We were then feeling quite fortunate that this defect had been spotted by helpful locals, and even more fortunate that this young guy, Danny, was a mechanic who just happened to be eating nearby when we pulled over.
So he jumped in the van with us and directed us to his workplace. We pulled over round the corner and he went and fetched his colleague, Javier. When he arrived, Javier had a feel around and said we needed new steering joints. Not a problem, he knew exactly where to buy them and he could fit them straight away. So he jumped in the van too and we went on a 15 minute drive.
On the way, they were chatting to us about our travels, what Peruvian food we'd tried and whether we were going to the World Cup. They were friendly enough, Danny even calling Paul 'amigo Paul' every time he spoke to him. Then we pulled over around the corner from the shop and Javier got out and quickly removed the old steering joints from both sides. They even posed for photos while this was happening.
When Javier was done, Paul was ordered not to take his foot off the brake, so he had to stay in the van. I offered to go with Javier to the shop to buy the parts, but he said I should stay with Paul and Danny. A few minutes later he returned with another guy who was holding new steering joints. This parts guy ushered me in to the van alongside Paul, and got in as well to explain what parts he had and how they worked. He appeared to be giving us the idiot's guide which was a bit odd, but I figured he was explaining slowly because of the language barrier. He then passed the parts out to Javier and continued a long explanation of how much they were.
Alarm bells finally started ringing when he said one of the parts, which we had four of, cost $120 each. The total bill was going to be $680 for two steering joints!
"No, no, no!" said Paul. "Stop what you're doing," he said to Javier. "We don't have $680, this is a scam!"
The parts guy started saying, "But if you don't want a receipt, it's only 1,000 soles (£220)."
Paul got out and looked at the steering joint - all they'd done is painted it with shiny black paint to make it look new, put fresh grease on and some plastic wrappers on the floor to make it look like they'd unwrapped the new parts. Paul goes, "I think it's time to call the police because this is a scam," at which point Danny mysteriously disappeared.
Javier started saying to the parts guy "They don't have that money, can't you give them a bigger discount?" So the parts guy started asking what price we wanted to pay. Paul got in the van and we told them we were going to another garage for a second opinion, they could come with us or not. We started the van and began doing a 3-point turn to get out. The parts guy was still asking how much we wanted to pay, but Javier was actually directing us to help us get out. Before we drove off, Paul stopped to give them a second chance to get in and come with us, but they both just waved us off - proof enough that there had been nothing wrong with the van and they hadn't fitted new parts.
For a while I'd believed we'd had a problem and they were just trying to rip us off for the parts. Looking back, it was obvious it was a scam:
- we'd always pulled up around the corner from places and never actually saw the garage or parts shop
- the parts guy had got us both in the van while Javier 'fitted' the parts so we couldn't see him not doing it
- there was no way they could have replaced the parts they said they did in the time they did it and without getting under the van
- after Javier 'removed' our original joints, the tools on the ground included an adjustable spanner that was fully closed
- Danny's overalls were spotlessly clean
- the receipt book the parts guy was writing on had the name and address of the company hand-written at the top
- Danny had said we were lucky we were driving an Italian vehicle and not a German one as parts are easier to get, but when I pointed out the Mercedes Benz badge on his overalls, he said he worked on Mercedes, Porsche, Audi...
It was actually quite a slick act though and the ironic thing is if they hadn't asked for quite so much money they'd have probably got away with it. Thank god Paul realised what was happening when he did and had the guts to drive off. Unfortunately, it appears Danny cut open a piece of rubber (the CV boot) to get some grease when he feigned our mechanical problem and we now have to get that replaced.
