Nice to hear such good reviews of the place. I've heard the commercials on the radio for years and often wondered about them.
One in the mid 90's time I was on Victoria island in British Columbia and my manual transmission went out. There was one place that did transmission work and their diagnosis was it needed to be rebuilt. The quoted estimate was $900 CAD and my car was worth about $900 USD. I didn't have a lot of options and I considered abandoning my car there but that left me with the question of how I would get back to Oregon and then I'd still need to buy a different car, so I agreed to the repair. Unfortunately there was delay after delay in getting the job done (needed to get parts shipped in, received wrong part, had to re-order parts, mechanic called in sick, etc etc) so in addition to the the $900 I was adding hotel nights and living expenses to the cost of the repair, and I was missing work at my job at home (employer didn't offer paid vacation or sick days) so coming home to a shrinking pay check. The thing that sucked the most is that I had just spent about $500 having a new clutch put in a few weeks prior, so I was really throwing good money after bad. When they finally got it repaired the end bill was almost $1300 CAD including the VAT. With hotel and living expenses for the additional stay, I'm guessing it cost me at least $1800 USD to repair a $900 car and my next paycheck was going to be about half. This was during a period of my life where there was always too much month at the end of the money.
Canada has (or had) a program where US citizens can file for a Canadian tax refund for VAT. It was always a nice way to get a little money back from a vacation or work trip (I don't remember what it was, something like 8% for national plus provincial. So I was looking at maybe $100 back from the car repair) and when I was filing for my tax refund among the SHORT list of exclusions: automotive repairs. KHAAAAAN!
One in the mid 90's time I was on Victoria island in British Columbia and my manual transmission went out. There was one place that did transmission work and their diagnosis was it needed to be rebuilt. The quoted estimate was $900 CAD and my car was worth about $900 USD. I didn't have a lot of options and I considered abandoning my car there but that left me with the question of how I would get back to Oregon and then I'd still need to buy a different car, so I agreed to the repair. Unfortunately there was delay after delay in getting the job done (needed to get parts shipped in, received wrong part, had to re-order parts, mechanic called in sick, etc etc) so in addition to the the $900 I was adding hotel nights and living expenses to the cost of the repair, and I was missing work at my job at home (employer didn't offer paid vacation or sick days) so coming home to a shrinking pay check. The thing that sucked the most is that I had just spent about $500 having a new clutch put in a few weeks prior, so I was really throwing good money after bad. When they finally got it repaired the end bill was almost $1300 CAD including the VAT. With hotel and living expenses for the additional stay, I'm guessing it cost me at least $1800 USD to repair a $900 car and my next paycheck was going to be about half. This was during a period of my life where there was always too much month at the end of the money.
Canada has (or had) a program where US citizens can file for a Canadian tax refund for VAT. It was always a nice way to get a little money back from a vacation or work trip (I don't remember what it was, something like 8% for national plus provincial. So I was looking at maybe $100 back from the car repair) and when I was filing for my tax refund among the SHORT list of exclusions: automotive repairs. KHAAAAAN!