Complaint Review: Aamco Transmissions

In December 1999, my daughter and son-in-law were returning to college in New York. They were driving my 1988 Saab 900 Turbo, and somewhere around Dayton Ohio, the transmission gave out. My son-in-law had the car towed to the Alpha Ohio Aamco Transmission Service center, owned by Robert Wolfe (PO Box 232; US RT 35 and Orchard Lane; Alpha, OH 45301; 513-429-2822)

Initially, the service manager told me they could have the car ready that week at a cost of $750. At the end of that week, I was informed that instead of being ready, it would require a new transmission at a cost of $3500 AND take several weeks to repair. I sent my kids money for bus tickets home, and made arrangements to pay their hotel bill. After several attempts to get the credit paperwork from Aamco in Alpha Ohio, I told them that I had secured my own finances, and to fix the car.

On March 28, 2000, I picked up the car--and after a short test drive, loaded it on a trailer and towed it back home to Mississippi. As a truck driver, I did not drive the car much, and with less than 500 miles on the repair, one day the car just stopped running. Upon checking the motor, I found that the distributor had been damaged, and someone had attemped to use some type of sealer to glue the wire-holder in place.

This fix had failed and allowed wires going into the distributor to short out, that caused the engine to stall. I also found the broken mount of the fuel injector, and the splice in the wire leading to the air conditioning compressor only 2 inches from the plug connector.

On April 18, 2000, I took the Saab to the Florence Alabama Aamco Center, managed by Terry Kennamore, for the car's check-up. I reported the problems to the customer service person who declined my request to fix the problems listed. He did refer me to Performance Automotive to check the problems and investigate the cause of the grinding in the front-end.

At this point, I decided to wait and see if the transmission was okay. I had the bearings on both sides replaced at less than 1500 miles due to the fact that tey had been over-tightened, thus causing them to burn out. While the wheel bearings were being replaced, my mechanic found where the wheel wells had been damaged by hammer blows that were still fresh (evidently from the transmission shop).

When the Saab came due for the first oil change, the shop that always does my work found that the Aamco Transmission shop had stripped the head off the oil pan bolt. It took about 30 minutes for the service center to manage to get the bolt out using a pair of vice grips.

In October 2000, the weather here in north Mississippi began to turn cold. That is when I noticed that the transmission was slipping. I called the head office of Aamco Transmissions and related the list of problems to them. After a couple of months of phone tag with "Pat" I requested a letter stating my options.

In December 2000, I received a letter telling me to take the car to the Florence Alabama Aamco shop, that the transmission was still in warranty. After contacting them, I was able to drop the car off in February 2001. A couple of months later, no action had been taken. The Florence Alabama shop would not fix the car until they had the paperwork from the Alpha Ohio shop. They could not find the paperwork. It took them several weeks to find the paperwork (in my son-in-law's name).

It took the threat of legal action to get the ball rolling. I contacted the service center several times, and finally (during the July 4th holiday) They let me know when I called that the car was ready. It would then take me until August 17, 2001 (due to my job) to get over to Florence, AL during their business hours to pick the car up.

Upon my arrival, I was asked to wait while they brought the car around. When I was getting in the car, the engine died. The mechanic assured me that the car was out of gas (even though the gauge showed 1/4 of a tank). The mechanic returned with 5 gallons of gas, and when the engine still would not start, he began to check the fuses. He did find a blown fuse in the central locking system , and when it was replaced, the engine started. The car stalled at work the next day, and I had to push it out of the company entrance. When I had returned from that trip on my company truck, the car did start, but before I got home, the car stalled again. Also, the transmission still slipped.

My mechanic checked the car and found that the coil had been re-installed incorrectly causing the coil to bind against the body, and the post on the top of the coil had broked loose causing a bad connection. I thought at first to fix it anyway, but then I thought that if these people left my car in this shape without fixing the other known problems, what assrances do I have that the problems that I am unable to check have been competently repaired.

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Along with a request that Aamco buy my Saab at fair market value and refund the money I spent on the transmission, I submitted the above statement to the Alabama State Better Business Bureau, Alabama State Attorney General, Ohio State Better Business Bureau, Ohio State Attorney General, Pennsylvania State Better Business Bureau, Pennsylvania State Attorney General, and I got no satisfaction.

On August 27, 2002, I filed a suit against the Florence Alabama Aamco. The hearing was held September 18, 2002. I have all the receipts, correspondance, photographs of the damages to the engine, names, phone numbers, and a copy of Aamco's "warranty". None of this did me any good. The "honorable" judge ruled against me because it was my word against Aamco manager Terry Kennamore's word that the damages were actually done by Aamco.

I guess that from now on, I will have to stand and video tape any work done on any of my vehicles in order to have proof if anything like this ever happens again.

To beat it all, during the hearing, Terry Kennamore admitted that they did not even try to fix the problem with the transmission that I put the car in his shop to fix!

Vernon
Corinth, Mississippi

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