I have always loved to get my cars serviced here, for several years now. All of this changed on my last visit.
I came in with my 2003 Dodge Grand Caravan, being towed in lo less. The owner, Han, must have seen this as a chance to gouge me since I am also handicapped and on top of everything I am too weak to work on my own car any longer due to weakness caused by dialysis.
He wanted to charge me 70.00 just to hook up the van to the reader to get the trouble codes. My van has a feature that by turning the key in the ignition the times, the display gives me the trouble codes. He and his mechanics did not know this trick and challenged me to prove it. After showing both of them how it is done, all i got was sarcasm by telling me if I wanted an application for employment. He still charged me $20.00 CASH for equipment and labor fee. ( maybe he should have paid ME for training him how to do his job).
I tried telling him what i had found out on the internet as far as trouble shooting the problem, to which he replied for me NOT to tell him how to do his job. All I was trying to do was to give him a starting point to trouble shoot. Since he had no Idea what was wrong.
He replaced the fuel pump, and still had a problem. There was nothing wrong with my fuel pump. He ended up re-installing my old pump back on. Then, he stated it was my ecu module. (The brains of the van). He told me it would be about $400.00 for the part plus programming, plus labor. I told him that these parts did not need additional programming since they come plug-and-play. He snapped back that since I knew so much, that I should get the part. I ordered the part from the internet with a company that even programmed it for me. $269.99 including tax, shipping and handling.
The part arrived and i took it to Han who just plugged it in to see if it worked. The van worked fine. Then, he commented that it would cost me $120.00 just installing it (which is four bolts with a screwdriver... 5-15 minutes worth of work). I told him it was outrageous to charge me the equivalent of $480.00/hr to take off and put on 4 screws.
He drove my van out of his shop and told me to do it myself! (Obviously thinking that he had me in a tight spot). I called Meineke just 200 yards down the same street. They quoted me $28.50 just to bolt on the unit. A more reasonable fee for a job the labor book says takes 15 minutes. They did it in 5 minutes!
The owner of PK AUTO PERFORMANCE, Han, seems he only knows prices starting at $120.00 and up, no matter how small the job. OK place for oil changes... But that is about all. read more