Multiple drivers complain about Metro Vancouver mobile mechanic’s business practices

A number of people throughout the Lower Mainland have reached out to CTV News with complaints about a man advertising himself as a mobile mechanic.

A mobile mechanic advertising his services in Metro Vancouver has drawn the ire of several motorists, who tell CTV News his invoices far exceed initial estimates — and they can’t be sure he has completed the work he’s billing for.

On Tuesday, Oct. 14, Surrey resident Yadwinder Singh couldn’t start the truck he uses for his business as a residential and commercial painter.

After looking online, he found ads for Mobile Mechanic 24/7 and gave the business a call.

Singh said a man named Dildar Gill showed up and diagnosed an electrical issue on the Dodge Ram 1500.

He told Singh the problem was likely caused by rodent damage — and quoted $2,700 for repairs.

“I believed him,” Singh said. “He told me it cannot be fixed here and he has to take it to his garage.”

Singh said when the mechanic dropped off his truck, he brought an invoice for $3,990.

It lists $1,495 for a new electronic control module, $495 to program the new ECM and $500 for a new wiring harness.

Singh said Gill told him ICBC would reimburse him for some of the costs if he made a claim for the rodent damage.

Since then, Singh has attempted to make the claim.

ICBC has told him he needs to get photographic evidence from the mechanic, but Gill won’t provide it.

“Why is he not sending me the pictures of the work, which I can easily send to ICBC and get my money reimbursed for the rodent damage?” asked an exasperated Singh.

On top of that, Singh said he has no way to be sure Gill actually replaced all of the parts he billed him for.

Other unhappy customers

In East Vancouver, Kevin Schnepel has a similar story.

When his Honda Element wouldn’t start on Thanksgiving Monday, he also turned to the internet for help and wound up calling Mobile Mechanic 24/7.

He said Gill showed up and diagnosed an issue with the SUV’s starter.

He also told Schnepel there was rodent damage to some of the electrical wiring, which ICBC would pay to have repaired, and a problem with the electronic control module.

It’s the same thing he told Singh.

Gill gave Schnepel an invoice for $4,863.60.

“I was shocked at that time. But he kept the keys of my car, and he said we’re going to have to do an e-transfer and we’re going to wait until it’s confirmed before I give you the keys back,” Schnepel said.

It was 10:00 p.m. on a holiday Monday, and although uneasy, Schnepel felt compelled to pay the bill.

The next day, he took the vehicle to a different mechanic to have the work inspected and find out if Gill replaced the parts included in the invoice.

“The mechanic confirmed, and I have that report, that the work that this mobile mechanic claimed to have done, was not done,” Schnepel said.

In that report, the other mechanic said the starter was likely replaced but the other items listed on the invoice were not.

The report said some of the areas Gill would have had to access to replace the parts had cobwebs in them — suggesting nobody had done any work on them in a long time.

Schnepel said Gill offered to return the old parts to him and provide photographic evidence for an ICBC claim, but has not given him either.

In all, nine different people have been in contact with CTV News to share similar stories of unverified work and invoices for much more than Gill’s initial quotes.

On Thursday, nobody answered the door at Gill’s Surrey home.

CTV News has identified 10 different phone numbers associated with his mobile mechanic business and was able to reach him on one of them.

Asked why so many people have similar complaints about his business practices, Gill said it was because they don’t understand automotive mechanics.

Gill refused to answer questions about why he would not provide the photos his customers need to be reimbursed by ICBC for the alleged rodent damage he claims to have repaired.

“Yeah, no. I’m not interested,” Gill said when asked to explain.

He then abruptly ended the call.

Litigation against Gill

A search of the court registry reveals two successful civil actions against Gill.

The B.C. Civil Resolution Tribunal ordered Gill to pay a customer $725 in a 2023 dispute over repairs to an RV.

The tribunal found Gill had charged the customer for a part that was not installed.

The decision found Gill had presented the customer with an invoice for an alternator from Lordco Auto Parts but, in fact, had returned the product for a refund the next day.

That same year, a small claims court judge ordered Gill to pay a woman more than $35,000 in a dispute over the sale of a 2015 Jeep Renegade.

In the statement of claim in that case, the woman claimed she had paid Gill $6,900 for the SUV and shortly afterwards discovered serious issues with it.

The woman was able to track down the Jeep’s original owner, who told her “that he sold the Jeep Renegade for $1,500 and that he had fully disclosed that the engine needed replacing at the time of the sale.”

The woman wound up replacing the engine at a cost of more than $15,000.

The judge ordered Gill to pay her costs and punitive damages for a total amount of $35,192.69.

‘The icing on the cake’

Many of the people who came forward to share their recent experiences with Gill also plan to take legal action against him.

Schnepel will be seeking to recover some of what he paid Gill for the work he allegedly did on his Honda — plus an additional $167.

That’s the amount of the ticket he received in the mail from the City of Vancouver for a traffic violation.

“The icing on the cake, I guess, for me was just coming back from a work trip, and I had a notice from the City of Vancouver and it was a red-light camera violation,” he said. “And this was when the mobile mechanic was returning my car that evening on Thanksgiving Monday.”

Schnepel said he shared photos of the traffic violation with Gill, but Gill has not responded.

RELATED STORIES:

• ‘Your car is in pieces’: B.C. woman speaks out after $33 oil change turns into $1,700 bill
• Scammers constructed elaborate ‘foreign police station’ to scam B.C. woman out of $1 million: RCMP
• Fraudster manipulated payment machines in B.C., Ont. and Alta. to steal thousands, shop owners say
• Crypto platform not liable to fraud victim who remortgaged her house, lost $670K, B.C. court rules