For anyone in the San Diego area, if you ever need a mechanic to work on your truck, NEVER EVER EVER EVER call Diesel Power Systems in Alpine!!!!!!! I had an injector go out and a buddy of mine refered me to them, said they were really cheap. I called them and had them come out to my house to fix it, cause i figured if it's only one injector it'll probably just be cheaper to replace the one rather than send all 8 to Jim like i should have. they came out, pulled the injector and put a new one in. before they put the new one in, i made sure to ask how much they thought it was gonna cost total. "well i can't tell you for sure, but it's $97 an hour, minimum 2 hours, and the injector is about $180." I asked them, "well if you had to guess, it took about 2 hours to pull, so probably 2 hours back in just to be safe, plus the injector cost, so probably around $500-600 right?" they said , "oh yeah, if anything it won't be much more."What they didn't tell me was that they add in the time it takes for them to drive from their shop to my house, and that they charge by mileage. After all said and done, they charged me over $1,100 for one freaking injector!!!!!!!!!!! Horrible way to conduct your business!!!!!!!!!!!! I could have just pulled all 8 and sent them to Jim for a hell of alot less, and be rolling stage 1's right now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

BBB

send them a complaint, thats not how you treat people, everything should be in writting.

 

WOW Did they at least use some lube before they stuck to you. I think i would have pulled that injector and threw it at his head

 

he didn't even tell me the total cost until 3 weeks after he did the work. i just found out today when i couldn't buy my groceries and saw that he had charged another $300 to my card. and then i called and found out that i still owe him even more! I'm bout ready to pull the injector and shove it where he can't sit down! i know it's kinda my fault cause i didn't ask for the full quote before hand, but don't tell me it won't be much more than $500, then turn around and charge me twice that!

 

Did you sign an invoice or Estimate? Dispute the credit card charge? You have options if you didn't sign anything.

 

when he first showed up i signed the agreement that he was going to diagnose the injectors, but that was it. i can't find my copy though, so i'm not sure if there was some fine print that i missed. he's sending my receipt in the mail.

 

Have the credit card or whatever pull the money back and file a dispute claim. There is a state bureau that you can go to also. Can't remember the name off the top of my head.

 

yeah i just filed a complaint with the BBB, but the bank said they can't cancel the payment cause it's still "pending" in their system.

 

Here is a link to the Cali BAR.

 

Did he tell you there would be travel time included? Did you ask? IMO, any reasonable person could expect to pay for a mobile service call travel time.

 

well he told me that they charged by mileage, not that they charged mileage AND that they count the time it takes to get to the job as labor as well. i knew that it would be more expensive than a regular shop, but had no idea it would be that bad! otherwise i would have never called him.

 

just wanted to update everyone: I filed a complaint with the Cali BAR, who investigated and i'm guessing ended up determining that the business was messed up, cause i was only charged the $800 i already paid before i filed the complaints. And get this, i still to this day have never gotten any kind of receipt or invoice from the repair guy. Still wish i had just sent the injectors to Jim... at least then i'd have paid good money for stage 1's instead of stock!

 

Well at least you got some satisfaction out of the deal.

 

Here's my story for anyone who cares.
I bought my '96 brand new in end of Feb '96.
In Early May of 2001, 2 months out of warranty and 50k miles, my truck died.
Had towed to the local diesel shop that I've known for years and was the only place I trusted to work on the truck.
Anyway, their diagnosis was "An injector went bad." To this day I really don't know what that means.
Well, $499 or so for a new (I'm sure reman) injector and $700 in labor, totaled $1200 bill. Plus towing.

I went home, went online and found these forums and my truck has never been back to a shop since.

What I guess I'm getting at is business is business, and on occasion you get hit. That price might seem high but is right on with what I paid 10 years ago. But without a signed estimate beforehand (which I had and dissapointingly approved) they don't have much to go on.

Good luck, hope it all pans out for you.

 

Yeah, i really can't fuss too much, cause I guess i just didn't ask all the right questions before hand, but i most deffinitely learned a valuable lesson from the whole deal! in any situation, the next time i have injector problems, even if it's just one, i'm pulling them all and sending them your way! I'd rather have the truck just sit for a couple weeks while you have them than to overpay each and every time an injector gives me problems!