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Storage Costs A common complaint in the collector car hobby involves a car owner who grows frustrated with a restoration shop that takes years and years to com- plete a restoration. Here’s an example of the com- plete opposite—an owner who wouldn’t pick up his car! This is a lesson in why you don’t want to delay picking up your car from a repair shop, treat- ing the shop as storage space. I recently read an article about a real-world situa- tion and thought it would be of interest to you members since our hobby involves so many shop/owner transactions. I changed the names to protect those involved and legal comments are general in nature, but the end result is something you don’t want to get involved in. Ed wanted to get his ’70 Mustang restored and took it to a local body shop owned by Bob for some repairs and a new paint job. Seven months later Bob told Ed the Mustang was done but when Ed arrived, he was
unhappy with the paintwork and Bob agreed to repaint the car. One month later Bob texted Ed to tell him the car was done and ready to be picked up but there was no response. Another month went by and Ed said he could pick it up on Saturday but then never showed up because he was at the hospital with his mother. Finally, another month later, Bob contacted Ed and asked, “Now what do I have to do to get you to get this car?” Ed responded he would be traveling for the next three-to-four months and couldn’t pick the car up until he returned. Ed did send a friend, a used car dealer who rented storage to Ed for his other collector cars, to the body shop to inspect the Mustang and the friend claimed it still needed some more paintwork. Although Ed had already paid the full bill, the shop had the right to charge for storage when the car was not picked up promptly, but Bob chose not to charge him because “he was a regular customer, and I just wanted the car off my lot.”
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