I brought my car here because the ignition was not working. I asked for a full work up. During my experience here, I found the process took far longer than anyone anticipated or I was quoted.
They didn't charge for an evaluation. During my discussion with Tony I was quoted $975.45. This is a word-by-word quote from the phone call:
"Hey it's Tony from Tim's. I finally got a list together for you with the pricing. A couple things, let me see where to start. It needs a new battery. We need to fix some wiring that is near the transmission that has rubbed through. Um, it needs a headlight bulb which you knew. We need to blow off the drains. They were full of dirt, that should take care of that water leak for you. Could use some front pads and rotors. It could use a 4-wheel alignment. And rear sway bar links. We talked about that piece out in the front, that's a backing plate. We can bend that right back, nothing serious at all. Something that I just mentioned to you that you're gonna need in the future are probably some tail lights, they're broke. I'm sure you know. It is something we can get done. We can try to get it done late today, it depends on how the wiring issue goes. could take a little time to get that done. To do everything that we talked about would be $975.45"
I called a few minutes later and got Tony. To quote that phone call:
Me: "Hey, this is Shelby. I just got off the phone with Tony I was gonna call back about (my car). If you guys want to go through with that new battery, the wiring, the new headlight and tail light, all the brake pads and blowing off the drains and all of that basically, the alignment and stuff. That's cool by me. I'll pay the $975 for it. When it's finished I can come and pay. The full run down of everything would be perfect."
Tony: "We'll get it done for you."
I called in and requested my brake pads back. They had a warranty and I wanted to return them since they were faulty. When I tried, they were rejected because the brake pads were in good condition. According to Tony, "The rotors were warped. So any time the rotors are warped you gotta change the pads because the pads is actually what made it warped. So there was plenty of material life left on there but the reason why it was warped was because of that so that's why we change them. Any time you change a rotors or pads you have to change them both, ya know, together in pairs."
Wouldn't you imagine my surprise when I get my car back and the tail lights are untouched. When I addressed that the following ensued:
Tony: "I can get a price on them (the tail lights) for you."
Me: "I was under the impression that these were going to be done because I confirmed this during our calls."
Tony: "Well, the tail lights weren't in the price. It was just something that I mentioned to you."
I waited for Tony to get a quote on the tail lights, in case I wanted to just have it done so it was taken care of. The ending of the tail light scenario is anti-climatic. Tony told me that they weren't included in the quote, it would take days to get parts for body work in (this was said almost in a "you should have known this" sort of attitude. I have no idea why - it's not like I would have any idea what parts Tim's has on hand for repairs.) and when I brought up that I confirmed during my call that we were doing the tail lights he essentially told me I'd have to call back to talk to the owner. I wasn't about to fight tooth and nail for additional repairs. Even if Tim's were to do them - at this point, I wouldn't have trusted the quality of the work.
As if that wasn't enough to make this an unpleasant interaction, my car started to make a squeaky/grinding noise when I made right turns. I reached out to Tim's again, spoke with Tony, and set up a time to have it brought back. This is what they claim happened:
"There was a backing plate that we bent on the right side, was fine, it was actually the backing plate on the drivers side that was making a noise so we bent that for you. Nothing crazy."
The reason I write this review now, nearly 6 or 7 months later, is because I took my car in to be evaluated elsewhere and was informed there is NO lubricant on my rear sway bars. Tim's auto was negligent with my repair, communicated poorly, and was never timely or accurate in time estimates given. I would absolutely never recommend them to anyone under any circumstances.
I wanted to support a local, small business. I hope that after reading this review they will do better. To their credit, the evaluation was no charge. They did bend the plates for free, and they blew the dirt out for free as well. That doesn't negate from the fact that they didn't lubricate a crucial part of my vehicle that they were directly repairing. Nor does it change the fact that they mislead me (either with poor communication skills or intentionally) to believe more repairs were going to be completed than what actually was done. read more