My headers nightmare
So if someone suppliess shop with a part and it doesn't fit the shop should just eat the labour ...I'm actually surprised they would quote you, I would charge by the hour and keep going until they fit or you ran out of money.
That's
exactly what they should do, eat the labor.
They gave a quote for a completed job and didn't complete the job. Doesn't matter if they spent a day, a week, a month or a year. They didn't do the job, they don't get paid.
As for the customer supplied parts, it's still the shops responsibility to check to make sure they have the right parts. Nowadays that should take all of 5 minutes, Google the part number, download the instructions, check and make sure they're the right part for the application. If they didn't have the right parts, they shouldn't have even started the job. They should have returned the parts and the car and told the customer to supply the right parts. They definitely shouldn't have had the car a week if they didn't have the right parts. And if they started the job and then realized they had the wrong parts, they should have called the customer right then and there and straightened it out.
And yes, I used to work in a family run auto restoration shop. We gave quotes for a lot of jobs straight off the book hours. On 50+ year old cars that sometimes means you spend 3 days doing a 6 hour job. Not the customer's fault the bolts were rusted up and had to be soaked and hot wrenched. If we missed it and quoted the book then it's on us at that point. Sometimes that's what the job takes. Sometimes you beat the book, sometimes the book beats you. That's how that crap works.
Sorry, but if they kept the car a week, didn't do the job, didn't call and explain the situation, and didn't put the car back the way they got it they shouldn't get paid. They shouldn't have even asked to be paid on an incomplete job, they should have returned the car and apologized for not getting the job done. Period.
