Getting a shop to pay for a shoddy work done

you may have luck in small claims court, but doubtful. if I was him and you drug me into court the first thing I would do is present a copy of tmc recommended practices outlining that lugnuts must be retorqued with in 50 miles. you are probably better off trying to work something out with the shop, he did offer to pay for repairs at first, so you may have luck getting some money from him. or maybe even ask for credit on future repairs. this guy is legally in the clear, you should keep that in mind when trying too deal with him. appeal to his sense of good will and you may get a deal you can live with.

also, treat this as an opportunity to learn from. from the time you picked the trailer up to when you noticed the problem how many times did you stop and get out of the truck? atleast to load and to deliver, and possibly a bathroom break? always walk around your truck and look each and everytime you open that drivers door. those lug nuts did not all vibrate off at the exact same time, had you been looking when you stopped you most likely would have caught the problem before it turned into a very large repair bill.

 

The fact that the shop owner admitted this

gives the OP legal standing and more than enough for a case. I would definitely dispute the charges on the card as well. Had they not admitted defective equipment, and if the receipt has the appropriate wording about retorquing wheels (talk about a get out of jail free card), I'd agree with you. The defective equipment trumps it all though.

 

I disagree, put him in court and he will swear under oath he never made that statement. sure if you spend enough money an attorney will bring in his shop employees and question them, may even have him court ordered to show his bank statements and find where he purchased a governor. good luck with that in a small claims case.
the reality is, it doesn't matter if you feel you are in the right or not, it only matters what the judge will rule, on that particular day, on that particular case. he is just as likely to rule that by retorqueing the lugnuts, as is standard practice according to tmc(whose word is gold in a courts eye) the bad governor would not of mattered.
I'm not saying it's right, but are you willing to risk the legal fees involved on the whim of a judge that may hate civil suits and have a low opinion of truck drivers? remember if the judge rules in favor of the shop, you pay his legal fees.

 

I'm a slow learner sometimes... I've done something similar ...NOW I CHECK ALMOST EVERYTIME I GET OUT...UGH. I feel your pain!!! I agree with Spyder..I'd try to "reason" with the shop owner,STARTING with his reply about the air compressor being broken.

 

Also, before you had the repairs done, the original shop should have been notified. BEFORE you obtained road service, let them know the situation.

 

I have called them the same day right after I found a road service that could do the repair, so they knew right from the start. At first they were apologetic and telling me its not a problem for them to pay. That was of course 'till I send them the bill for over $1400. I may try to negotiate for them to cover at least the cost of the new parts. And I do like the idea of making a deal with them that cost of the bill goes to a shop credit for future repairs. I've dealt with them numerous times in the past and actually bought this exact trailer and another one from them years ago. Both my father and myself go there to get non-urgent repairs done and for the most part they do solid work, though now they've expanded and hired a bunch of new people.