Took my Levinson amp in for repair

you take your car into a repair facilty with a slight "engine noise". the mechanic takes it for a test drive to hear and possibly diagnose the noise. the engine throws a rod or "blows up" in some manner.....what happens next??

i'm just asking?

thinking what Al said above comes into play. so many possibilities.....but you don't win lawsuits with possibilities. lots of questions need to be answered before anyone gets paid (except the lawyers =)).

It doesn't seem like the dealer was negligent. I like Levy03's analogy.

Levy03
Pretty close except take car to shop they take things apart put back together test drive things go up in smoke
The amp is still fixable
Thanks

Abruce: i completely understand *and* agree with your position. no doubt i'd feel the same. my comments were more directed at advise to jump into the judicial system and get a lawyer (unless u have a friend/relative who will help for free). also agree with your path thus far...local/state agencies might be able to help or provide a nudge?. i'd try everything free and fairly painless before sinking money into a lawsuit. try negotiating with the shop owner for a fair % of the repair/replacement cost. if you're both reasonable....maybe something can be worked out?.

best of luck getting this resolved.

"Not really but lawyers are not usually very honest now"

Gee, in one sentence frangment you've managed to 1) paint with a very broad brush; 2) insult, without provocation a segement of the population as a whole and certainly a segement of Audiogon participants; and 3) state a position without asserting any basis.

Now to your actual issue- unless you can PROVE that something the dealer did precipitated the problem, AND that what they did was negligent, you've got NO CASE. The burden of proof is on you, and from what I've read you have no way to PROVE that what happened at the dealer would not also have happened the next time you turned on the amp in your own home. In order to prevail you would need an expert to testify what was wrong with the amp, and how that was caused by the dealer's negligence. You are of course behind the eight ball on this because at the starting gate you brought the amp to the dealer to address a malfunction. Even in a "small claims" scenario where the burden of proof usually is lower, it's going to be tough to overcome the fact that you brought a broken amp to the dealer and you got back a broken amp.

You mention insurance and doesn't the dealer have insurance for these sort of things. Well, maybe, but just because someone is insured doesn't mean if you intend to pursue a third-party liability claim you are relieved from proving negligence. You aren't. And the amp could not be covered under the dealer's own 1st party insurance coverage because the amp did not belong to the dealer. So your only recourse is a third-party liability claim.

Face it, you had a ML that was going south, and it did.

Care to guess my profession?