When you are a victim of extortion....

Your credit card company wasn't leery of this guy. When you do an irregular charge on a credit card (a transaction that is out of the ordinary), a lot of companies now flag it and then text you to confirm the transaction. I am guessing that a $3000+ charge is not a normal charge in the eyes of your credit card company. It's just a way for them to protect themselves. As soon as you answer the text, they will let the charge go through.

 

Something that kinda bothers me about all this, and I'm going to be disagreed with by some, is the opinion of "I don't care about if it gets fixed, how the mechanic gets paid, etc because it's not my truck". That attitude right there leads to a lot of bad things happening. If the driver owned that truck you know ###### well he'd care. The thing is, no matter what the paperwork says, if you are driving and living in that truck, it #### well IS your truck until you take your stuff out and turn the keys in. Everybody likes to spout about "your the captain of that ship" when it comes to safe driving but that goes both ways.
I'm probably not stating very well what I mean, but taking ownership of your assigned equipment means doing what it takes to get a given situation resolved.

 

Again NO ONE put your life at risk. Except for possible you. Because you don't care cold weather gear. What if you didn't have cell service or no one else was able to get out there? You'd still be screwed. Because you're not prepared for survival in the cold during a break down.

The mechanic was due payment. In his eyes. He was probably thinking your company was the shady one. Since their payment was getting declined.

Simple truth. He did work. He's due payment. If it's not tendered. Then it's his RIGHT to remove HIS fuel pump for lack of payment.

Personally I think you got off light with the extra 400. Since your company cost him over 5 hours of potential work.

 

@jamespmack
I would love to hear your input…

1. Can anyone tell me how a road service call figures out their rate, and why this rate differs from an estimate you would receive for getting work done at a shop?

2. Can anyone tell me, all things considered, after the smoke clears, if the total bill coming out to $400 more is a good price or bad price?

 

You were a victim of a sketchy business and your companies inability to deal with it outside of normal working hours. The real question to this entire s*%t show, has your company repaid you the $3500 you laid out on their behalf?

 

That's because they already have an established business relationship with your company. They've probably ran a credit check on your company. There's almost certainly a contract between them and your company in force. All of that stuff has to happen before a repair service will take a PO from anyone.

 

Really? Mind showing the law that you claim? Every single industry I've ever delt with, from plumber to mechanic charges from start to finish including payment.

 

How was your life in danger? Assume there was no road service available at the time you broke down? What then? You wouldn't have been able to call 911 if your life was actually in danger? Really?

 

How many sketchy repair services stock $2,000 fuel pumps? Seriously.

What's he supposed to do? Drive out in the middle of the night and work for free PLUS give away a $2,000 part?

Until it has been paid for, that fuel pump belongs to the repair company. He has every right to prevent it from being stolen from him.