Valor Automotive Centers

On 2/18/22 I took my 1960 Thunderbird to Valor Performance for a transmission installation. The shipping on the transmission was running late so I gave Jeff Logsdon (the owner of Valor) a list of additional small items to complete on my car (a project car I have spent the last 5 years restoring) to help move the project along and allow for him to bill some hours while he waited to perform the transmission installation. My priorities, which I emphasized at the time that I dropped my car off, were to adjust/align the rear quarter windows, install the interior door, kick, and quarter panels, as well as the windlace trim. As I was leaving, I noticed some swirl marks in my new paint and asked him, if he had time, to address them. I emphasized that this was the lowest priority and if he could get to it great, if not, no big deal. On March 5, I received an invoice from Jeff for $3070.24 for essentially waxing my car. To be clear; he did not color sand it, he did not perform any specialized work like ceramic coatings, he had his guys do a three-stage compound and polish job - HE WAXED IT. Further, because the hood was prepped for paint at the time, that was not included in the $3070.24 bill. He charged me $120/hr for a mediocre wax job. There are still swirl marks and light scratches in my car's finish, and now that it has dulled back down a bit, I can see that it does not look much better than when I dropped it off. In fact, the rocker panels look worse. NOBODY commands that kind of money for that type of service. The fair market value of something like that is $50/hr on the top end of the scale, anywhere else out there doing that type of work. On top of that he waxed the car BEFORE he did anything else. If you are going to do something like that, you do it LAST. That's simply common sense. The only reason I can think of that this guy would have pulled something like this is that he was calculating that I couldn't pay the invoice and thus he would slap a mechanic's lien on it and attempt to steal my car that way. After reviewing the BBB website, I see that he has done that to other people, which strongly points his motives in that direction. When I met with this guy, at his office, on 2/7 to discuss his ridiculous invoice, he offered to write me a check for $500 because he knew he had ripped me off and had charged me $120/hr rather than his published rate of $100/hr OR he would replace the front glass (it was cracked) with a glass I had supplied and adjust the quarter windows per my original request. I opted for him to do the work. His guy did a nice job of installing the replacement glass but nobody attempted to adjust the quarter windows. He lied and said that his guys spent hours attempting to adjust those windows. I know that was a lie because they were in the exact same position as they were when I dropped the car off and upon getting the car home I had them adjusted perfectly in half an hour's time. This was after this classic car restoration guru stated that adjusting them was "impossible." This guy is a thief, a liar, and his business practices are ethically bankrupt. Don't fall into his trap and make the same mistake I made by taking your car to him.