SUMMARY: I lost $690 plus more on car repairs that never worked. Problem was never fixed. But car was delivered as fixed. Later on owner asked me to take this car to Lexus dealership for repairs as he was not authorized for such repairs. No refunds. I asked for only half of refund that was strongly denied as totally unfair demand. This never happened with me that I paid for service that was not delivered. Generally, repair shop always help customers and share financial aspect.
If shop was truthful and contacted me that the problem was different than originally thought then I could have saved on $400 plus on new parts. I would have gladly paid their full labor and given 5 star reviews. Shop owner/manager did not honor his words or warranty promises made to me to get my car to his shop for repairs.
This shop could be just an oil change shop that takes on repairs they can NOT do but they won't refund customer's money and may end up doing damage to the car for lack of experience or focus (handling several different businesses at same location) . This shop did not provide any written documentation for diagnosis or warranty or repair details that other shops provide. So, there is a lot of room for change of story or miscommunication.
DETAILS:
One cylinder on my car started misfiring on start and at stops. I was recommended to replace all 3 ignition coils and spark plugs on back side due to high labor cost of$270 to reach that part of engine.
Shop charged me more for parts and less for labor. Shop charged me $90 for 3 spark plugs..... Lexus dealership sells 3 spark plugs exact same part number for $45 and Auto zone for $36.
(Note: Car had 194,000 miles on it and five body panels needed paint and minor dent repairs from a recent incident with $5000 plus estimates for repairs. )
So, I was not ready to spend more than $500 on new mechanical repairs. It was better for me to sell this car to salvage yard for parts. I finally sold it to salvage yard after wasting $690 with this shop.
Shop owner sort of sucked me into his marketing pitch with promise of 12000 miles/12 months warranty. He told me, in his 29 years of car repairs experience, he has fixed 100s of cars with this problem. I thought okay if car would be surely fixed then I can sell it to private party and recover my money. Shop never honored their words and warranty assurance given to me that led me to believe that car would be surely fixed.
This is where the whole problem lies with this shop on this incident. The shop was focused to get my car for repairs but did not pay any attention what if they could not fix it or problem turned out to be different. The shop knew they would never refund my money so they were good to go ahead with repairs at my risk and my money. They also collected my money by lying that car was fixed.
Later when I called to tell the problem re-appeared...misfires is reported only after certain counts. So, if shop clears everything from computer memory by removing battery for more than 30 minutes. Misfire will comeback as reported in a few days or after 5 or more miles. Owner asked me to bring back car. He claimed that he spent 6 hours of labor in trying to fix this car. Shop told me the problem seemed to be PCM (no diagnosis of PCM, just assumed everything else is good) and advised me go to Lexus dealership which would cost me $2000 plus. I later learnt from web research it could be easily several other simple things including bad and faulty repairs. Shop charged me another $105 for this trip but refunded later on after much discussions and arguments. I never approved this charge.
Later after my experience with this shop, I called other shops in same area to check out. They were truthful, no shop assured that problem would be fixed for sure by replacing spark plugs and ignition coils, and correctly guided me to carefully think before repairs. They advised me the problem can also be different and can be very costly for repairs running into thousands of dollars. This is where I hold this shop owner responsible for misleading me, consciously or not, and they must bear at least half of cost.
Hopefully, owner learns and changes his attitude to start listening to customer, inform and involve customer in decision making if he is going to collect money from customer for his bad choices, mistakes and false assurances of warranty. read more