My old minivan breaks down, and being new to the area I didn't know what to do--so my boss recommends Zalesky auto, which is literally across the street from where I broke down. "You're in luck, he's the best mechanic in town". Well, he couldn't figure out what was wrong (it could have been multiple things) and I find out he doesn't do that kind of work anymore, so he'd send it two blocks down the street to his brother, who runs Performance Automotive. I go back to my office and tell some of my co-workers what happened, only hear, "Oh, no..." Apparently the brother of the great mechanic does not have the best reputation in town, but what am I going to do? I'll keep my fingers crossed...
So after some time, I get a call from Tammy in the office there (who's very nice) and she tells me if it's what he thinks is wrong, it will be $395 to fix--needs ignition coils. Ouch, the van's not even worth that much, and I was going to be getting a new car soon. But, they're not totally sure if that was the problem, it could be something else. The next day, it turns out the van needs a new computer module too...after some searching, I'm told that he could get a used one cheap. Total to fix the van would be between 850-900 dollars. Yeah, no way. So I told them, and we all agreed, as we discussed before, if it was going to be over $400 I wasn't going to fix it (oh, we were all nice and friendly at this point) and that I'd just pay for the labor and the two block tow....and then this guy has the stones to charge me $294 to basically tow the car two blocks (jeez, I could've rope towed it two blocks myself for free) and not fix the car:
Labor to perform a fuel pressure test - 105.00
Labor to Scan, Diagnose and read computer codes - 75.00
Labor to remove and replace ignition coils - 75.00
Towing- 65.00
with tax, 294.88 total
I'm furious at this point. So I pay the bill, then leave to try to cool off for a couple of minutes, call my brother (who's a master mechanic in Georgia) and tell him about this and he tells me - "No way, this guy's chumping you. They did a scan-he should've known what was going on. He tried to fix it cheap, was wrong, and now he's charging you for his error." Makes sense.
I'm trying to be fair--the owner (Brad) did tell me what he was trying to do before, and I was like "OK" (but how would I know, I'm not a mechanic)--and I was expecting maybe 150-175 bill for the tow and his time. But $300????
So we start arguing, and we're both getting heated, I'm furious and he's mad too. He's telling me the charges are what's he's being charged to do the tests---what???? Then why aren't the people doing the tests fixing the car? What the Hell? I said so you wouldn't be upset to get charged $300 to not get your car fixed? He's bitching at me that he had to buy the ignition coils and now what's he going to do with them--Hey, that's not my problem buddy!!! If you knew what you're doing before that, this wouldn't have happened. We had some more choice words and I stormed off, $300 lighter, and with a van that won't start that I now have to figure out how I'm going to get out of there.
When I cooled off again, I started thinking, "Maybe I'm wrong. I don't know. I'm not a mechanic, but this seems really wrong." Please understand, this may be "standard procedure", but it sure seems like a ripoff to me. Big Time.
Then I started asking around about this guy...not one positive comment from anyone. So, you can make your own decision. And if the owner (Brad) is reading this, and you're getting all mad--remember, you got my money, I got absolutely nothing. And you didn't even have the decency to offer to tow the damn dead van to my house a mere four blocks away. read more
