In the span of four weeks, I've experienced every cliche nightmare mechanic situation here…read more
The short story: this shop turned a $700 problem into a $3000 problem in less than 48 hours. Their attempt at making good took twice as long as it should have.
The long story: JVS botched an alternator replacement, which resulted in my car burning out and stranding me on the 99 freeway. The radiator hose clip had not been replaced after putting the new alternator in, causing fluid to spew throughout the engine, overheating and ultimately burning out the engine. It took two weeks for them to replace a head gasket, and the entire engine replacement took nearly a month. A respectable shop would have offered to cover the cost of a rental car, but these guys just settled for agreeing to cover the bill when we asked (and we went for three weeks without that car before getting the rental!). 4 times out of 5 they gave us a date that the car would be ready and failed to uphold it.
I can commend them for taking ownership of their mistake and for fixing it at their cost. It's what's expected, but for a job that failed in so many other ways, this was a silver lining that i could be happy with.
The engine is driving fine now, about 4 months later. But now my only hope is in my lucky stars, because their warranty on the engine extended 90 days, which doesn't seem like a lot of confidence for such critical work.
