I brought a 4A chassis to some outfit in R.I. that "specialized in chassis TR repairs." After a couple of months at at their shop and face to face meeting as well as numerous email, telephone, and snail mails, they informed me that the chassis was ready ... and the bill was $1700 to install MY parts. The not to excede estimate we agreed on was $80O. On the way down there, we were excited thinking that they really listened and knew what I wanted. After all, got to be great if it was costing $1700. And the chassis IS the most important part of the car.
When we arrived, we found my chassis, that I delivered blasted down to bare metal, sitting outside in a pile of stuff covered by a piece of plastic. The plastic was covered water where is had sunk between the frame members.
When I uncovered the chassis, I immediately noticed that the chassis was now orange, covered in rust. Instead of cutting out the bad rusty parts and flush welding in new pieces as promised, these (idiots - sorry), simply tack welded pieces of new metal over the rust... everywhere. It was the worst looking POS that you could imagine. They did a nice job on the trailing arm chassis members though. But that's about it.
I was so emotionally taken back, I just went back to my truck and cried. They destroyed my frame and now expected me to pay for it. I left it with them without paying and was later threatened several times, both by phone and emails demanding payment. If I lived there (not 3-1/2 hours away) I would have gone the court route. But my only recourse was to not worry about the loss of parts (some NOS) and settle for a reasonable amount. We paid $500 to these jokers (the owner thinks he's one of the blues brothers NOT) and I countinued to be harrassed with threats of legal action even AFTER the payment.
I still have some of the not so nice, personally offensive emails. He actually attacked everyone who ever owned a British sports car with demeaning language.
So keep this in mind. I wouldn't hesitate to fire anyone for incompetence and have fired a mason with 8th grade chimney building skills (that owns a stove shop here.)
So my advice to you:
IT'S YOUR MONEY and you are entitled to spend it with whomever you wish. If they can't get the job done, it might actually be a load off of their mind too. Just keep in mind that there are a lot of jokers out there with big egos.