okay, so some background before my review....it is relevant....
I have been a customer of Austin's and Bam automotive since 2002. He went to high school with a family member and we started bringing our cars to his personal garage and continued for the last 20+ years. Every single member of my family has brought every iteration of car we had to Austin and his team and LOVED to because we trusted him and his former employee Brady. They give us the straight story when it came to our vehicles and never felt like we were overpaying or paying for things we didn't need just because we didn't have the education to debate it. This was something that I have always felt icky about when talking to other mechanics. In total over the years we have brought at LEAST the following business from personal cars and personal referrals
2 jeeps
3 Toyota Prius
3 Kias
2 Fords
1 Audi
*multiple company vans from my sister's catering company
*all Augsburg athletic vans while my sister-in-law was working for the collage
and I personally have referred 15-20 (there are 5 people in my family and we all have) people that have continued to bring their cars to Bam over the years.
Cut to post pandemic and Bam has opened a second location. We expected and were happy to pay higher prices as time went on because we are ALSO small-medium sized business owners that see and understand that businesses have a right to change and grow. As well, there are some changes that occur in the communication that you can have with the owner once they advance and have to split their time, which we expected. But I still trusted his longer term employees and trusted that Austin was hiring people that would give us the same level of comfort and care that we felt with him.
Spoiler alert, that was not the case. There has been a revolving door of front desk people and mechanics that have been untrustworthy and insufficient when it comes to the diagnosis and actual repair of our vehicles. I had 2 different instances with my jeep where I paid $240 for the diagnosis (which is not applied towards the repair) and paid over $2000 to fix the issue, only to have it break down in the middle of Nebraska the NEXT DAY. Upon calling, I was instantly dismissed and had to pay $600 more for something they didn't catch. In the other instance the engine light went on again AS I WAS LEAVING THE SHOP. Both times I was angry and asked to speak to Austin and was completely ghosted by him. I kept getting calls from other people that I wasn't interested in speaking to, who told me that there was nothing they could have done to see the problem even though I SPECIFICALLY brought it to them for preventative diagnostics.
I have asked to speak to Austin personally now because I no longer trust his employees and he absolutely REFUSES to call me back. Not only that but he will also not call my parents back who are livid because they just paid $2000 to fix the struts in their Prius and started to feel the EXACT SAME ISSUES within a month. They brought it to another local car shop in Hopkins and the mechanic explained to them (with pictures) that her struts were put on incorrectly and were leaning to the left. She STILL was not able to get a phone call back from Austin.
I know this was long folks, but I am almost done....
The long and short of it, is that Bam automotive was once a place that I valued so highly and was so dedicated to spending tens of thousands of my hard earned money with. I no longer feel that way. I feel like the quality of the work has tanked, the honesty and integrity of the staff is suspect AT BEST, and Austin has completely let go of the responsibility he had as a owner to answer for the issues his customers have. I have found other mechanics in the area that are more trustworthy and actually took the time to discuss and show us the faulty work that Bam did. I will no longer be taking any car I have to Bam and will no longer recommend that anyone I know takes their car to them...I don't want to be responsible for that risk. read more