More drivers complain about mechanic who allegedly gave one’s car to another as loaner

More drivers have complained to Action 9 about a Fort Mill mechanic who is accused of swapping cars between customers as a loaner.

Drivers say he didn’t do the work promised and botched parts of their cars in some cases.

One of those drivers asked not to show her face or use her name.

“Very just kind of soul-crushing to me that my trust was broken and I was so, I feel stupid which I’m not,” the driver said. “I just don’t want him to do this to anyone else.”

She says she was at Starbucks in Steele Creek, heard Joe McDaniel talking to another customer about that person’s car, and approached him about her Jeep. She says she hired him to get the dents out and paint the rims a specific shade of red.

“He spray-painted them this hideous, not the red that I wanted,” she said. She says he didn’t fix the dents either.

“Then he promised all these other crazy things,” she said. “‘I’ll install a real camera for you,’ [he said.] ‘I can’t afford it,’ [I said.] ‘I have one in my garage. I’ll just give it to you for free. I’ll give you a new base speaker,’ [he said.] I said, ‘I can’t afford it.’ ‘I’ll give it to you for free,’ [he said.] “None of that ever happened.”

The driver had to rent her own car.

“Hurts my heart for real and the amount of money. I probably spent almost $1,000 between the rental car and what I gave him,” she said.

Action 9 previously spoke with two drivers who say they also met McDaniel at coffee shops, but that, in those cases, he approached them, not the other way around.

They say he took their money but didn’t do the work, or at least not all of it or at least not right.

“He had a website. He had a business card,” Keri Boyce said.

She says McDaniel gave her car to another driver as a loaner. That driver told Action 9 the same thing.

“No words. I thought it couldn’t get any crazier,” Boyce said.

Some people reported McDaniel to law enforcement, but say officers told them it was a civil -- not criminal -- matter.

Action 9′s Jason Stoogenke tried multiple times and multiple ways to get in touch with him.

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