OMG!!!!
I have been…read morea customer of Foreign Affair since 1992, and have never taken any of my (EIGHT, in that time) cars any where else for service in the past 33 years. Kevin, Allan, and Augie were terrific, but the business was sold several years ago to TIM, and only Augie remains. It is safe to say that the quality of the front half of the business has suffered greatly since TIM bought it. I recently took my Honda Accord in for service, and had a horrific experience.
My car had not been driven in 4 years, so took it in to see what needed to be done to make it road worthy again. My car was dropped off on a Sunday. I heard NOTHING until the following Wednesday, when Augie (who is and always has been WONDERFUL) called me to tell me that the car overall looked good. However, he needed to get it up on a lift to assess the condition of the under carriage, and run diagnostics on a "check engine" light.
Again, I heard nothing for 10 days or so. Tim, the new owner, called me 2 weeks later (10 days ago) and gave me a list of things that needed to be done. The list was long, and the estimate was $2,300, and it included new tires. I told Tim that I could not spend $2,300 on the car right now, and asked Tim what things I could safely defer. We dropped the tires, and one other thing from the list, and he told me that it would be $1,200 ish. I agreed to that.
I heard nothing again until Wednesday (another 10 days or so) of this week, when Tim called me and told me to pick up my car. I went the next day (Thursday). Imagine my surprise when I received an invoice for $1,700, when I had agreed to $1,200 ish dollars. I balked. TIM denied any recollection of the $1,200 ish discussion, and pretended that I was making this up.
Tim then got very aggressive, and told me "Don't come back." NO DANGER OF THAT, GIRLFRIEND!!! (Yes, TIM, I am calling you out .)
TIM, GREAT BUSINESS MODEL!!! Sheer genius!!! Alienate your loyal customers of 33 years who have spent at least $100,000 in your business, and also referred many other customers to your shop. BRILLIANT!!
AUGIE is still wonderful, but Tim is running the business into the ground. It is truly unfortunate. It is obvious that the business is declining, based only on observing the level of activity in the shop. I would not recommend Foreign Affair any longer, as TIM is 1) incompetent 2) verbally abusive 3) has questionable ethics and 4) appears to be misogynistic.