At a loss! My car broke down on a Sunday, no mechanics were open, and home is five hours away from Walla Walla. After having to rent a car and check into a hotel, I got a few recommendations for reputable mechanics, which is how I found out about The Auto Man. I called and left a voice mail and, on Monday morning, "M" (will not use his full name) called me back. He said they had time and could work on my car, so I had it towed there. Upon arrival, M then said it would be an hour or two until he could look at it and advised that we didn't wait, saying he would call two hours later. Three-plus hours later, no returned phone call, so I called and was told by M that he could not reproduce the problem because he could not drive it as he was the only one there, but someone would be in later that afternoon. Again, he said he would call me back, but no call came in. The next day, I called again and was now "reminded" that I was not their only customer (was this really necessary, especially considering I had been told he had time to work on it and he knows I don't live there?). He said he was looking at it in between other jobs whenever he had an idea of what the problem might be.
Since then, I have received no return phone calls and now no one is answering the phone. The outgoing voice message on Friday said they were closed for the afternoon as part of normal business hours. On this past Monday, the outgoing message said that they would be closed all day the previous Friday and that Monday. I left a message each time, still no call back.
Today is Wednesday, a week and a half after my car was towed there. I decided that, if I got voice mail again this morning, I would make the ten-hour round trip hour drive to/from Walla Walla to get my keys and my car to another mechanic. However, the outgoing message this morning said that they were closed all week. Again, I left a message, this time saying that I need to be able to get my keys and car to another mechanic and that I really needed someone/anyone to call me back to arrange this. A very helpful someone from the Walla Walla Police Department said that he had never heard anything bad about them and that, when he stopped by the shop for me, there was a sign up saying they would be closed all week with no reason or emergency contact info.
I am incurring excessive, unnecessary expense (rental car, gas, hotel, etc) and frustration just trying to get a simple repair done on my car. I wouldn't have taken it there if he didn't explicitly tell me that he had time to look at and work on it that day, which was more than a week and a half ago. Now I am still without my car and can't even get someone to answer the phone or open the door to let me get my car back to take to another mechanic.
I really do hope everyone is okay, and hope that they are not going out of business. They seemed nice and had a good recommendations.
In the meantime, I really just need my car and key back and have never been put in such a helpless, frustrating position. read more
