Terms of Service

Estimates and pricing

Estimates are free and are good for 30 days unless we say otherwise. An estimate is a price for the work described on it — not a booking. Work is scheduled once you accept.

Machines hide things. Once something is apart we sometimes find a second failure, a previous bad repair, a seized or snapped fastener, or damage that changes the job. When that happens we stop and call you before doing anything that changes the price. You always approve a change before we do the work.

Diagnostics

Diagnostic time is real work and may be billed whether or not you go ahead with the repair; we’ll tell you up front if that applies to your job. Intermittent faults — something that only acts up cold, or once a week, or over a bump — can take more than one visit to catch. We will not replace parts on a guess and bill you for the guesses.

Scheduling

We’ll give you a realistic window and tell you as soon as we know it’s moving. Parts availability is the usual reason a job slips — a back-ordered part on a 20-year-old truck can add days we don’t control. Mobile calls are weather-dependent: we won’t do a brake or driveline job in a downpour or on ice, and we’ll reschedule rather than do it badly.

What we need from you

• That you own the vehicle or machine, or have the owner’s permission for the work
• An honest history — previous repairs, modifications, and what it was doing before it got worse
• For mobile calls: safe, level, legal parking and room to work, plus permission to be on the property
• Personal belongings removed from the vehicle before you drop it off

We can’t be responsible for items left in a vehicle, or for pre-existing damage we weren’t told about.

Parts

We’ll tell you whether a part is new, aftermarket, reman, or used, and quote accordingly. Parts carry whatever warranty the manufacturer or supplier gives them — we pass that through, and we’ll help you claim it. Customer-supplied parts are welcome, but we can’t warranty a part we didn’t sell you, and if it turns out to be wrong or defective the diagnostic and labor time to find that out is still billable.

Our workmanship

If something we installed or assembled fails because of how we did it, bring it back and we’ll make it right. That covers our labor on the specific repair we performed. It doesn’t cover a different failure elsewhere on the machine, damage from continued driving after a fault appears, abuse, racing, or modifications made after the work.

Payment and storage

Payment is due when the job is finished, unless we’ve agreed to other terms in writing. Larger jobs and special-order parts may require a deposit. If you cancel a scheduled job on short notice we may charge for costs already incurred — ordered parts, or a mobile call already on the road. Vehicles left after the work is finished and the customer has been notified may be subject to storage charges and, eventually, to whatever Illinois law allows a repair shop to do about an abandoned vehicle.

Liability

If we damage something through our own negligence, we’ll make it right.

We can’t be responsible for pre-existing conditions, for failures caused by hidden defects or prior repairs we weren’t told about, or for a component failing elsewhere on a machine we were hired to work on one part of. Except where the law says otherwise, our responsibility for any single job is limited to the amount you paid for that job.

Old machines are old machines

On high-mileage vehicles and equipment that’s been sitting, bolts snap, plastic breaks, and a rusted line lets go when it’s disturbed. We work carefully and we’ll tell you when we think something is fragile before we touch it, but some of that is unavoidable on a machine of that age. Fixing one worn part can also expose the next one — that’s the machine, not the repair.

Photos, privacy, and this website

We may photograph work in progress and completed repairs for our site and Facebook page — never with your name or address attached, plates and VINs blurred out, and never at all if you ask us not to. How we handle the information you send us is covered in our Privacy Policy. Text and photos on this site belong to E&J Repairs.

Illinois law

These terms are governed by the law of the State of Illinois, and any dispute belongs in the courts of Adams County, Illinois. If a court finds part of these terms unenforceable, the rest still stands. We may update these terms; the version in effect is the one posted here when your work is scheduled.