My vehicle broke down around 3 am outside of santee SC. My vehicle was losing power while on I-95. I stopped in Santee and immediately called my father who is a hobby mechanic, not a professional. We came to the conclusion that the problem was either the fuel filter or catalytic converter. When the local carquest opened I changed the filter and 2 spark plugs. Doing so changed nothing in the way the car was running. The employees at the carquest suggested that I go to Santee Lake Service center. One of their employees, an african-american gentleman, was there and I told him I think it is the converter and I followed him to the shop with my car barely running. Upon arriving to the center I told the front office lady that I changed the fuel filter but was not 100% sure as to the issue but it could possibly be the catalytic converter. When I walked outside and the mechanic, Dale, who actually worked on my car met me, I told him I am pretty sure it is the catalytic converter and to please check it. He took my car for a short test drive and came back and assured me that it was not the converter, that the converter could not cause these issues I was having. He proceeded to put my car on a lift, with physical assistance as the car did not have the power, and started diagnosing. He called a technical service that the shop is under, tech-net. He came back to me and told me that 2 fuel injectors were not spraying properly and that all of my spark plugs needed to be replaced, even though 2 of them were new. He assured me this would fix my car and I could continue my drive to my training, that I previously paid for, in Orlando. After waiting the entire day he took my car on a test drive and said my car was running perfectly. I paid for the work done as the shop was closing, while he was test driving my vehicle. When I entered my vehicle to leave, it was doing the same thing as it was when I stopped earlier that morning. My car still had no power, I could not even leave the parking lot as was forced to wait. Dale came back to help a little bit but had to leave under his own personal issues. I stayed and worked on my car until it was too dark to see, I pushed my car, with the help of a fellow traveller who needed help, to a parking spot. I tracked down every mechanical problem that could kill power on my vehicle. My vehicle is a 1988 BMW 325i, and I would only lose power to my vehicle when the car was warm (had been running for a while) and was in gear, not only lose power, but even if not moving the car would audibly die down. Dale insisted it was in the valve train, which my father and I both knew was impossible due to it not happening from the start. I tracked down the distributor cap, found that one point was not firing properly (still working, as were the fuel injectors, just not 100% capacity). I replaced the distributor cap just to ensure the only problem left could be the converter. On saturday morning after I replaced the cap, I was on the phone with my father, on speaker phone, Dale refused to help me while I was in the parking lot, and again said there was no way the converter could cause those issues, he wanted to break down and go into my valve train. This was heard by my father on the phone as well. After spending most of the morning on it, I talked to one mechanic and told him the only thing it could be was the converter and to check it, he checked it by removing the O2 sensor and releasing back pressure on the converter, I test drove my car and it ran perfectly. He then cut off my converter and welded straight pipes on. The owner and I agreed to het him keep the old converter in place for not paying the $125 for the cut and straight pipe. They receive money for old converters, and they can also rot them out (empty the precious metal out of them) and place them on another car. I was able to be away from the shop and on the road back home as I missed my training, before 130 which was their closing time on saturdays. They are insisting they stayed late on Saturday to help which they did not, they are insisting that they offered to help me all day on saturday, they did not, they are insisting that I never told them about the converter, which is the only reason I went there and I did tell them that. I have asked for labor money back only, to be fair since I do have their parts in my car. They refuse to own up to their mistakes. I do not know if they just thought I was some kid that knew nothing about cars, of if Dale was just that hard-headed (a mechanics wife even said Dale was hard-headed and would not listen to anyone else). Either way they cheated me out of my money and I refuse to let this go until things are made right. I am only asking that they tell the truth, own up to their mistake and reimburse me for all the labor that was not necessary to be done and did nothing to make my car run any better.
If you need any work done in Santee, avoid this shop, or better yet this entire town in general! read more
