Fantastic work, amazing customer service, trustworthy, fair prices…read more
My late model Volvo started to die on I-95 at 7:30 this morning. Overheating, weird noises, it was bad. I pulled off the highway and into an Exxon, and the young lady there told me that Frank's was awesome and I should give them a call. I considered going to the nearest Volvo dealer (on the theory of "better the devil you know than the devil you don't"), but the young lady at the Exxon spoke so highly of Frank's I figured I'd give him a call and decide after talking to him. He picked right up (at 7:30 am), did a quick over-the-phone diagnosis that sounded pretty good to me, and told me he could have me towed in, but also gave me the option of just sort of coasting the few miles to his place (it was all downhill as he explained). I took that option, figuring I could save the towing charge... I thought that was pretty cool of him to give me the option rather than just increasing his fee with a tow.
As soon as I limped into Frank's place, Frank and Chris popped the hood and immediately started working to figure out what was wrong. It was as if I'd pulled into an old friend's garage; they were explaining everything to me, showing me how you could tell that this or that wasn't working right, to make sure I understood why the symptoms were occurring and what needed to happen to fix it. Chris took the lead in taking apart what needed to be taken apart, and while he did this he not only didn't mind me looking over his shoulder, he continued to explain what he was doing as if he was teaching me how to be a mechanic. Chris is amazing, I think I could take anything mechanical in there and he could tear it down and figure it out. Best experience I've ever had getting my car fixed.
They also gave me a few options along the way, e.g.: "if you do x, we can get you out of here really quickly, but you'll have to bring it in somewhere within the next few months. But if it was my car I'd do y because then you know you are going to be in good shape and not have to worry about it." And they made sure I was informed enough to be able to make those decisions, so I was always confident that we were doing the right thing with regard to my time and my money.
Took about 30 minutes to get the part delivered that we needed, and during that time I had a chance to chat with Frank. He told me all about his family's roots in the business, how they used to be pretty big into racing, and how he grew up working in his family's service shop (which at one time was the only shop in the county that was permitted to work on police cars). All of the guys that work at Frank's seem to be either family (e.g.: Chris is Frank's nephew), or close enough that they are basically family. The philosophy of this place is one that seems to be missing from a lot of businesses these days: that you take care of people, you help people, and if you do that everything else will generally work itself out.
When the part showed up and Chris was putting things back together (with Frank dropping in from time-to-time to make sure things were going well), I could tell that Chris was more invested in getting this car fixed than I was. He takes an enormous amount of pride in his work, it was fun to watch.
I thought I was going to be stuck all day (if not more), and I thought I would end up getting charged an arm and a leg. Frank charged me for the parts, and embarrassingly few labor hours relative to the time he and Chris spent. "Fair" is an understatement, I feel like I got "friends and family" pricing. And they got me out of there quickly, and of course the car runs like a top now.
Sorry for the long review, but it really was a fantastic experience. I will be making the trip from Richmond to Frank's for everything my cars need in the future, and believe it or not I actually look forward to going back.
