I am in California and was referred to this gas station by my nephew who lives in Arlington VA. My Honda Civic hybrid 2003 recently transported from CA to Washington broke down all of a sudden. Upon receiving a high quote for transmission repair from a reputable dealer in town, my nephew assured me that this service station would be able to replace the transmission for much less. He took the written estimate provided to us from the dealer to the manager of this Texaco Service station, Mr. Farhan Ali. Mr. ALi insisted that the car be towed to his service station before he could tell us if how much it would give us what it would cost us to replace the transmission. I had the car towed from the dealer to him On September 21st, 2010 and surely he called me on the 22nd giving me three verbal options. 1) Have the car repaired (the transmission and brakes) from Mr. ALi for $3300; 2) Purchase a Volvo (1996 with 100K miles) from him for $4500, trade my car $800 and pay the difference ($3700). He also offered that he would accept $3500 instead. 3) Get the car towed away. I informed him that his transmission replacement quote was greater then the one received from the dealer and that I would have to check with my daughter if she wants a purchase a Volvo and get back to him. On Friday September 24th, 2010, he continued to insist that I should have the car repaired and not donate it. He offered to replace the transmission for $1200 provided I purchased the transmission myself ($1200). I politely informed him that all his quotes were greater then the quote by the dealer or the local repair shops but further more I did not have that kind of money to repair the car. I informed him that my daughter and I had decided to have the car donated. Upon this Mr. Farzan ALi started to make unreasonable and unethical demands of us to release our car. He has demanded $525 for release of my car for "diagnostics and storage" has demanded that I pay him cash or cashier's cheque, has threatened to have my car towed to "Henry's and records" stating it would cost me "$275 per day" there. He has been unethical and unprofessional in his business dealing especially after finding out that I did not want to do business with him due to his high rates - even higher then the local dealer and the manner he lures people to him for other business deals. I have send him a certified letter informing him that he did not disclose any fee that he is currently imposing on me to have my car released. I have reminded him of Virginia Code § 59.1-207.3 which required written estimate for repair work be provided to customers, prior to the commencement of any repair work on a motor vehicle and further that the law states it is the duty and obligation of the facility to disclose any fee imposed for the preparation of a written estimate and related diagnostic work in writing. I reminded Mr. ALi that he had not only failed to disclose this in writing but even failed to do this verbally in all the interactions we had. The amount he started to demand was only after we had decided we did not want to do any business with him. This was over two weeks back. He has since held my car hostage and has threatened me that he will get my car towed to "Henry and Records" demanding cash or certified cashier's cheque for $525 for "diagnostics and storage". When I informed him I did not have that kind of money and he refused to release the car to AAA, my nephew or then even another person who went there with a tow truck demanding that he now be paid $200 cash. I have since send him a $200 cashier's cheque under protest to have my car released. This man's business practices are unethical and immoral. I have subsequently read about others who have had similar interactions with him and believe that as he is doing business under the TEXACO logan his business practices should be looked into.