Ladies and gentlemen as you may remember, the events of July 3rd were quite eventful here at the TharpSter Domain.

Faith the TharpSter TreadMill had part of her toe amputated right from under her by a venomous pack of angry squirrels who didn’t appreciate the gall she displayed a few years ago by grabbing one of their brethren off of a tree, shaking it just violently enough to make the components of its skull explode, and then delivered it to Wifey as a first fruits offering.  Wifey didn’t appreciate it either.

The other thing that happened was that the latest Spiderman movie opened that day.  While on their way to see the movie, Junior and Juniorette were in an accident while driving the Jeep.

Crud.  I know.

Nearly a month later, and here’s what we have.

The mechanic approved by our insurance company to fix and/or assess the mess held the car for about three weeks while trying to determine what to do about it.  Keep in mind we have no history or experience with this mechanic.  We have our own mechanic that we’ve used for the last 15 years plus.

Last week, we received word from the insurance company that the Jeep is being totaled.  They wanted to cut us a check for twice the amount we paid for the Jeep.  Not really wanting to part with the Jeep, and not really trusting the current mechanic, we offered to take a reduced settlement and requested the Jeep be towed to our mechanic.  The insurance company agreed, provided instructions to the current mechanic to place *everything* they had removed from the Jeep so far and place it in the back.

Everything.

Imagine our surprise this afternoon when our mechanic called about the Jeep with the following tidbits:

• He could fix the Jeep at a price which fell within the budgeted amount.  For the record, the budgeted amount just happens to be the settlement amount.  The original mechanic appears to have been in the process of hi-balling my insurance company.
• Many parts which had been removed from the Jeep while the estimate was being assembled were not in or on the Jeep.  That’s right people.  The original mechanic either has no clue what they’re doing in their own shop, or they’re trying to capitalize on a total loss vehicle by parting out my Jeep.

Phone calls have already been made to all parties involved with the express intent of insuring that the original mechanic coughs up the parts or risks escalated actions which will go beyond a strongly worded letter and a running link from this website to theirs exposing their colossal doosh baggery.

If they make it right, this offense against the TharpSter Domain will resolve itself with this particular post which doesn’t mention their name at all.

If they don’t, stay tuned.  In the brackets below, I will post their name and a link to their site as a tip to the iceberg that their Titanic-like operation is about to hit.

[This space reserved for the name of a disreputable mechanic]

In other news, this facility has been leak free for 29 hours.