On July 30 my 2013 ford explorer was started at home and my belt popped and truck was smoking, i called auto spa and spoke with one of the mechanics Mike and explained what happened, he said most likely something seized up like an alternator or such, i asked if this was the problem what would something like that cost? He said he had to look at it first, I towed the truck there he looked at it and said yes it's the alternator it seized up, so i said OK lets get the price on this please, he went to call for parts came back with an estimate of 760. First i said wait why so much, i said how much is the alternator he said the alternator was 500 used then the belt 100 then labor i'm like how much for a new alternator he said like 1,000 i'm like wow, stressed at this point i said give me a few to figure this out i went outside and proceeded to see about paying for this. He came out a few minutes later and said i spoke with my boss and he said we can take off 50.00 so it'll be 710 i'm like that's still expensive i told him give me more time so he said OK we just trying to help. I called my own mechanic in Middletown NY and asked if this sounds right and off the back he said no, he told me an alternator new should be about 250 and used like 150, and the belt was 30 so i called the auto part store auto spa deals with and sure enough i asked how much was an alternator for my truck they said brand new 178 to 220 because there was two that it could be. So i automatically told my mechanic i was having it towed to him which was costing me to use another tow in the same day, i told mike i'm going somewhere else because i called my mechanic and he told me that a brand new alternator for my 2013 explorer was no more then 250 plus when you have a account with auto part stores you get discounts as a mechanic and a core rebate from returning the old alternator so he might have paid 80 to 100 dollars or so for mine after all that, but tried to charge me 500 and it was used? When i told mike about this he looked surprised, i said to him you told me the alternator is 500 used right? Then he said yeah but, i would buy it for 300 and had to make money off of it so i would charge you 500 ? I said that's not how you do business, and we already established it cost less then 150 with the core rebate and discounts for them etc. I took my truck to my mechanic in Middletown, had him change belt and alternator and it wasn't anywhere near 760 dollars, i will never go back to this place, and it sucks because i tried to give them my business being that it's closer to home but i feel like because i was a women they tried to take advantage of me and they lost a good customer. I was always taught to be honest and fair and this was a straight rip off BEWARE ALWAYS GET A SECOND OPINION!!! read more
