Quote Originally Posted by dirtrulz View Post
So you would not take responsibility for work that you mechanic did that was obviously wrong regardless of that parts origin? I get there is no warranty for when "the cheap part fails" but you will be liable for when your work fails, either by you volunteering to fix it or by them taking you to court. When it is the work and not the part that is the problem you are responsible. You may not be responsible for the part and what it destroys when it fails, but what if the part isnt what fails and it was your work.

We had some warrenty work done on a nissan maxima we owned a few years back. The ecm fried and when it went it fried the electronic motor mounts. The dealership fixed the mounts and the computer and gave us the car back. The next day the wife had to go on a trip for work and had to drive 6 hours to get there. on the way there the car started driving funny, when she arrived she had a dealer look at it and when they replaced the motor mounts they dropped down the front subframe that contains the whole drivetrain and suspension and when they put it all back they didnt tighten the bolts that hold it to the car. she had lost 4 of the six bolts and the last two were almost all the way out. I hate to think what would have happened if they had all come out going 75 down the highway. Warranty or no warranty, if something had happened to the car or my wife they would be in court.

What it comes down to is that little piece of paper saying you have no warranty and are not responsible if the customer supplies the part means nothing if it can be proven it was your work that failed. Forgetting to tighten lug nuts on a wheel after a brake job and having the wheel fall off on the highway 5 miles later, you are responsible, even if the customer brought in the pads.

Even in your example with the swaybar. If your mechanic forgot to install or tighten something you will be responsible, even though you didnt do the original job the customer wanted. If your tech had forgotten to tighten the swaybar mounts when he reinstalled the original swaybar and it fell off going down the road, broke the end link and swung around and punched a hole in the oil pan. Who do you think is responsible. Willing to bet a court would say you were, and it wouldnt matter weather you had installed an original one or aftermarket. When you except money for work you take a certain amount of responsibility to make sure the work is done to the best of your abilities, if it is shown it was not then you will be held liable if the customer is willing to really push it.

I am in no way saying your shop does bad work, dont know your shop. I would also hope that if you were shown that your mechanic was having a bad day and did bad work that you would take care of it no matter where the parts came from.
How dare you say my shop has crappy mechanics. I am telling my boss on you!

Look the issue is that when the part fails how am I going to prove that it was the part and not the shitty mechanic I hired? How much time do I then get to spend deciphering what happened, was the work done wrong or was the part the culprit? Customer brings me an aftermarket timing belt, I put it in. Belt tensioner goes to shit and kills the engine. Was it installation or was it the belt tensioner they brought me? Tell me how I prove that one way or another. Seriously. Because otherwise I have to buy an engine out of my pocket. I don't know about you but with VW Audi engines that is at minimum 3k plus time and can easily go up to 7-10k on some of the v8s and I dont have that just sitting around. Just in engine cost, not everything else. But I should take that risk? Fuck. That. No warranty. Bring me your parts and I will install them. I will not warranty it. Do I do a lot of that? Almost never. Most people do not want to risk it. They either have me buy the part, or they take it elsewhere. Both of which are acceptable results from my policy.