I initially spoke with Tim Roos, who portrayed himself as the owner of the shop. I told him the symptoms, and he said that there was no one there to look at it at that time but that they would take a look at it first thing in the morning. He also said that at that time, he would give me a quote. He connected me with the nearest car rental agency and they offered me a discount for being referred by Reliable. Good deal. Tim did call me back the next morning and said that I needed a new master cylinder/clutch assembly. I wasn't surprised at the quote: I know manual transmission replacements are costly. My quote was $1,130.69. I agreed to the charges. Tim called me back on Thursday to let me know that my vehicle was ready for pick-up. I made it there at around 5 pm, after turning in my rental car. Tim was still there. He told me that I must return for a two-week inspection in order to honor the warranty, and about the requirement to bring the vehicle back in 48 hours if there were any problems. He took my money, I took my car and drove away. I had more errands to run after I left there. The car seemed to be working fine. The problem started as I was headed home after my errands. It felt as though there was a brick under my clutch petal as I would attempt to change gears. At first I was still able to change gears. By Friday, this was a repetitive issue and I would get stuck in gear. I called Reliable Transmission on Friday to let them know about the issue, and to let them know that I would be returning in the morning for them to take a look. I was willing to take the risk and drive the car back to the shop (I live in Austin), even though it was clearly unsafe to do so. I spoke with David Roos this time (not Tim). I explained the symptoms to him. David told me that HIS shop is, wait for it, CLOSED on Saturdays!!!!!! First of all, what kind of automotive shop is closed on Saturdays, the biggest money-making day of the week for the service industry??? Anyway, he told me that I could bring my car there, but that it would be sitting at the shop until Monday when his mechanics returned. I explained that this was an emergency and needed immediate attention. As the owner, I asked him why he couldn't look at it, especially since he was physically at the shop at the time of my call. He kept saying that my vehicle may need a part and that even if he looked at it, he would not be able to order a part on a Saturday. Ummmm, okay. I said, "Well how will you know what it needs until you take a look? It may just need to be readjusted or bled". In so many words, David basically said clutch systems don't need to be readjusted and that I didn't know what I was talking about. I asked for Tim's number, who, if you remember, presented himself as the owner of the shop. David refused to provide that information, and informed me that he himself is the owner. After professionally arguing with David for several minutes, I got off the phone and agreed to come in on Monday. I had my sister follow me to the shop first thing Monday morning, and David was there. There was no trace of Tim. Tim's business cards were even gone. Only David's cards sat on the reception desk. David agreed to look at the car and tell me what was wrong by the end of the day. Guess what he said? He said, "It might just need to be adjusted"! Anyway, I called several times that day to check on the status of my vehicle. David kept saying they could find nothing wrong, but that they would keep test driving until the problem resurfaced. By the end of the day, he informed me that his mechanics bled it out and that it was all working fine. But he said he would continue to run tests until I got back there. So, once I got back at around 5 pm, he said it was fine and that I could drive it home. So I told my sister, who picked me up from work and drove me back to the shop to pick up my car that she could leave. Conveniently, as soon as she pulled off, David comes out the back and tells me I need a new slave cylinder because the one I have is worn. He said that was the issue causing the problem.
I asked him why he, Tim, or none of his mechanics noticed the "worn slave cylinder" when I initially dropped off the car on February 10. He said something lame like, "we weren't able to see that because that's not what we were initially checking" or something like that. He tried to make a deal that he wouldn't charge me for the labor, just the part, if I wanted them to replace the slave cylinder. After giving him several puzzled looks and repeatedly questioning the validity of his statements, I declined. I decided it wasn't worth having the same lame, unprofessional, closed on Saturdays, dishonest owners/mechanics working on my vehicle, even if it was free labor.
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