Import Auto Service

Went to this place to get a water pump replaced on my ’82 Volvo. We went to several places to get quotes on this car and knew exactly what the issue was, this business quoted us the lowest price out of the 3 we went to. Plus it was a small import place, and we have always had good luck in the past with the older import places with our old Volvo. But this was not the case here. The owner said he’d have it in by monday (which he didnt), so a couple of days pass by, with us calling to check the status and him telling us it’s almost done. We live in nashville and forget how small town mechanics are, so we were patient. He finally got it done wednesday and called us after his shop had closed and at that time tried to sell us a temp sensor before even telling us what the final cost was. The final cost was almost 300 $ more than what he quoted us and i was floored. I understand there’s maybe a little flexibility in a quote but not 40% more. he said he fixed something that was loose, and replaced 3 belts, and used some expensive antifreeze (almsot 80 $ worth of antifreeze? what? why wasn’t this in your original estimate since you spent several minutes looking EVERY thing up and when you replace a water pump you REFILL the antifreeze). He never called us once to approve any of these repairs, he just did it and expected us to pay. I confronted him on all these repairs, and the antifreeze issue, and he said volvo requires you use a certain type of antifreeze. yeah it’s called antifreeze with no phosphates it’s 17 $ a GALLON. And that he had to replace 3 belts because they were cracked (again not approved). Then he proceeds to schmooze me and tell me that i’m a nice guy and that i’ll give you 10% off the bill (which coincidently is a coupon on his website) and i asked him, since i’m a website developer, how would you feel if i did work for you, told you it was going to cost this amount and it was almost 40% more than what i told you was but still expected you to pay the bill… he really never answered that question. So i told him that I don’t care how nice i am i’m still not paying for unauthorized work. Then he told me he would put the old parts on and still charge me the labor. at this point it was just getting ridiculous. I can’t wait for him to put on my old belts and still charge me labor for unauthorized work. Then he proceeds to insult me by saying he usually deals with high end clients who if I call them about 300 $ they get annoyed. 300 $ is 300 $. You always call. But wait there’s more… He then insulted me more saying «well I didn’t know you were hard off and that’s probably all I had in the bank». I said it’s not about how much money I have. Which is none of his business. It’s about getting screwed by a mechanic who thinks he can do whatever and charge whatever. I can’t believe in the end he had to insult me like that. I own my own freelance business and work full time at a university and i would NEVER treat a customer like that or do work that was unauthorized by the client and expect them to pay. It’s just bad busines. i will never EVER go there again or recommend him to anyone in gallatin or the surrounding area.