OK, Yelp, or Mammoth Chevron, whoever it may be. You keep on taking it down, I'll keep on putting it back up. That's how bad my experience here was.
Just from reading through the reviews already here, I can see two things:
If you have a very clear and simple problem with your car, such as a tire that needs a patch, you're probably safe going to Karl Teller's Chevron (but he'll probably tell you that you'll need 4 new tires, even if you don't).
If you have car trouble that's even remotely ambiguous, don't even think about going to Karl Teller's Chevron.
My problem fell in the latter category.
I should have, could have, been out of there in about 15 minutes, with no charge (if the mechanic was decent and honest) or maybe a $30 charge (if he wanted to gouge the customer just a little bit). My guys back home at Bay Harbor Auto Service would have done it for free. My car didn't need anything fixed; all it needed was a reset of the check engine light. That's what a friend did later on in my trip; took the battery wires off, then reattached them. Problem solved, no charge.
What Karl Teller did was:
took my car on a 40+ minute "test drive" (someone got their errands done, but it wasn't me)
dropped all work and chatted with several groups of his friends that dropped by
after a couple of hours of casual "test driving," chatting, doodling, and idling, he assured me probably nothing needed fixing with my car, until he got it in his garage and out of my eyesight, at which point he started pulling things out from under the hood
When I asked what he was doing, he refused to give an estimate, and yelled at me (yeah, he really yelled) if I said "one more word" he was just going to put everything back in the car, and I would have to "deal with it" myself "on my own time."
When I calmly asked once more what he planned to do with my car, he did as threatened. That was the best possible outcome, because I had no car trouble for the rest of my trip, which was a whole lot of driving, and a couple of months long. But he sure didn't try to give me peace of mind.
3.5 hours of "mechanic work" and over $200 later (that would have been a whole lot more if I had let him do what he secretly planned to, but wouldn't tell me about), I faced a long drive in record breaking heat through a no-cell-phone-reception desert, as I thought the whole time about what should be known about Karl Teller and his Chevron. I was fatigued, but I must thank Karl for invigorating me with enough furious adrenaline to get me through the whole drive wide awake. I've had work done by several big city mechanics, and they've all been nicer people, with more integrity than Karl Teller. Karl, you're a sleaze. Shame on you for trying to scare a woman traveling alone. I just hope the next tourist who needs some car work done in Mammoth Lakes is smarter than I was, and actually believes what people have said about you on Yelp. They were right. I wish I knew that before I wasted my time and money with you. read more