I would like the opportunity to respond one last time given the lengthy response by Gary. Let me start by saying Gary is quite an eloquent story-teller. I have kept emails which contradict his lengthy explanation. Following is an excerpt from one email in which he states the reason he left the afternoon I arrived to pick up my car is because he had to "run for parts", which he contradicts in this current rebuttal by stating that he had a dental appointment. ( I suppose it is quite hard to keep your stories straight when you tell so many.)
You were given a tour of our complete shop by Scott, my head employee, you knew we have two separated halves to our building. We left the office door to the body shop open, knowing you were coming. Had I known you were going to sneak off like a theif in the night, without contacting us when you arrived, I would have locked the door. All 3 of my mechanics were in the other half of my shop installing an engine. They heard you pull up and anticipated you would be in to see them. They were right in the middle of aligning the engine to the transmission and couldn't drop what they were doing immediately. The office door was locked to the mechanics side because I had to run for parts needed on the job they were doing, you merely had to go into the shop door fo find all 3 employees working! They anticipated you would be in to ask for help, after they had the engine and transmission mated together, Scott looked out the door to see you driving off!
Also, he states that Scott came outside to see me leave at 3:30. If you refer to the pictures I posted showing my car and the witness who was shown in the picture, the photo times show from 3:30(picture of car sitting by street) to 3:55 (three corvettes sitting out in front of his building). I did not leave until about 10 minutes later, about 4:05-4:10. I would like to see anyone arrive, walk inside the building, find others to help push the vehicle into trailer(The first gent and myself took 10-15 to unsuccessfully try to load it) and leave all in the short time frame he describes. Quite an exageration again. I will say that I was amazed when I read his rebuttal. Even the little details were fabricated,such as me calling at 6:00 a.m. to let him know I was leaving to bring up my car and drop it off. That never happened. I actually left at 4:00 a.m. and it did take us longer to arrive due to weather. I did call him once I arrived in the Denver area to let him know I would be there shortly. These details may seem trivial, but again, there are so many lies.
Furthermore, money was never the issue on my end when I dropped the car off, as I had already set aside $60,000 in my checking account to finish the project. When Gary gave me the initial verbal estimate, I stressed to him that I wanted to have all the cash ready before bringing it up, and at that time I only had $10k ready. He told me to go ahead and bring it up anyway, and asked if I would have the rest by the time it was done in 3 months. I told him I did not want to do that. The problem for me when I arrived was that he never communicated he needed the deposit, thus I did not bring it along when I dropped the car off. The car alone is worth a substantial amount as collateral as it is. Many forum members have said that they pay as the work is done in increments. In 13 years as an insurance agent, I have never had anyone have to go into a body shop and pay up-front for the work before it is done. Gary is painting quite a different picture of events than actually occured, and fitting in subtle insinuations to deflect from the truth.
As far as him contacting his friends in the Albuquerque Corvette Community and their supposed reaction toward me, that is laughable considering I don't belong to any Corvette groups and only know one person who is involved in them in the Albuquerque area, and is simply an acquaintence. Likewise, how in the world local shops would have anything to say about me is a surprise. The only local body man I have worked with is Otto @ Otto's Garage, who most local car people would know. He has been doing the body work on a '63 Impala resto-mod I am working on for my parents for several months, and is a great guy who does excellent work. I have also used Chad Dewees, head painter at Galles Chevrolet, for many past paint jobs, again excellent work. These are the only two locals I have used and we have never had any problems, and would welcome anyone to contact either of them to ask about their experience with me as a customer. I would also like to state that I did not "attack" his friends who logged into the forums on his behalf. They immediately started in with name-calling, stating I was a lier and other slurs. I simply responded.
Lastly, he states in his reply that I posted asking "anyone out there who had bad experiences with Corvette City?". The actual post was worded "
Please let me know what experience you had with Corvette City(Denver Colo) " A little bit different. He also implies that the powder coating had problems, which is rediculous. There was absolutely no problem with the powder coating or preparation. He is trying to shift the attention and hint that the quality of work I have had done is substandard, when in fact, I have painstakingly taken the time to do a top-notch job, and paid great attention to detail.
I had absolutely no reason to lie about anything that happened. I took the car to him in good faith, because I wanted the work done by someone experienced in fiberglass and liked the extended fenders, and in the end, we did not deal well together. I did not post anything in order to be vindictive, but rather to let others know to be cautious, and do their research before using anyone. As I stated before, his workmanship was not the problem for me; it was reliability and honesty. This is more than evident to me now that I have read his smooth-talking lies- former police officer or not. Take the information I have given you or not. It's up to you.
Chuck
Jane Ann
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