Unhappy Customers and Employees

Have you ever been majorly screwed over before by a company? Colletti Motorsports did it to me. This is my account of how Steve (the "ripper off-er") Colletti has lied to me, broken promises, overcharged me for parts, did bad work, and refused to pay for damages.  The short version is that I took my car to him and asked that it be done in 3.5 months.  After paying $8k and getting my car back two years later, I take it to another mechanic to be checked out and the entire engine has to be rebuilt again.  The new mechanic found that the head gaskets had blown and that the camshaft and front camshaft bearing was bad.  The long version is this entire blog.

I brought my car to Steve (the "ripper off-er") Colletti in November 2010. I had asked that the car be done around the beginning of March, to which I was told it would be. After March had gone by, I was upset but not overly upset because I know extenuating circumstances do happen.  But I was slightly perturbed because if Steve (the "ripper off-er") Colletti would have started working on my car immediately (November), rather than waiting until February, the car might have been completed or almost completed on time, even after running into difficulties, which was continual excuse.  If he would have started in November, he would have had an extra 2.5 months to deal with errors or difficulties.  But he waited until February to start my car when he had told me the car would probably be done in January (Remember telling me that Steve the "ripper off-er" Colletti?).  Since I do not drive my car in the winter, I really didn't care to have it done in January, so that did not affect me at all when he said that.  I wanted him to take his time and do it correctly, but I also wanted it to be done in a certain time frame.  Bringing the car in November gave him 3.5 months to complete it, which should have been plenty of time considering he told me he was slow on business.  He told me it would be done.  This was one major factor in choosing this place.  If that promise was not made to me, I would not have come here to begin with.  Obviously he just wanted my money and was not concerned with being professional and doing what was promised. 

Once May had arrived, I was really upset.  Steve has called me a "difficult" customer in the Better Business Bureau report.  I guess a "difficult" customer to them is one who expects the owner to be true to his word.  While visiting Katie Knabe (my former wife and daughter of Bill Knabe) some time around the beginning of the summer, I told Katie of the difficulties I was having with Colletti Motorsports.  She said she wondered why Steve had told me that my car would be done in January, when her father, Bill Knabe, always takes off for the entire month of December.   Bill Knabe, if you haven't read previous posts, was an employee of Colletti Motorsports. This left the shop undermanned.  She also told me, and this is a direct quote, her father "was not happy with Steve."  Now I was really nervous and upset about my car.