How Quaint.. A Crooked Car Repair Shop

..And you thought that all the little crooked Shadetree Mechanics were gone!

It seems that we've strayed into a den of thieves... my gf took her car to the shop and told them: if it's going to be more than $45 call me. She called right after 1 PM today and they said they were just pulling the car into the garage. They called back later and said they think the problem is X and were calling the warranty company to get approval on the work. She told them not to do anything until they called her back. She called them back later and they said they had ripped off 2 belts and the oil pan and had done about 2 1/2 hours of work so far and it would be another hour to put it back together. She told them not to touch it again.

Now, about 2:50 I took my break and I'd already known about this fiasco for some time. Problem one:

"Shortly after one" to "Significantly before 2:50" is well under 2.5 hours.

Problem two:

The whole time they kept telling her they didn't know what the problem was, and the whole time they refused to provide an estimate.

Problem three:

At the end of the fiasco, they still had no estimate, and no idea what the problem was.

Problem four:

They were told multiple times "don't do anything" and they did it anyway.

Problem five:

Anyone who takes 2.5 hours to remove two belts and drop an oil pan shouldn't DRIVE a car, much less fix one...

Yep... so now I get to drive to the middle of redneck alley tomorrow to get this car back. I swear to God if they give me a hard time I'll put the belts and the pan back myself and take the keys and warranty card right of the freakin' drawer... I'm not one to suffer stupid people anymore....

Sorry... had to rant that off my chest, plus I thought anyone else who's been in a situation where someone tried to put one over on them might find it interesting. My favorite part is the fuzzy math

You're having some rought luck recently, man. This isn't the first time you've had troubles with car either, right?

It's times like that I want to just drive off with my car and not bother with them. Too bad most places nowadays are smart enough to park the cars indoors at night...

LOL I once had one tell me that I needed a radiator fan since I didnt have one. Yes.... its on the back of the radiator......

Actually, this is my girlfriend's car we're rescuing. My car has developed a nasty stalling problem so I went out and bought a Mustang GT I can't afford! LOL Oh well... Ctb's class on how NOT to manage debt

Pep Boys once tried to charge me $80 just to drill a bolt out of a hole because they claimed I needed a new battery tray / bolt down kit for the battery (you have to either be insanely greedy or just damn mean to fail a car's inspection for a broken battery strap). I told them not to bother, just leave the car alone and I'd come in and drill the bolt out myself. Funny thing - when I got there they had replaced the whole $9 kit and the final charge, with work, sticker, parts, and taxes was $52. Heh... wonder why that was?

It pays to learn a little about cars. I know one guy who was gonna get charged $1200 for a new transmission + $600 for labor because he took the car to the shop for it "shifting rough". I checked his tranny fluid and it was black and smelled like burned metal, so we took it a shop and had them change the fluid and filter. $85 and his car was shifting smooth as silk... a lot of car shops'll screw you over in an instant.

Yeah, it's the same out here on the left coast. I went to a Les Schwab out here to get my brakes serviced (pulsing) and they turned rotors, replaced, etc. never fixed it.

Finally they told me I needed to replace calipers, lines, etc., because there was likely water in the lines. I asked if they were going to do this for free because they hadn't fixed this two other times. The manager said "no", I said "see ya".

I got a friend to fix it and it has been fine now for months.

I basically assume that all mechanics, and contractors are lying to me until they can prove otherwise.

Car repair shops are something else again. I've got a whole printout here straight from the Pennsylvania code book (the big database o' laws) and three important points in the Auto-Repair section stick out for me:

1. The repair shop may perform work ONLY with verbal or written authorization to do so. They were explicitly told several times NOT to do anything until the got back to us and told us what the warranty company had to say.

2. The repair shop may not exceed the price limit set by the customer, if a price limit is set, unless they first contact the customer. My gf set a $45 price limit (set very low specifically for the purpose of dissuading this situation). They're trying to charge her 3 times that, plus the cost of putting the car back together.

3. The repair shop must provide a written estimate prior to beginning the work. We asked many times for a VERBAL estimate and they even refused to give that. They also refused to give an estimated timeframe on their work.

Heh.. her uncle runs his own towing/repo business. At the suggestion of her father, if they give us a hard time, we're going to call her uncle and have the car towed out of the shop.

You can't trust the mechanics in a dealership either. One example was when I had my air-conditioning refilled. I had replaced the compressor about six months earlier but not refilled the freon in it. I have an older truck that still runs the old style of freon (tis the reason I didn't refill it myself) but come summer time I went to get it filled. Not a big problem but a little pricey because of the freon cost. Three days later I was out of freon. I took it back and they wanted to charge me $500 to fix a hole that was leaking the freon out. I told them to just refill it once more but not to fix anything. It is three years later and I still haven't run out of freon again...

I knew that the seals had not expanded because of not being used for quite a while so it leaked all of the freon out. I told them to be sure and check the seals because the compressor had been changed several months earlier. They ignored it. They also tried to charge me $250 to change over to the newer freon system. I told them to keep thier $12 kit! I had already checked out the price and had to laugh for a while when they quoted me thiers.

Way to get me all paranoid right before I go in for my 60K service and also having to change my tires...
60K+ in a little over 3 years and I don't even remember going anywhere.

-b

Heh... at 60K they'll probably try to get you to change the AOD fluid if it's AOD. Don't buy it. Check the fluid yourself when it's hot (let it sit for 2 or 3 minutes to settle after driving it - instructions are in your manual, it's just like checking the oil). If it's brown, gritty, or black, or smells like burning metal (it should be reddish and fairly translucent with a musty oil smell) go ahead and change it and make sure they replace the filter too. Otherwise, tell them to stick it up their tailpipe (but check it every 2K miles or so after that or if it starts shifting rough, stalling or slipping gears - you don't want to drive around too long with worn out fluid).

Another nice trick they try to pull around that mileage is "flushing" the engine. They might give you some speel about carbon buildups and all that crap. If they try to sell you that "service" tell them to take off the throttle body (or do it yourself - it's pretty easy) and check it for gunk around the edges. It'll look sort of like a clogged blood vessel (a very very large very hard vessel... it wouldn't make for a healthy person). If there's no gunk, tell them to shove off. If there is, go buy a bottle of Slick 50 and run it through your gas tank (be wary though... I've had bad experiences with slick 50 and injectors in Fords [so you might want to be careful about Mazdas too]. The injectors get screwy until you run the stuff out of your tank). It won't get rid of the gunky buildup inside the engine, but if you didn't notice it before it doesn't matter. It just cleans up the injectors.

One final thing to watch for: spark plugs. A lot of newer cars, particularly those that are 'performance oriented' use expensive platinum plugs and garages / dealers try to push them on EVERY car. HOWEVER, platinum plugs in cars that weren't built for them will probably HURT performance in those vehicles and could actually frag the timing and lead to big problems with: the timing belt, the computer, the MAP sensor, the O2 sensor, and the valves. Don't pay extra for them unless your car specifically takes platinums.

The only maintenance parts I can think of that are really worth paying extra for are high performance spark plug wires and carbon brakes. The plug wires usually help performance and the carbon brakes are a lot quieter than those stupid steel brakes they use now.

Onslaught -

Yea, garages LOVE minor transmission and a/c problems. Most backyard mechanics don't even work with those two parts of the car that often so few people know anything about them (especially the a/c). I'll never let anyone do work on a transmission or a/c problem until I take it to another shop and they tell me the exact same thing as the first one did. If I get two totally different stories that's a pretty good hint that someone's trying to rip me off.

So very true.

Ctb,

You have them by the rusty nuts! They didn't pay any attention
to your requests and went ahead with the work. I'd be surprised
if you payed them at all. Let them suffer and be humiliated.

My ripoff story....
10 years ago before I started doing my own minor-medium car repair,
I took my gf's car to Speedy Muffler King in Boston to fix the brakes.
They said that the 89 Cavalier would need new rotors and brakes,
fair enough.... We sat in the waiting room where we had a complete
view of the repair bay where her car was being worked on. I saw
the mechanic pull off the right front rotor, walk it out of site to a
room where he was turning them. I could hear him perfectly and
he was the only mech on duty so it was def him. He walked the rotor
back to the car, put it back on, replace the brake and did the exact same
to the other side. $750 inc labor. Can anyone see where I got ripped off?

It wasn't until about 5 years later, when I started doing my own work
that I realized I got screwed. If you are not familiar with rotors, when
they are worked on they can be turned (re-grooving the plate) or
replaced.
When you buy new rotors, they are already turned. They just need
to be installed. He took ours, brought them out back, turned them
and put them back on, charging us for new. Years later I was doing my
own and bought a new set for my car and when he handed them
to me I asked if he had to turn them and he explained everything to
me.

There are some differences with the newer cars but, It may save
you in the long run to learn it yourself.

Quick one...
My wife's fathers truck is a hard starter.
Mechanic "$275 for new starter + labor"
Me = "We'll think about it" Looked under hood, replaced a battery
power lead for $2.10. Runs and starts smoother than ever....

I should follow up and say that my current mechanic, Jarrad, who
I trust completely. I will give him my car or truck and he knows that
if it needs it, it gets it. I tell him that I trust him and he has carte blanche
for repairing. He has never screwed me at all. And I will always
go back there.

One of his keypoints other than true honosty, when something
is more than he may have ballparked, he calls me and actually
feels bad! You can hear it in his voice.

Actually, new rotors need to be turned as well (sometimes). I've been down that road before.