Questions and Answers

A Question Of Ethics Q. I have a Chevy truck that was leaking water. I asked a guy to come look at it. When he showed me where the leak was he pulled on the part and broke it off. It turned out the be a water valve and some of it broke off inside. He then told me he could fix it if I got the part and the tools.

After I got both and three days later he finally fixed it. When he finished the job he kept the $25.00 tool I bought and now a week later he wants $70.00 for doing the job. Any suggestion on what I should do or say?

Thanks for any help.

A. I'm not a lawyer so I don't know what legal recourse you have. I can only give you my feelings on what I think is the right thing.

First off, the tool. You bought the tool, you paid for the tool, therefore you own the tool. Unless you specifically agreed to let him keep it when the job was done, he should have returned it to you.

As far as his charging you goes, that is something that should have been agreed upon before any work was done. If someone were to say to me "Get the part and the tool and I'll put it on" then my assumption is that he would put it on without charge. If I tell someone that, I don't come back a week later and say you owe me money for working on your car. That's just not right.

If he is a neighbor and you want to keep good relations them tell him to return the tool and you'll pay him his $70.00 and that will be the end of it.

It's like my Grandfather always said "You can only screw me once."