I have had several services performed at Autotech, and the incident that caused me to question their honesty and business ethics occurred when I had to try my ignition several times before it would start, and took my car there to be diagnosed. I was told after a few days that they could not identify what was wrong (but that it was not the ignition), and that they would return it to me so that I could have it over the weekend, advising me to bring it back the following week so that they could look into the problem further. Before I was able to bring the car back in, I had to have it towed there because the problem had escalated to the point that I couldn't start the car at all. I called Fred prior to taking the vehicle to the shop, told him what was going on, and asked if it sounded like something that they could address at Autotech, or if I should take it to the dealership. He advised me that they would take a look at it, so I had it towed there, and was later told that it was a faulty alternator and charged $400. Upon picking the vehicle up, I was told that if the problem continued, there may also be a problem with my mass airflow sensor, and I was advised that I should fill the car up with premium gas, put fuel injection cleaner in it, "and see if that fixes the problem". I was told to bring the car back if that suggestion didn't fix it, which would mean that they would have to reprogram the key. None of this made any sense to me, and led me to wonder whether or not the alternator was in fact the problem given that it had been fixed and I was having the same issue with my car, but because I trusted them I thought that I'd give it a try, believing that if it didn't work I could bring it back there to get the key fixed and then be done with the whole thing.
When the car continued to have problems after following Autotech's instructions, I took it back up there, supposedly so that they could reprogram the keys. They kept my vehicle for over 2 weeks before telling me that after many unsuccessful attempts to fix the problem on their own, they would have to order the software to reprogram the key from Audi. After they allegedly received this software and reprogrammed the keys, I was advised that the problem was fixed temporarily, but that I would need to take the keys back to Audi to get a new pair within the week to prevent the problem from happening again.
Upon taking my car to Audi and having a full diagnostic performed, I was advised that they don't license out their software to any outside vendors, and that the source of my problem had nothing to do with an alternator or keys, but instead was related to the ignition itself (as I had originally suspected). The repair was estimated to be $465 dollars. When I called Fred and made him aware of what Audi said, he didn't even want to discuss the key reprogramming and alleged "Audi software", and still claimed that his diagnosis of a faulty alternator was correct, even upon hearing that the fact was disputed by the dealership. He continued to debate me, claiming that he stood behind his assessment, even though I had the same problem after he changed the alternator. I told him that I wasn't asking for a full refund of the work, as I realized that I had been enriched by Autotech installing a new alternator, but the fact was that the alternator was not the source of my problem and I would still have to pay the dealership $465 to fix what he was supposed to have remedied originally. He refused to offer me any money back, or any other concession for that matter, which was very surprising and upsetting given the situation and the amount of business that I had conducted with his shop over the past several months prior to this incident.
I sought mediation in hopes of resolving this issue outside of court, which resulted in Fred agreeing to settle with me, but then failing to contact me or the mediator in order to do so. I planned to continue with court proceedings just based on principal, but decided against it since it would cost me $75 to file a suit against him for a $200 claim (half of what he charged me for the alternator). So I have instead opted to share my Autotech experience with everyone, so that other people (particularly women), who may not be as knowledgeable about cars and auto repairs will not be taken advantage of as I was. Since this incident, I have come to question whether or not I needed many of the several repairs that they urged me to get, as they have proven themselves to be dishonest and unethical, and overall unwilling to admit to their mistakes nor are they willing to attempt to correct them. I will never go here again, and urge all who read this to take your business elsewhere also. Don't become another one of their victims. read more