A week ago,
I dropped my luxury vehicle off to get fixed At THE SUNOCO IN BOWIE, MD.
(6799 LAUREL BOWIE RD, RIGHT ACCROSS THE STREET FROM BURGER KING)
I went for a simple brake change.
The mechanic (RAY) put my car into the bay immediately and started working on it.
I then received a call that the roters look bad and I should change those too.
I went and got the parts BRAND NEW from a reputable company and dropped it off within 30 minutes.
RAY still had my car on the bay and he continued to work. This was 11 am by the time I brought the roters to RAY. I kept calling to get an update because more than 4 hours passed.
The receptionist kept answering the phone and placing me on hold for extended periods of time. After 30 minutes of waiting on hold, I hung up and called back, I was placed on hold again. My car wasn't ready until about 6pm that evening. ( that was the first red flag)
Over the course of 5 days my brakes were squealing very loudly. It sounded like metal scraping against metal. I thought that the new parts needed time to set in but then the screeching got worse and I knew something wasn't right.
I called the Bowie Sunoco and spoke with the supposed manager(short middle eastern man with a long black ponytail), I described the situation and he asked me to come into the garage. It was 4:45 pm by the time we hung up, I got to the garage at 5:07 pm.
I approached the manager and was expecting him to atleast look at the vehicle, no.
He stated "You need to call the manufacturer because they sold you faulty parts."
I asked "how do you know that if you never took a look at the car?"
Then he stated "Well it's after hours."
I asked "Why did you ask me come then?"
He had no answer.
I then stated "proper customer service would've been to ask me to show up at a specific day and time being as though yall were closing."
He then said come back tomorrow...
Tomorrow came and I drove my vehicle back to the shop. There was a different manager there now. RAY THE MECHANIC that originally did the repairs on my vehicle was there again. RAY asked me to wait while they checked the issue.
RAYS diagnosis was that the roters I got were bad. They instructed me to go buy new parts and come back so they can change the roters again. They also were charging another brake replacement fee. Half of $135
I drove to store to buy the parts,
I was gone for 15 minutes tops. By the time I came back RAY ,THE MECHANIC that was supposed to be repairing the vehicle, all of a sudden he went home an hour before they closed.
Now they were asking me to keep my vehicle over the weekend and to pick it up on Monday.
I said "How am I supposed to trust that when you just asked me to get parts but sent RAY THE MECHANIC home. (MAJOR RED FLAG)
The manager that was there that day(a different middle Eastern man with a short cut about 5"8)
He responded and said I can't help you with your trust.
At that point, I called another trusted mechanic so that he could take a look at my vehicle. MY MECHANIC disassembled the brakes and roter and put them back on the proper way.
HE MADE CLEAR THAT NOTHING WAS WRONG WITH THOSE PARTS. RAY DOESNT KNOW WHAT HES DOING AND SHOULDN'T BE CHANGING BRAKES ON LUXURY VEHICLES. I drove off and the very loud squeal was no longer! I was saved a lot of time and money.
Only thing left to do is return the parts they had me repurchase.
I've gone to this location Over 10 years. I DEALT WITH MIKE WHO WAS THE FAMILY MECHANIC. Mike was very educated, honest and a good man. He took his work very seriously and was more concerned with helping the community.
If you dropped your car off with Mike, it WILL GET FIXED. There's no coming back a week later to say the repairs were faulty.
Mike has since passed on. I miss him a lot.
The only thing that frustrates me is that they don't care to uphold the integrity of Mikes good business practices. Majority of the people still going there for repairs are out of respect for the Reputation that Mike built.
Rest in power Mike
I wouldn't suggest getting anything more than a tire change from this location now. Customer service is terrible and the quality of work is even worse.
The mechanics complain non stop about the commission breakdown so there's a disdain toward the job to begin with. Ray is always angry and rude. I believe he doesn't care to fix the work, let alone do a good job because he doesn't feel he's getting paid enough to begin with.
Im still monitoring the vehicle to make sure there's not a bigger issue based on Rays poor work. If you're ok with terrible customer service, no accountability and money grabbing with illegal immigrants working on your vehicle, which can make it hard to hold them accountable in the court of law. Proceed at your own risk. They do not understand the concept of customer service, community or accountability. All they see is money. read more
