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Ripped off, any ideas?

I was given a working Fisher 800C receiver from my father in law that he purchased new and had stored in his basement. It was running hot and had a few cosmetic blemishes so for my father in law I wanted to get it looking and running like new.
I did some research and found a place called AEA Audio in the SF Bay Area, about 90 miles from my home. I called and spoke to man named Ken owner of AEA audio and he spoke a good game of everything he could do to restore it to new. I dropped it of to his home April 30th of 2017. He said he was backed up and moving so it would be about 3-4 months and would call me when he was beginning work on my unit. A very nice guy and showed me his home work shop and also had a business location about 15 minutes from his home. Everything seemed on the up and up.
I have called him 5 times since dropping it off and he assured me it was safe and still in his shop but it was taking longer than expected due to his moving and it would be another 3 weeks at every call.
I called him early December and told him I wanted to pick it up before Christmas regardless of weather or not the work was completed he said no problem he should have it done by then.
I have called him three times since and no return call. I know I should have been more deligent in my hounding him but I travel so much for work I haven't had time to stay on top of it.
What recourse do I have and how do I proceed.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.

128x128jb505
jb505's avatar
jb505 OP
60 posts
 
I just called him and spoke to him. He said he was out of the country for 3 weeks and his forwarding service didn't work. Again he was very nice and said he would try to get my unit completed by this Saturday for me to pick up, I said ok (stupid?). He told me it was located in his home and it was still there safe.
I will drive down on Saturday weather its completed or not and pick up. My father in law will be here form out of town on Sunday. I hope this works out.
Thank you for your advise. I hope he doesn't seem this and get angry.
facten
2,881 posts
 
Guy has had your unit for 10 months and you're worried he is going to get mad? Seriously? If he hassles you and doesn't want to give to you, call the police , explain situation and ask them to send a car over while you are there. 
reubent
7,005 posts
 
@jb505 - Good Luck with the pickup. I hope he has it ready for you and I hope it sounds great for you and your father. Let us know how it turns out. He may end up being a great guy that is just in a little deep at the moment. Not saying it's OK to keep something for this long, but I've read worse on this site about some pretty famous audio gurus (but not recently!).
mickeyb
578 posts
 
Go stake out his house and wait till he shows up. Confront him and tell him you’re not leaving without your unit. If he doesn’t give it to you, file a theft report with the local police. 15m house? Wtf. Most guys who work on these are very modest to say the least. What a pos. Good luck! Wish I was there to confront him with you. 
ddino77's avatar
ddino77
5 posts
 
This same type incident has been my experience (3) times. I couldn't believe that there are so many repair scawflaws among the HiFi rank-n-file who'll shake your hand with one and stab in the back with the other.  Nowadays I'm extremely careful with whom I leave my precious gear. I triple vet and then ask for (3) recent references that can be contacted. If a Google search turns up ANY negativity the gig is up. Start again fresh. Not worth this time consuming aggravation with questionable ethic characters. 
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