I want to make it clear right off the bat that my review is solely based on my interactions with one of the mechanics that works here named Tony, but considering the fact that Tony appears to be the person that the senior mechanics delegate to often, you as a customer will probably have to deal with him.
TL;DR, Tony did not take down my maintenance order correctly and exhibited the poorest customer service I've experienced in several years.
Full Story:
I own a 2005 Honda CRV with 131K miles on it. One of my brake lights went out so I needed to get it fixed, and when I was looking through my recent work orders for the car I got the sinking feeling that I forgot to get my 120K maintenance done. Since Al's 76 has handled the work on this car for the last few years I called them up earlier this week and asked if they had the 120K on record, they said no, I asked if I could get it done on Saturday, they said yes.
Flash forward to this morning (6/27/15), I drop off the car at 11 am and Tony takes my order. I initially say that I need the 30k maintenance done on my car (since this is the tune up that's done at 30k, 60k, 90k ect). We approach the car and Tony asks me 'does this car really only have 30k on it?', I understood the source of the confusion and clarified that my car has 131K on it but I missed the 120K maintenance and needed to get that done along with replacing one of my brake lights.
He asked me if I had gotten my 'water pump belt' replaced at 100K. I was confused and asked him to elaborate, eventually I understood that he meant the TIMING belt. I wasn't certain whether my car had a timing chain or a timing belt so I told him that I knew my car had never gotten a timing belt change on it, he said he would check for me. 5 seconds of Googling showed that my car definitely has a timing chain not a belt, so after getting some lunch and coffee I stopped by at 1:30 pm and told Tony this. He appeared surprised, but repeated that he would check it and that my car would be ready at 2:15 pm.
Since my father was the person that recommended this mechanic shop I called him up and talked to him. He told me Al and Abe were great mechanics but that 'one of the younger guys is a real clown' and to try to talk to Al or Abe directly if I could. I have to assume now that the aforementioned clown was Tony. Embarrassingly enough my father called Al directly, who then talked to Tony, who then called me around 2:30 pm saying he didn't know I wanted the 120K service and that the car would be ready at 5 pm instead.
I wait until 6 pm, then I got a call from Tony saying the car was ready. When I arrived at the shop I asked Tony flat out why my order was wrong this morning. He disputed what was actually said that morning, called it a 'miscommunication on both our parts', that the '120K maintenance got done anyway' and asked 'why are you getting so huffy and puffy over this?'.
I was flabbergasted, if a customer questions the quality of your service before paying this is an extremely poor way of responding. He then directed a young man in the shop to ring up my bill.
When I got my work order I immediately looked it over and saw that Tony didn't replace the brake light. So neither of the two things I originally asked him to do when I dropped off my car (120K and brake light) were recorded properly when Tony took my order. Based on the original price estimate ($31), I have to assume he was only going to do an oil change and nothing else, which apparently took him 3.25 hours to complete (11am to 2:15 pm)
I will certainly never be using Al's 76 again, particularly since it seems that the senior mechanics heavily delegate the simple maintenance work to Tony.
I would like to give a shout out to the young man that rung up my bill, he was polite, professional and exhibited good humor despite the fact I was obviously frustrated; regardless of your true opinion of me (possibly Neutral or Negative), you stayed strictly professional and I applaud that. I didn't catch your name mystery technician but 5/5 for your customer service, hopefully Tony can learn a thing or two from you in the future. read more