Ideally, we all want car repair places to be both competent and honest. I'm not willing to settle…read morefor one or the other
My first experience with Garry's was good--I needed a tire replaced and the other tires rotated. But after my 2003 Mazda (with less than 65,000 original miles) wouldn't start on a hot late October day, and jumping the battery didn't work, I had it towed to Garry's, Since it was also time to have the timing belt replaced, I asked them to take care of that, as well.The technician, Larry, said that the starting problem was the battery cable, that the battery was fine, and he had replaced the cable. Two days later, the car was very slow turning over and I took it back, suggesting that perhaps the problem WAS the battery, since it was old. I'm now convinced that they didn't look for any other issues at that time. They replaced the battery (which they had said didn't need replacing), to the tune of $200, Had I really thought that was the only problem, AAA would have replaced it on site for considerably less. Not long after, over the Thanksgiving holiday, I drove up to Northern Virginia, and parked the car overnight. The next morning, it again gave me trouble starting, but it did, and I followed my brother to Richmond. The car started sluggishly when I went to leave there, but got me home. I didn't drive it the next day. The following day, it reluctantly started yet again, and I needed a quick trip to the grocery store. I was in the store for about twenty minutes, if that. When I came out, the car was dead. Nothing. No sound. Since it was Sunday, I left it there overnight and had AAA tow it to Garry's again the next day. I still wonder what would have happened had I pulled over at a rest stop on I 64. Would I have been stranded there?
The next day I again had the car towed to Garry's.Late the day after that, the technician called and said the car needed the starter replaced, and it would cost me more than $300. When I asked with more than a little frustration if this would actually fix the car, the technician said "Well, I don't know, the timing belt might go." Given that they had just replaced the timing belt, this was less than reassuring. (He later said he was just 'giving me an example'.) I went marginally ballistic, and asked the technician to have Garry call me back, and when he did, he was shouting before I said a word. "That starter needs replacing! I had to push it down a hill to get it into the shop." I pointed out that they had 'fixed' the starting issue twice before, and actually replaced a battery after telling me the battery didn't need replacing. I wanted assurances that the starter would fix the issue, and I thought that at least an apology was in order. I'm shocked that a business owner would talk to any customer that way, even (or maybe especially) one who's upset by their errors and short memory, and I wonder if they talk to their male customers the same way. Until I reminded him, Garry clearly had no recollection that the car had been in his shop twice before for the same issue. I suggested he check his records, then realized that the don't keep real records. I thought maybe there would be some apology, even a fake one, when I picked the car up, but there was not. Instead, Garry pointedly walked out of the room when I came in, and the technician continued to insist that the starter had been fine when I first brought the car in. Overall, I spent well over $500 for the issue to be fixed (not counting the cost of the timing belt replacement)--if it really is, and the car was in the shop for more than five days over a total of 30 days. It's also worth pointing out Garry's charges $35 extra if you use a credit card. I now wonder if that's because people can dispute credit card charges. I'm finished with them, unless there is yet another problem with starting the car. And I'm praying they knew what they were doing when they replaced the timing belt. This was the worst experience I've ever had with mechanics, and I've been driving for more than 40 years.
