October 2023 by Lisa T.
October 9, 2020, I entered into a contract with Bob Vartanian, of Aurora Autoworks, LLC, to restore my 1971 Javelin. The contract was to include the entire car and include a paint job with "high gloss show finish." The contract amount was for $30,716. Bob required monthly payments of $5,000 each until balance was satisfied. After sandblasting the car body, Bob contacted me and asked me to come into Aurora Autoworks to see all of the additional body blemishes that appeared following sandblasting; he had circled and numbered each site. Bob told me that the work would cost $3,275 additional. We agreed to that amount and it was added to the balance and paid in full soon thereafter. The balance of $30,716 plus the $3,275 was paid off on March 11, 2021.There was another time, 4/8/21, when Bob again requested additional monies ($1,800) to complete a repair on the left rear end. This repair was noted in the original estimate and would have been included in that estimate. Bob said that he would need the car to be taken to a different shop and the car be stretched. I questioned this and Bob became angry and verbally abusive, threatening a work stoppage and fees, unless I paid him the $1,800. Bob informed me that another body shop guy would stop by Aurora Autoworks and explain to Bob how to go about fixing the issue. Bob then dropped the price to $700 and stated that if I did not pay it, it would go into a work stoppage and incur storage fees, at $45 per day. I refused to pay the $700 because this damage was already included in the original contract price. I texted Bob pictures of the contract (item #9 & #10) where the damage was reflected in the price of the repair. Bob became irate and said that I was accusing him of lying and stated that he had done thousands of dollars of free work (??) and that I was bitching about one spot. He rambled on and stated that he will start charging me for every single extra hour or he will just paint over the flaws. I told him that I never called him a liar and offered to pay him $600 if he put the repair down on paper and send it to me; he agreed to the amount. Bob never said anything and later increased the amount to $900. This incident is where Bob showed his true colors and our troubles began. Bob would continue to bring up this incident for the next 2+ years and would from this point on speak in a negative, demeaning, angry tone with me and referred to me as idiot and moron, to name a few. Bob would not continue working on the car restoration and kept making excuses, such as: he couldn't get help and he was moving his businesses location. Conversations regarding color of paint for the car began. The contract was written stating that, "COLOR: NOT SURE YET." Bob refused to paint the car black, as I requested. He said that I had chosen white as the color; I never said I wanted the car painted white. I then asked him to paint the car yellow and he still refused to do that as well. I asked for him to refund the paint job monies and I would take the car elsewhere to be painted my color choice. He refused to provide a refund and stated that he was going to paint it white or it would go on a work stoppage, court hold. The car sat for several more months as we bickered about the color of paint. He finally agreed to paint it yellow, even though he made derogatory remarks about how ugly it would look; I have many texts with his profane, rude remarks. He demanded that I go to a local shop and pick the shade of yellow, get him a paint code number and a spray card and mail it to him. I did as he requested and he responded by telling me to return to the store and get a paint sample and mail it to him. I again, did as he demanded. The car remained stagnant for several months while he changed business locations. Bob refused to move my car to his new car shop location. He said that he did not want to take on the responsibility of moving my car and he left it at his old shop location. I had to drive 4.5 hours to his old shop and hire a towing business to load and transport my Javelin