I'm pretty sure this is a dishonest business, but you should read on and judge for yourself:
I recently moved to WV, so I had three cars lined up in a row for inspection at Heiskell Automotive. My first car is only three years old, and it passed without incident.
Next, I brought my older 2007 BMW. I was a little surprised when I watched a mechanic call a BMW dealer and ask about a part for my car. I thought maybe they would ask me about it first before ordering anything, but I was't too upset. They could cancel it later if needed.
Later, they tell me I failed inspection due to a burned out fog light and rear side marker light. They also tell me the rear marker light isn't just a bulb, it's an assembly that requires taking off the bumper.
I tell them I will do the work myself since I want an aftermarket part instead of OEM BMW. They said, "Fine. Do you want us to take out the fog light we replaced?" "Yes," I replied, a little irked that they hadn't asked me about that either. They charged me $11 for the inspection and said I had 5 days to replace it and they'd give me the sticker once it's all fixed and I pay another $3. Fine, I thought.
I drive home, and out of curiosity decide to take a look myself to see what I was up against. I popped out three pins, two small bolts, and peeled back that bumper cover. Interesting, the marker light is unplugged. I plug it in, and guess what, it works. Well, maybe they hadn't seen that. But, I DID see a mechanic putting those two bumper bolts back in before I left....
I then swapped out a fog light bulb from another car and boom, back in business. (The original bulb was indeed burnt out.)
Instead of taking them my third car, I drive the BMW back. Upon arriving, I ask the desk guy how much it would cost to have them replace the bulbs. He starts looking it up. Another mechanic walks in and asks what's up. I ask him if he had taken a look behind the marker light. He said, "Yeah." I asked him if he unplugged it, He said, "Yeah, it wasn't working, so I unplugged it."
Interesting. I then said, "Well, I plugged it in and it's working now." He looked surprised. I asked him if he plugged it back in to check it. At this point, the desk guy gets furious and starts raising his voice at me saying, "But you TOLD us to stop working on your car!" (He said that a few times, actually, each time louder." Pretty nice excuse, I thought, but why yell at me?
The other mechanic, says, well, if you get the fog light fixed we'll put a sticker on it no problem. Then I tell him, "I already fixed it, that, too. I'd like to pay and get my sticker. I can't prove you guys unplugged it, but I'm not very happy. It took me 5 minutes in my driveway with the car still on the ground to do it." He then said, "Well, you're not like every customer."
The head mechanic walks in and asked what was going on. I told him it was about the side marker light. He said, "Yeah, I was looking at it, too. It's not working." I said, "It was unplugged. I plugged it in and now it works."
He then proceeded to tell me that lights are finicky sometimes as solder joints come loose with older cars, etc. He also told me that, for instance, "if a license plate light is off, we'll tap it several times to see if it will come on, and if it does, we'll pass it." He then goes to check my lights, and comes back in and says, "Yeah, it's on. I tapped it several times to see if it would go off, but it didn't." I thought to myself, "Well then WHY didn't you plug it in then and tap on it initially?"
They gave me my sticker and waived the $3. Well, that was nice.
If I WAS like every other customer, I would have paid $43 (according to prices I found online at some BMW dealers) plus whatever their markup percentage is. I would have also paid whatever their price plus markup for a fog light bulb. And I surely would have paid at least 1 hour of labor for "removing the bumper." (Their hourly rate is $110, btw.)
I was really hoping I had found a great, honest shop. While I cannot prove they unplugged the wire, they (either mechanic who was looking at it) certainly didn't try to fix it. (Again, if you told me that story about finicky lights, why wouldn't you plug it back in and check it? Seems fishy...) And since I am not "like every other customer" and know quite a bit about cars, I thought I'd post this for you, the regular customer, and let you decide if you would like to patronize them. If you do go here, be sure to tell them ahead of time to ask for authorization to order parts, do any repairs, and have them SHOW you what is wrong. If they say they can't let you in the shop, I can assure you I've been inside many garages once I start talking to them like I know things. The last thing a mechanic wants is to be caught in a lie.... read more
