My experience with Joe's Electric today was not good. My new-to-me car suddenly died yesterday while driving in Jersey City. AAA came and tested the battery. It was fully charged and the car surprisingly started. Knowing there was something wrong with the car, I drove it to Joe's Electric (based on Yelp reviews I used Joe's Electric once before and they were OK that time, at least I thought they were. Now I'm not so sure). Upon arrival, I gave the male receptionist the print out of AAA's draw test that showed a full charge on my battery. He thanked me for it and told me someone would call me today.
This morning a man who said he was Joe called me to tell me that I needed a new alternator and a new battery. Knowing I couldn't have driven the car to his shop if the alternator and battery were bad, I asked Joe if he had run a diagnostic and he replied, 'Yeah, a charging system in the circuit'. That sounded so silly to me that I asked him to repeat it. Joe repeated, 'A charging system in the circuit, you know, the test.' Smiling, I asked him how he does a 'charging system in the circuit' test and he replied, 'with a test light meter'. What he said sounded to me like a made-up story so I called the manufacturer for help.
It turns out my car was recalled for the same problem I brought it to Joe's Electric to fix: the car had a bad sensor.
I then spoke with a mechanic at the dealer I chose. I was told if a car starts fine and it drives fine, and the battery has a full charge, the problem is not the battery or the alternator. Additionally, a proper diagnostic procedure would involve attaching a diagnostic tool to the car's computer and the computer will tell the mechanic what's wrong with the car. Being that Joe's had no diagnostic results for my car and because he misdiagnosed the cause of my car's problem, I believe he didn't perform proper diagnostics on my car.
After learning this, I returned to Joe's Electric and asked for my car back. The only person there was the same man who acts as receptionist. He returned my battery to my car, got in, and promptly drove it out of the garage. He couldn't have driven it if the battery and alternator were bad could he? He told me there was no charge. I had to laugh at that.
To summarize, I believe Joe's Electric ignored printed diagnostics by reputable AAA and I believe Joe was telling me a story when he said he preformed diagnostics on my car. If Joe had his computer results to show me, I would have believed him, however, he didn't, and he was saying things that didn't make sense to me. The car was driving fine-it had simply shut off unexpectedly, and the car was being recalled for a bad sensor which the manufacturer says is the cause of that problem. Because of these things, I believe Joe's is no longer the place for me to bring my car to for repairs.
P.S. In response to Joe's response to this Yelp review that my battery worked because he charged it, that substantiates my belief that my battery did not need replacing. If he charged it, it was still a good battery, wasn't it? I've updated this review to reflect that the person acting as receptionist is male. read more