Very pricy. Felt like I was taken advantage of. Solid work.
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Saturday: Car stops idling out of nowhere. Will start, albeit quite roughly when cold, just won't idle. Keeps stalling in all gears within seconds. I suspected I needed a new idle air control valve (turned out to be true).
Sunday: Pushed the car out of the driveway to be towed over by AAA, left the keys overnight in the box with an additional note and a voicemail (2x communication) to run an A/C service and to check the starter because it took way too many cranks from a cold start. Got a call first thing on Monday morning. $109 for diagnostic tests.
Mid Monday call: $537 for idle air control motor replacement including labor, says will fix starter problem. ~$60 AC diagnostic + $35 Freon. First price seem steep at face value. Chris says it likely won't be done til early Tuesday - no worries on my end there.
Tuesday morning call: Found cracked upper radiator hose. "Causing coolant to leak and serious potential for car to overheat in the short term". I say OK. In my business I have to give my best honest assesment to clients. I can only hope that a professional place that's been around for a while like this would do the same. $190 including parts/labor. Seems steep for an accessible hose running $40ish + hose clamps.
Grand total: $855. Down to $803 w/ AAA discount (10% off parts/labor up to a total of $50). I walk to my car with my keys & an $803 credit card charge. From a cold start, the engine takes too long to ignite. Went back in and asked the mgr about the start, said it's likely another fuel pressure valve.
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Errors:
- Didn't apply the cost of diagnostics to future parts/labor. This diagnostic price seems 30+% inflated. As with other shops, the cost of diagnostics should at least in part be applied to the work done. That computer has paid for itself several times over.
- Markup seems steep or only premium parts are used. 120% retail markup, understandable - we all have to make a living and that's how it works. Beyond that (140% markup), $304 for the idle air control motor when comps average around $125 just seems steep. Options for non-premium parts (if those were the reason it was so pricy) on a vehicle w/ 137K on it should have be presented. Make me feel like you're trying to find a way save me money and I'll come back time after time.
- All of a sudden on day 2 they notice the radiator hose? Other Yelp-er almost got taken advantage of for the same thing. (see Stef M's 1/11/2013 review here). In diagnostics, that should've been identified and brought to my attention on Day 1. This doesn't make me feel good at all.
- I asked for a resolution to the cold start, they didn't do it while they had it, and then told me it should be fine once it's run once during the day. If they weren't clear what I had asked for, they should have said so. For this scope and price not to have included this requested work is upsetting.
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Positive:
- Professional demeanor and easily accessible. I feel like the services they provided were quality. I feel I could call 800 times (never did once, they always beat me to it) throughout the day to check on it and they'd be friendly and responsive.
- Quick turnaround. Happy with the timeframe and willingness to work in a weekend tow first thing on Monday. That was a nice positive for me.
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I'd be happy to hear how they'd like to resolve this. I'm extremely willing to change my negative experience to a very strong positive review and become a repeat customer (I did for my experience at Jiffy Lube on Shepherd).
Right now I can't justify any more than 2 stars because I feel the negatives of price, not having the starter work done, and feeling eerily taken advantage of on the radiator given it was ID'ed on Day 2 outweigh their friendliness. I can have a client that likes me a lot personally but if I don't give him what he wants, charge him too much without solid justification or lower cost options, and adds things in that I really feel should've caught earlier on, I won't be getting his business again.
I feel like I got quality work, just more (and in my starter's case, less) than I truly needed or asked for. read more