We were traveling thru Birchwood TN when the transmission went out on us on our F350 truck (after 6:00 pm on Wed night 4/17/19 ) . After we had received 3 recommendations to have it towed to Ronnie's shop - Davis Garage, we took their advise. We met with him at 9:00am on Thursday morning, and by noon we were told it appeared to have blown the seal, and leaked out all of the transmission fluid, and that everything else seemed ok. He also recommended that we put a larger transmission cooler and temp gauge in the truck (we were towing a 5th wheel camper). We agreed, and he told us that hopefully he would have all of the parts in and ready to pick up by noon on Saturday. Which was fine, due to the fact that we were camping approx 15 miles from his shop.
Saturday rolled around, and he informed us that it would be Tuesday (4/22/19) before it would be ready to go. We had to make special arrangements for us to get back home to GA, approx 150 miles away. He quoted us a price, which we agreed on, and then he told us that he wanted CASH when we picked it up.
We went back on Tuesday and picked the truck up, and Ronnie said that everything looked good and that they had test drove it approx 20 miles. We left and headed home. We got approx 90 miles from his shop, and the truck started running hot and was not pulling correct. (we were not pulling the camper ) . We called Ronnie and he said that he did not understand why it was acting up. He told us to bring it back to him. We told him that we were closer to home, and that we would get it to the house, which we did.
Ronnie called us on Wed and gave us a price to put a "re-built " transmission in it, which was a lot higher than we had already gotten a price for a NEW transmission with a 3 year, unlimited warranty on it . We had this new transmission put in, and that shop said that Ronnie did put new seals in the truck, but it was obviously bad, that they would have never suggested putting any money or time into that old transmission.
We requested that he give us some of the money back that he had over charged us (which 3/4 of the bill was labor), and he said that he would "think about it". This threw up a red flag with me, especially when he told us that he would only take CASH when he picked the truck up. We have called him every other day, and as of today (5/8/19) he has not spoken to us since.
BEWARE of price gouging, and especially if you are not local, don't get caught with paying for work with cash. I had no other options but to let everyone know how we were treated.
Rhonda from GA read more
