since if he had, he would have seen they were broken. I replaced them myself and the stiff steering problem is now gone. I might as well have thrown $ 480 out the window.
I asked him to look into a problem I was having with my fuel sender after a shop had replaced my fuel pump. It was now reading ¾ of a tank when it was full. He said he could fix it, so I paid $ 175 for that. It came back with the same problem. I don’t think he even looked at it, yet charged me 2 hours of labor. He kept saying it was fine.
Prior to that I had him look into an ABS problem, since my ABS light was on. He charged me $ 200 to troubleshoot it, and told me there was nothing wrong, and the ABS light was on probably because the brake fluid reservoir cap was faulty. Fortunately, I didn’t believe him, stopped driving the car, and looked into it myself. It turned out the pressure switch was bad, and replacing it fixed the problem. Had I believed him, the ABS pump and ABS accumulator would likely now be ruined.
I would always ask for a receipt for the repairs, but he always seemed to have an excuse why he couldn’t give me one. His printer was broken, his computer died, he ran out of paper, etc, so I couldn’t even get a receipt for the work most of the time.