Here’s what happened: I decided to put long pipe headers on my car. After about 20 hours of working on them with a friend we couldn’t get the final few bolts in the passenger side header. I finally got really frustrated because I couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t lining up properly. An acquaintance worked at Dude’s, and said his shop could take care of this for a minimal amount of money. (I’m a full time student with a part time job. I had the car towed to Dude’s. They called later and said they needed to redo the starter wires because they were hitting the header. It would be about an hour’s labor charge. I said fine. (Their labor rate is $78 per hour.) They called back the next day and said they needed to install new shorty spark plugs because the ones that I had installed were too close to the header. That day, they called back again and said they now needed to put new spark plug wires in, because it needed angled boots. They said it would be about 2 hours worth of labor for the wires. I said “no” because I can do them myself. I finally asked what my total was at and they had to call me back. They called back and said it was at $597.00!!! I found out that my car was able to start and drive home, so that’s what I did. When I get home, I open the hood and see this wiring job! My intent for the car is to make it a show car. This wiring job will not do. I could not believe it was hacked like this. I call and tell Dude’s I’m not happy with the work. I ran into a problem getting there so my mom calls and talks to Scott the manager, and he says they “will do whatever it takes to fix it”. And they will make it their “top priority” when I bring it in. On May 20th, I take the car back and go to work. My mom calls in the late afternoon, and they haven’t even looked at it. Scott assures her that they will look at it right away. Scott calls back, and says they way they want to solve the problem is to cover the wires with a split wire loom. This does not get rid of the poor, cheap wiring job they did. It just hides the problem. She tells them that it will not be acceptable, and he wants to talk to me. I call from work and he tells me that I approved the work. His employee says that he told me that to do it “right” it would cost me about $300 and I said no. That I requested it be patched together! Now who in their right mind would request this to be done to their car? To solve the problem now, all I wanted was for them to run a wire from the battery to the starter, but they said that it will cost them too much money to do it and if I wanted it done right, then I would have to pay them around $300.00 to fix it. So much for doing “whatever it takes”. Mom calls Scott, trying to make arrangements to get the car back home while I’m at work. She tells Scott that the conversation with his employee never took place because she was here when they called. She also reminded him of his promise to “do whatever it takes” to fix the problem. Did he really want his shops name on this work. He says no, they are not proud of it. But he would have to pay someone for a ½ day of work to fix it! Says they would have to take the headers off, motor mounts out, etc.! Mom points out the car already had the motor mount bolts off when the car came in and they called about the wire, why wasn’t it done correctly then? Bottom line, I would not take my car back to them under any circumstances. First, in my opinion, this is very sloppy work. Second, they promised to make it top priority. Never happened. They promised to “do whatever it takes to fix it”. They didn’t. I asked what happens if there’s an electrical problem, (we will never be able to trace it with this patch job), they said they guarantee there work. Well, we’ve been lied to 3 times, why would I believe them again! All they did was hack some wires up and splice another one in there. It looks terrible and the way they did it was terrible. They told me it took them 2 hours to do the wiring. First of all, it doesn’t take anyone that long to do what they did. Basically I asked the manager why it was so expensive. They broke it down and with parts, labor and the tow bill it came to about $300. They couldn’t even account for the other $300 they charged me. Also, between the employees and the managers, they were all pointing fingers at each other for the work that was done. VERY unprofessional for a shop to do. When I got the car back, they made up a receipt for what they charged me. They just kind of made up all of what they did so that it came out to the amount of money I was charged. I mean, when I brought the car in the headers were already installed, sensors relocated and everything. All they did was ding the header so that the back of the passenger side header would fit (reason for me bringing it in), cut and splice a new wire going to the starter and install spark plugs. They originally quoted me $250 for a full header install. Where do they come up with what they charged me? All I asked was for them to put one solid wire going from the battery to the starter, like they should have done in the first place and they don’t think doing it correctly for me is worth their time and money. In my opinion, it doesn’t seem that they think salvaging their reputation is worth it either. Here are some pics of their work.

I read everything on the midwest and c-town boards. I know this is bull****, they are taking advantage of your situation. You have receipts with the amount you paid. S*** should be working properly now and if it is not...you need to raise HELL. They just think it is another kid with an "OLD" car with money to burn!

Now I am pissed off and want a fight. F THAT S!

Yeah just think about it though. That was 2 whole months worth of pay for me and I still need to pay someone else to do it correctly.

UPDATE: I contacted the Better Business Bureau about the situation. I pretty much explained everything that I wrote in this thread. They asked what I wanted done and I asked for a refund so I can go get it done the right way. I just got a copy of the letter that DUDES sent in reply to my complaint. After they had some time to think, they decided to modify their story so it looks good. They insist on telling everyone that there was a problem installing the header due to a Aftermarket starter. Thats a lie. It is the stock starter that came on it in 1988. They charged me 2.5 hours labor because of the supposed aftermarket starter. (What they did was dent the header, install dipstick tube and motor mount bolt) Then, they told the BBB that they told me my total was up to $590.00 and that did not include the wiring that they did. That is another lie since the first thing they called me about was the wiring that they had to do and it would be "Another 1 hour labor" They claim they advised me that "to correctly modify the starter wire, an entire new wire from the starter to battery would need to be fabricated and installed". They didn't explain how they were going to do it on the phone. I only asked for that to be done after it was done half ***. They claim they told me that to be performed correctly, it would add at least 2 hours labor and $100 in parts. Then they said that I told them that I was over budget and I just wanted my car back. THIS WAS THE OTHER WAY AROUND. They did the wiring first and I agreed to an hours labor. They never said anything about doing it "right". After they told me the total and wanted to charge me 2 hours labor to install SPARK PLUG wires I said I just want my car back because there is no way in hell I am going to pay $160 for spark plug wire installation when I can do them myself in 20 minutes. The whole thing is that now they are changing their story and saying I asked them to do it like that. Thats total BS. It's kinda funny though because first one employee said to use one full wire(the right way) and the mechanic insisted on just hacking one up because it would be cheaper for them. When I got to the shop, the mechanic said that it was the owners fault because that is all the owner would allow them to use. NOW THEY ARE TURNING ALL FAULT ON ME.
Now I am real pissed. They are making everything up and calling ME a liar. They made up coversations that were never had. The actually said I requested for them to "cut corners" They turned the whole story around.
So I just gave them a 3rd chance to settle everything. They messed up again and kept on lying.
Another funny lie is that when they brought it to my house (My mom asked to, since I was at work at the time) they claimed it cost them 1.5 hours labor time and over 13 miles. Thats another lie because It takes me 15 minutes to get there max since I live on the same street as the shop and it is 5 miles max.
Here is a PM that was sent to me on the mfba board from an employee. They agreed that it wasn't good work and they promised to fix it:
Hey Brian,

Check To see that the o2 sensor is working properly, especially since it isn't heated. Then check those wires....1 or more may be burned through with the headers. Then make sure that nothing is touching the headers.....

Again I'm sorry what happened at the shop and whenever you want us to redo the wiring just give me shout and I can line you up.

Another PM:bring the car by and we'll take care of those wires for you. Give me call at the shop before you head over so I can make sure to make room for you.

hey man....i feel for you. next time give me a shout and bring your car by my house and we can work this out to make it look better.....not a big deal at all. Go buy a starter wire and we'll route it up. Sorry you got f*cked over by them. Get a lawyer and take it to small claims court. trust me...it'll be worth it.

If you have already paid for the services but the funds haven't been withdrawn then put a stop payment. See how their story is once the money doesn't come their way.

If the money has already been transfered then this option isn't open to you.

If the BBB can't do anything for you I suggest you contact the Attorney General of Illinois. They actually have legal power and can bring this shop to court for damages if nessesary. The process is not immediate though.
Convenient link to the Attorney General

The service is already payed for unfortunately. That will probably be my next route because I am going to be damned if I have to pay out of my pockets for another shop to fix what they messed up. I don't know if you guy's have read my post in the TPI section, but my car won't hold an idle and everyone thinks its cammin. Well it happened after it came out of there so I am beginning to think it is the wiring since it is done very poorly. The wires actually move around inside those connectors. I already spent a lot of money trying to rule other things out, but I won't know until I get this fixed. This whole thing is giving me a headache thinking about it.

That sux, man. Were I work we supply those bastards with parts. Maybe you want to sent them some hate mail in each parts box, I can make it happen, LOL.

Then again the place is called "Dude's" that's punishment enough