I'm writing this on behalf of my mother who brought her 22 year-old-vehicle for service and was…read morebilled $2311 for repairing a timing belt (water-pump kit), cleaning manifold covers, replacing some cheap gaskets, two drive belts, and two hoses. Oh yes, and $65 for rags and cleaning supplies. By the way, my mother's car is worth about $4000.
Do they do good work? Well, let's put it this way. You could go to a shop in Beverly Hills on rodeo drive and pay less money than these folks would charge, they are on parr with going to a dealer.
They took my mother in, charmed her, promised her the moon, encouraged her sign a document, and did not provide her a written estimate. I'm quite certain they didn't because I was with her the entire day (on 6/15/2026).
They finally emailed her a written estimate 7.5 hours after she gave them the car (4:03pm, she had dropped the car off at 8:30am). They provided her a few paltry discounts $100 discount for being a nurse, yes she spent 50 years saving people's lives, and waved the $65 rag fee.
They charge $152 (and change)/hour for labor, they do not post this in the shop, they up-charge their parts 100% over retail (a matrix, Steve, the office attendant says), and then boom, they work their "magic."
After most of the work was done, they called and said "we have a great price for you, $2500, and by the way "we broke an engine mount, I mean, we found an engine mount broken, yes, that's right, we found it broken, another $58."
When I confronted "Steve" and his friend "Parker," he said "we told your mother everything, and told her the price, she agreed to everything, was happy about it, and said....... yes."
They did NO such thing. What a pair of liars, it was like watching the Trump regime on capitol hill answer questions about the education department.
When pressed further Steve said, "SO WHAT if she didn't get an estimate, she was here in the store and she signed a form authorizing work." When something doesn't make sense it's always a lie.
Ahhh, there we go, that's how we do business at Attkisson automotive? Steve later said, "if your mother is not competent that's her issue." So, my mother is incompetent because you're a liar?
We ended the conversation this way:
Steve: "You're not getting your car, I'm not losing my job, I don't make any decisions, I have Parker next to me who will back me up, my boss is at the doctor with her daughter and she's not available to talk to you."
Myself: "Do you have a mother? You do? I hope you don't treat your mother the way you've treated mine, I can see why you don't make decisions,"
I paid the fee myself.
Tomorrow I'm going to take this car to another mechanic to verify they've done the work properly. I don't live in the area, I'm visiting from out of town, and where I live it is illegal to begin work on a vehicle unless a price is discussed. If it's not illegal here it should be. My mother could have asked for less things to be done, refused service and gotten a second opinion, or better yet, not done business with these folks.
I'm very reticent to write negative reviews because I do t want to damage people's business, but this experience was mortifying.
