I'm sad to write this review. Really, I am.
My husband and I had been steady customers of Bryan's Garage for years. We like to support local businesses, and had, for the most part, found Bryan's to be fast, reliable, and courteous. But our most recent experience with Bryan's has left a very bitter taste in our mouth, for three reasons:
1) They misquoted the job by about $200
2) The owner was amazingly rude, hostile and even punitive, when we tried to discuss this with her
3) Worst of all, the repair was incorrectly done, endangering our car and potentially our lives.
In January, we brought our 2014 Toyota Camry Hybrid to Bryan's to replace the front brakes, a repair they had recommended. It turned out that the right front brake also needed a new caliper, and the car itself needed an oil change.
When they initially quoted the job to us, they said the new brakes would run around $500, and the oil change would be extra, of course. Then, after beginning the work, they called to let me know one of the brakes needed a new caliper. "So what's the total?" I asked. "About $780," said the mechanic who called.
I gave the OK, but when I went to pick up the car, the amount they billed us was a full 20% higher than the original quote. What they had told me would be a $780 job turned out to be closer to $1,000. I unhappily paid the extra amount, but left a message with the shop asking the owner to call me back.
When I expressed my dismay, the owner first tried to tell me that there was "no way" the work could have been completed for price originally quoted. I told her that was fine; my issue was with the discrepancy on the bill. I believed they should have called to tell me the job would cost $200 more than what they had originally quoted, rather than leave it as a surprise at the end.
To my surprise, the owner continued to argue with me over this point. Now, no customer enjoys being gaslit, and I continued to explain that the issue was not with the final price, but with her expectation that I should be OK with a 20% discrepancy between a quote and a final bill.
She asked what would make me happy. I told her it would be nice if they would honor the original quote, but what I would appreciate even more would be if they took responsibility for their handling of the situation and didn't try to make it the customer's fault. I told her I didn't expect her to do the former, but that the latter was completely within her control.
To my (happy!) surprise, she said she would credit me the difference between the quote and the bill. She also, for some reason, mentioned a "free oil change" -- perhaps as an alternative way to think about the credit, though I am not sure why.
Wow! I thought. She's just turned a disgruntled customer back into a fan! I told her that I deeply appreciated her crediting the difference - that was all she had to do. I told her I wasn't looking for anything else, certainly not a free oil change on top of the credit. So I headed back to the shop to receive the credit, feeling grateful.
But the situation, unfortunately, did not end there.
As I began to thank the owner for resolving the situation, she angrily cut me off. "We NEVER would have offered you a free oil change on top of a credit," she said. "See, YOU have a problem understanding these situations. The problem's on YOUR end, not ours. We can't have you as a customer anymore."
I was stunned at her tone -- and by her hostility. Of course, a few choice words came to mind, but I had decided already that I would never return to Bryan's Garage, so it was clear nothing would be gained by any retort. I left, shaking my head, and figured that would be the end of it.
But that was not to be.
A week later, the brakes that Bryan's had replaced suddenly began to fail after we had driven out of state. All the lights on the dashboard went on, and when we checked the brake fluid, it had almost entirely leaked out. We rushed the car to a different shop, and the mechanic there explained that: 1) Bryan's hadn't flushed the ABS brake system sufficiently, which had created some sort of vacuum that had pulled all the brake fluid out of the system. And then 2) we discovered that damaged washers on a caliper that Bryan's had replaced had not only been reused - they had been screwed on so tightly that they were causing additional leakage of the brake fluid. Addressing both issues cost us another $500.
We called Bryan's and explained what had happened. Our aim was not to get any sort of a credit, but to ensure that they were aware of their oversight so that no future customers would be placed in similar jeopardy. We asked the mechanic to relay our message to the owner. Of course, she never called us back.
And thus ends not only our terrible, dangerous experience with Bryan's, but also a relationship with a business we had patronized for 15 years. read more
