how time has changed in a year, i still remember the thread last year about robert's "great" work. i was told before that nsxprime can be hostile so i have kept quiet, until recently people started talking about how shady robert is so i figured i'd share my story as well. in short, robert is hands down the most incompetent persons i have encountered and there is no reason for anyone to go to him anymore.
my nsx was my daily driver and it was due for big job (belt, pump, hoses, etc...). with ramon i would need to leave my car with him for days which was a problem, and since robert offered to come to my place to finish the job in a day, i decided to give him a try. fwiw, price was not an issue for me, i have no problem with 2-3k worth of services given a car like this, time and duration was.
he said he needed money to order the parts which i thought was reasonable and we met up in 2 days. after he claimed he got all the parts we scheduled a saturday 9am. i read all about how on time he is so when he showed up close to 10am, i didn't like it but considered that normal. the list of work included the following (or so he claimed): water pump, timing belt, tranny fluid, engine oil, master and slave clutch cylinders, bleeding brakes, main relay. i helped him offload all the parts from his car and saw all the new parts, so at least that was a good sign.
throughout the day i went in and out checking on him, all the way till around 9pm and he was still working on the car. that was the time i started to get suspicious. i helped him bleed the clutch and saw all the brake fluid bottles were still sealed so that means he hadn't bled the brakes. after we were done with the clutch, he was doing other stuff while i sat around with my phone. after finishing all the coolant stuff, i noticed the remaining brake fluids were still untouched so i asked if he's working on the brakes next, and he said "oh it's done already".
i didn't say a word. i am a mild person and don't talk much, but i know what's happening. it was late and he was trying to pull a quick one. i figured i wouldn't argue with him since he was still working on my car but that was a big strike 1. after everything was done he told me 2 of the hoses were missing so he would come again to finish the job. strike 2. when i do something first thing is to make sure i have everything necessary.
car was done around 10pm, everything seemed fine until next morning when i started the car -- CEL. messaged him and he said he would come that evening while i scrambled to take our other car to work leaving my wife car-less. he did come that evening and figured one hose was loose, popped it back in and everything was ok.
drove the car for another week or two, i started noticing that the oil pressure gauge was quite low when idling. asked him and he said likely the oil sending unit went bad. i didn't want to think much and probably car is old, he said it would take a week to get the part, so i was stranded again for a week. not fun.
came a week, msg, no response. called, he said part arrived and would come on certain evening. that day came, msg, no response, called. no response, and until 11pm or so he msg and said sorry his wife went to ER and he couldn't come. again, i am a mild person, despite my doubts i said np, take care of family, let me know when he had time BUT i wanted it fixed asap.
days passed, nothing, msg, nothing. finally replied saying he would come on another certain evening. that day came, again nothing. and late msg came and said sorry he was about to leave but wife needed to get med and it was getting late. maybe his wife was seriously sick. so again i said no problem.
few days later i msg again and he said he would come that evening. third time is a charm i guess, he came with his brother and changed the oil sending unit. he said he came straight from work, but when testing with his brother, i asked about traffic and his brother gave me a route that was completely off from where his work was (acura of santa monica). at that point it was not surprising anymore, i just wanted to get it over with. again good thing i was around so i saw the new unit. but the two hoses were still missing and he said he would come later.
funny thing is during their conversations, they were talking about going to disneyland with family, and apparently his wife called about having drinks later that evening. for a wife that was bad enough to go to ER and then needed med so badly that sounded awfully weird (but i guess we all know why). out of curiosity i poked around and located his facebook and other info. guess what, the day (or the day after i forgot) his wife went to ER, he posted asking who wanted to have some drinks over at the garcia residence. i smiled a little, that was strike 3 right there.
out of fun, a month later i msg him somewhat sarcastically asking if he had forgotten about the 2 remaining hoses. he said no, he had been very sick but he would come. at that point i already made up my mind that no way in hell would i let this person touch my car again. and of course, fast forward a year and there is nothing from him.
i stayed quiet but i told people who i know about robert, and now in light of this thread i guess i am just re-inforcing what others have experienced. like i said some told me in the past to be careful about posting on prime. there were a few people who totally stood by robert's work here and on fb, i won't go into names but i just hope there are no more victims.
i will take my car to ramon to have everything checked out, i have just been so busy with work. i have no idea about what's going on with robert now, and i have zero sympathy about anything that could have happened to him. this is a small community and all he did was digging a grave for himself.
