We scheduled an appointment on a day that I would be able to leave our vehicle and RV all day and be able to pick it up that same evening. We showed up within a few minutes of opening time on our scheduled day. Garrett was not there and had not informed his shop of the promises that he had made. After a phone call and much wasted time, they told us that they would have it done by the end of the day. Fast forward to late that afternoon when we went to pick up our vehicle. We received a very rushed overview of the work they had done, they had us hitch to the RV to ensure that tow bar was at the right height and sent us in to pay. We did a once-over of the vehicle and RV to ensure everything was good and realized that when the brakes in the RV were activated, the yellow turn signals in our toad would come on, rather than the red brake lights. As luck would have it, everyone from the shop had left while we were inside paying, so we went back in and spoke to the woman in the office (Chrissy), who came outside to confirm what we were telling her. She had to call Garrett, who was away at the Houston RV Show, and try to explain it to him, but he told her it was normal. She then spoke to Keith, Garrett's father and the previous owner of the business. Keith asked to speak to me, I explained the issue to him, and he understood what I was telling him, prompting him to jokingly say, "I'm going to have to kill someone!" Chrissy was able to get us on the schedule for a day when their "good" wiring tech would be in. We were scheduled to leave on a weeklong vacation to Florida (with vehicle in tow) but had no choice but to leave it behind, as our appointment was for after our return and we didn't have the ability to get it back to them before our trip. A weeklong trip with an RV and no toad...that we had just spent thousands of dollars to set-up...was inconvenient and annoying. However, we knew that it was both unsafe and illegal to tow a vehicle without proper brake lights. After our trip, we took the vehicle back to have the aforementioned issue fixed, as well as some other concerns, such as 1) the brake actuator wiring was mounted behind the clutch and was being crushed every time that the clutch was depressed, 2) the breakaway switch was mounted too far out in front of the car where it was certain to be broken off, 3) we didn't receive the factory-included receiver caps for the baseplate, and 4) the wiring harness was a clunky metal unit that stuck out like a sore thumb on the front of our vehicle, making it look like it had been wired with leftover parts (which I know is not true, that's just how it looked). In general, it seemed that the job was not professionally done. When we arrived for our repairs, Garrett was not there and, once again, they were not expecting us. Again, a phone call to Garrett and they agreed to get us taken care of that day. Garrett told me that he thought he had gone over everything with the technician the day before, "but I must have done that in my head." He went on to say "The office is not running at full strength right now. Chrissy is out sick with an *redacted*, leaving me still trying to recover from a respiratory infection to do everything. Keith is helping me out with emails but is pretty much retired. I know this has no bearing on the work and does not reflect very well on us as a whole. I apologize." He was correct that if did not reflect well on them, but I was appalled that he committed a HIPAA violation by telling me in an email exactly why Chrissy was out of the office. It was absolutely none of my business and it wasn't his information to share. He better hope that she does not take action as a result of that disclosure. Ultimately, the vehicle was fixed...we think. We still have not been able to tow it because of the COVID-19 shut down. I asked Garrett for a credit for all the inconvenience and hassle, loss of use of the toad and an extra full day at his shop for the repairs. Rather than make an offer, he asked me for what I was wanting. I gave him a range, and after a few days, he replied with "I'm sorry that things have not gone as stellar as they usually go here. That aside I was willing to entertain the idea of a reasonable amount on a refund for customer relations but that is way more than reasonable. The repairs/rework have been fulfilled to your satisfaction under our warranty." From our perspective, he did the bare minimum by simply honoring the warranty that he was legally obligated to honor. Smitty's caused a good deal of inconvenience to us, as well as potentially put the safety of my family and others on the road around us at risk by improperly wiring our brake light system. Luckily, we caught the problem before we got on the road. I encourage you to be diligent when selecting a company to work on your vehicle, and if you choose this one, please take the time to ensure that everything was done safely! read more
