Matthew Kent Menlove
1/5
D & J and Damien serviced my bus and then with in the first 10 miles it burned down and he told me he is not responsible. My Family was endangered and my bus is gone and he has shirked his responsibility to fix this issue. I am so disappointed. I am a contractor, if the tables were turned and I worked on his house and then it burned down, I think he would expect me to stand up and be responsible and I would. I am sad for his moral compass.
I have had my restored 1970 VW bus serviced at D & J auto for the past 5 Years. I have owned the vehicle for almost 10 years. It runs very nice and has had very little mechanical issue as I have owned the vehicle. I Found D & J because they are a VW specialty shop that works mainly on Bugs & Busses. They are located near my Office and convenient for me to service my Vehicle. Recently when my wife was driving the car the gear shifter complete sheared off. This was a shifter that D & J had installed about 4 years prior. We had the car towed to his property and he re-installed a used shifter to replace the new shifter that was previously installed. I asked Damien (Owner of the Shop) while the vehicle was there, to service the vehicle, Oil change, Tune Up ect.... I also informed him that there was a gassy smell in the car and asked him to diagnose the smell. I told him that I was not sure if the smell was from the exhaust or something else. Damien called me back and told me that he had looked all through the car and that there was no issue. He stated that he saw some residue near the gas cap and that he replaced the gas cap. I informed him that I felt that this was a much larger issue than that and that I wanted him to test drive the car and really find out where the issue was. He stated that he did and that there was no issue and that the car was safe to drive.
I picked up the car on Monday, July 22nd and drove the car 8 Miles to my house and parked the car. I then went out of town until Saturday July 27th. On Saturday I loaded my family into the car to go to dinner at about 4:30 pm. We drove half a block and then the engine died, and the car began to smoke. I got out of the car and opened up the engine compartment and discovered that there was a fire in the engine compartment. I removed my family from the car, Called 911 and proceeded to watch the car completely engulf in flames. The vehicle is a total loss. I estimate the worth to be approx $25,000. I had the burned remains of the vehicle towed to D & J Auto. I met with Damien the owner and informed him that I felt that this was his fault and that I wanted him to either write me a check, put this on his insurance as a claim on his insurance, or replace the Bus. He called me on Tuesday July 30th and informed me that he would not take responsibility for this issue and to come and pick up the bus. I feel that D & J Auto is not fit to be working on people's vehicles. Damien endangered my entire family and my small children and created a significant financial loss to me. I noticed there have been other complaints to BAR about this shop. I was not aware of until this issue happened. Had I known I would not have had Damien work on my Vehicle. I would really appreciate some assistance from BAR to hold this shop accountable. I am a general contractor and if I worked on someone's home and then the home burned down. I would be the responsible party. This is why we all carry liability insurance. I have asked Damien to give me his Insurance information. He told me he would, but he has not sent it to me. I want to resolve this as quickly and peacefully as possible.
