⚠️ Warning: My experience with “mechanic” Richard Douglass at Rad Rides on S. B’way – $5k taken, car left destroyed and impounded

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I want to share what happened to me so nobody else ends up in the situation I’m in.

I got scammed out of the $5,000 I paid, thousands more in damage to my car, and I’ve now been without a vehicle for over a year because of Richard Douglass at Rad Rides.

In February 2025, I found a shop called Rad Rides on Craigslist after I slid on ice and damaged the front right corner of my car. Richard Douglass, who said he was the owner, quoted me $2,000 and told me it would be done in a few weeks.

I paid him the $2,000 and had my car towed to his shop.

What followed was eight months of excuses and delays. Over that time I ended up paying another $3,000, while dealing with thousands of texts and phone calls and hundreds of promised completion dates.

He repeatedly told me the car was almost finished or completely done, but every time it turned out not to be true.

At one point he even did work on the wrong side of the car, which had nothing to do with the damage.

Eventually things got even worse. My car was left on the street and ended up being impounded by the city. He claims to have lost the key during this.

I had to borrow a lot of money just to get my car out of impound. Since it was still not drivable, despite him telling me multiple times that it was finished, I had to have it towed from the impound lot to another mechanic shop.

It has been at the new shop since October. They told me it would cost about $12,000 to fix everything and get my car back to normal. They said the condition of the work done to the car was so bad that one of them described it as “vandalism.”

On top of that, the interior of my car was trashed, even though it was in perfect condition when I gave it to him. I’ve been quoted $500–$1,000 just to restore the interior.

I’m a disabled single mom with two young kids, and my only income came from driving for Uber, which I haven’t been able to do for almost a year and a half now because I don’t have a car.

Because of this situation I’ve had to borrow thousands and thousands of dollars just to survive.

Between rideshares, rentals, lost income, the $5,000 I paid him (including $1,500 from Denver Human Services meant to help me get back to work), and the $10,000+ in damage done to my car, this situation has cost me around $40,000 since February 2025.

When I confronted him about everything, he told me to go F myself and said he wasn’t going to do anything about it. And that since I have no one to help me, there’s nothing I can do about it.

Once the current repairs are finished, I’ll also have to tow the car to the Volvo dealership, because that’s the only place that can replace the $1,200 key he claims he lost. And you have to bring it to them.

I also want to mention that he is extremely racist. He blamed everything on various people of color to try and cover his ass.

Please be careful and don’t let this happen to you.