I'm not a local. My 2000 F-250 5.4L blew a sparkplug on the highway. Gibson's got me in the next day. The whole time they kept braying about how they were putting me ahead of other customers and were going out of their way to help me out. I get that my need to get back on the road inconvenienced them, but you only have to tell me 4 or 5 times before I really catch on. Mentioning it at the beginning of every sentence was a little excessive.
At any rate, when I dropped the truck off with them, I told the mechanic that I had a spark plug and coil pack from O'Reilly's auto parts. The mechanic told me that they don't use customer provided parts. Note: didn't say they "usually don't" Just said "we don't do that". I said, OK, I can always return them.
They did the work (drilled out the spark plug hole, threaded it, installed a helicoil and replaced the spark plug and coil pack...pretty standard repair).
Strangely, when I picked up the truck, they told me "we used the parts you brought, so we can't guarantee how long the repair will last", they had me sign a waiver saying I understand that and the work order even said "used customer parts, no guarantee". Notably, they never asked me if that was OK or explained to me the ramifications before doing it, they just did it and told me after the fact. I just assumed that they couldn't get the parts that day and so used my parts to get me on the road quicker. At first I appreciated it.
So, on down the road I go...for about an hour, then "bang". Blew a plug again. Pulled over and looked. Same plug.
So I limped it to another mechanic in Salem, they took one look and told me that the last place (Gibson's) had screwed it up. It wasn't the parts that failed, they drilled the hole crooked and then put the helicoil in too deep. It looked like they couldn't get the spark plug back in easily so they squirted some JB weld on the threads and used an impact driver to force it in. When it blew again, there's a visible gap between the spark plug threads and the hole in the head, but the spark plug is glued in there, at an angle, and so deep they can't even get a socket on it. Basically, the head is toast, so a repair that normally costs about $250 turned into a $3000 repair.
I didn't take that mechanic's word as gospel, I took it to another reputable mechanic in Salem and got a second opinion. I didn't tell them what the other mechanic said, just asked them to take a look. They said almost verbatim what the other mechanic said. Gibson's screwed it up.
In my opinion, they knew they screwed it up and that's why they used the parts I provided even after telling me flat out they don't do that. That gave them the out. They jury rigged it to get it running long enough to get my money and get me out of their lot, but had me sign a waiver so they couldn't be held responsible.
After I got estimates for how much it was going to cost to repair Gibson's crappy work, I called Gibson's, explained what was going on and asked to speak to a service manager. The receptionist said the manager would call me back.
Crickets.
So, now I'm just trying to spread the word. I can't say Gibson's doesn't sometimes do good work because they've got some good reviews on here, but in my opinion, they knowingly screwed up my truck, jury rigged it to hide their screw up from me, tricked me into signing a waiver to absolve them for the screw up and then have refused to accept responsibility for their crappy work.
Not the hallmarks of a business you can trust.
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