Vin’s Auto Service

This is my story from Vin’s. I’m not originally from the area, and it was my first time there. I won’t be going back on account of the experience I had.
I had originally gone to rent a Uhaul van from him. My car’s horn has been broken so I figured, as I then realized he ran a auto repair shop, to see if he had time to look into it. I asked Vin about it and he said they had time to take a look.
He called me an hour later and said the new horn would be $ 85. I said no problem and to go ahead and install it. After he did, I returned to the shop to find that the horn now honks randomly and punching the wheel may be required to get it to stop. He said that’s the way it is. He said it seems the horn pad is broken and I would need to replace it. This would be an additional $ 285. He denied that he could have noticed this additional problem prior to installing the new horn. I said that I couldn’t afford the horn pad. He still insisted I pay him the $ 85 for the broken horn and labor. I said that was ridiculous and bad customer service.
He continued to compare his auto shop to a law firm, try to get me to believe that he had in fact fixed the horn, and said it was my decision to not buy the horn pad so tough luck. Just to provide an example of his style, here’s a blurb from our exchange.
Me: «I’m not going to pay you for installing a broken horn».
Vin: «Does it honk? Does it honk? (as he glares at me)
After taking a more direct and assertive tone than I would prefer, I ended up paying $ 50 for the labor for the installation and consequent de-​installation of the new horn.
Overall, Vin wasn’t overtly rude or mean, but seemingly deceitful and very unwilling to compromise on anything. It’s that nuanced run-​around that shady mechanics give you so nothing uncommon in the world of mechanics, unfortunately. The fact that I have Missouri plates may or may not have played a role, but I’m not here to speculate. I’m here to describe how I had to argue with the owner to only take $ 50 of my money with no value in return.