Complaint Review: Aamco Transmissions

Did anyone notice where Avis wrote ("it took them 4 hours to 'make up some problems'..."? She thinks they MADE up problems, like her transmission worked perfectly fine before dropping it off. These geniuses never cease to amaze me. If everything was just great Avis, why would you spend ANY money getting it checked out?

This idiot was the manager of a shop I worked at. He actually believed that making a PROFIT on the parts was a bad thing. He called it "ripping the customer off". Needless to say, he was replaced, by ME! He has his own shop and struggles every day. He tells his customers to buy their own parts and pay him labor. Great idea. What he's not telling them is that when the cheap junk they buy fails, they will be paying him more money for labor, since he is using their parts. The markup on parts pays for warranty work among other items. As a rule, parts pay for the shop, labor pays for labor. I knew more about business than the owner of the shop. I own my own, and he had to sell after I left due to loss of customers.

This idiot was the manager of a shop I worked at. He actually believed that making a PROFIT on the parts was a bad thing. He called it "ripping the customer off". Needless to say, he was replaced, by ME! He has his own shop and struggles every day. He tells his customers to buy their own parts and pay him labor. Great idea. What he's not telling them is that when the cheap junk they buy fails, they will be paying him more money for labor, since he is using their parts. The markup on parts pays for warranty work among other items. As a rule, parts pay for the shop, labor pays for labor. I knew more about business than the owner of the shop. I own my own, and he had to sell after I left due to loss of customers.

This idiot was the manager of a shop I worked at. He actually believed that making a PROFIT on the parts was a bad thing. He called it "ripping the customer off". Needless to say, he was replaced, by ME! He has his own shop and struggles every day. He tells his customers to buy their own parts and pay him labor. Great idea. What he's not telling them is that when the cheap junk they buy fails, they will be paying him more money for labor, since he is using their parts. The markup on parts pays for warranty work among other items. As a rule, parts pay for the shop, labor pays for labor. I knew more about business than the owner of the shop. I own my own, and he had to sell after I left due to loss of customers.

This idiot was the manager of a shop I worked at. He actually believed that making a PROFIT on the parts was a bad thing. He called it "ripping the customer off". Needless to say, he was replaced, by ME! He has his own shop and struggles every day. He tells his customers to buy their own parts and pay him labor. Great idea. What he's not telling them is that when the cheap junk they buy fails, they will be paying him more money for labor, since he is using their parts. The markup on parts pays for warranty work among other items. As a rule, parts pay for the shop, labor pays for labor. I knew more about business than the owner of the shop. I own my own, and he had to sell after I left due to loss of customers.

Greg-
I have worked in tranny shops, AAMCO included, as a General Manager. When you are trying to keep your GROSS margins at 60%, you sometimes see markups of 200-300%. That may sound like a lot, until you remember that is the GROSS margin. That is labor (Not including the center manager) and parts. Does not include commissions to the center manager (6-8%), rent, loan repayment, equipment lease, utilities, advertising (TV, radio), yellow pages, which are EXPENSIVE!, computers, printers, paper, shop supplies, parts and labor for comebacks, insurance, accountant to do your payroll and taxes.... shall I go on? So you figure if a tranny shop does $20,000 in a week and the gross profit is $12,000. Take out all non-fixed expenses and you have say $4,000 left over of net profit. Thats about $200,000 a year for the owner, in a top performing shop (Most shops average 10-12k per week in revenue). Now if you have a problem with an owner of a Tranny business making $200k a year, I think you should be criticizing Bill Gates and people like that, not the markup of a tranny shop.

Sure every one knows you own a shop to make a living. And just as you so clearly stated about clothing and lets add in furniture stores to. Nut if you take in the fact that if you buy kits in bulk they come cheaper now lets see 350 banner comes with metal sealing rings some even include pump bushing all metal clad seal and of coarse clutches 18 to 23 dollars what does a transmission shop charge for that unit? There is a difference in making a living with a honest profit and then there are the thieves.

Sure every one knows you own a shop to make a living. And just as you so clearly stated about clothing and lets add in furniture stores to. Nut if you take in the fact that if you buy kits in bulk they come cheaper now lets see 350 banner comes with metal sealing rings some even include pump bushing all metal clad seal and of coarse clutches 18 to 23 dollars what does a transmission shop charge for that unit? There is a difference in making a living with a honest profit and then there are the thieves.

Sure every one knows you own a shop to make a living. And just as you so clearly stated about clothing and lets add in furniture stores to. Nut if you take in the fact that if you buy kits in bulk they come cheaper now lets see 350 banner comes with metal sealing rings some even include pump bushing all metal clad seal and of coarse clutches 18 to 23 dollars what does a transmission shop charge for that unit? There is a difference in making a living with a honest profit and then there are the thieves.

Sure every one knows you own a shop to make a living. And just as you so clearly stated about clothing and lets add in furniture stores to. Nut if you take in the fact that if you buy kits in bulk they come cheaper now lets see 350 banner comes with metal sealing rings some even include pump bushing all metal clad seal and of coarse clutches 18 to 23 dollars what does a transmission shop charge for that unit? There is a difference in making a living with a honest profit and then there are the thieves.

Greg:
While you are making people call around, have them call clothing store suppliers, grocery store suppliers, home improvement suppliers, etc. I'll bet they have marked up the items from the suppliers as well. Clothing suppliers alone mark up their product as much as 2000%! Ever heard of Chinese manufacturing? Do you know why they do that?

Because that $80 Tommy Hillfiger shirt you buy only cost $4 to manufacture and ship. In fact, I'll bet that the factor for the mark up includes labor and overhead and a bit of a profit margin. These are the basics of being in business Greg.

Maybe you are in a business that does not require you to make money to pay the electric, phone, rent or employees but the rest of who have sunk our entire family's future into a business wish to provide for that family.

Thanks Mike for a clear rebuttal to Avis's situation. I knew as I was reading her complaint she wasn't telling all. It's a shame that it happens all the time to us in the automotive service industry. People simply get mad at us if their vehicle breaks down when all we try to do is fix it properly.

Yes folks... Sometimes PROPERLY can be expensive!
Dont shoot the messenger!

First it is a general rule that if the car was moving when it came in the torque converter is still good.But there is a problem with that and that is the comfort level of the shop and builder.

But of coarse you know that every unit you tear down you mark on the replacement of the converter if the builder doesn't then the sales man does how else is that 90 to 140 dollar converter going to be sold for 400 plus dollars.

If you as a customer want to know how much those parts cost well call up a place like Daco converters or Alabama converters and ask them just tell them your calling from a repair shop and then remember this, you don't buy as many as aamco so their price will be even lower.

The coolers are bought in bulk and usually run in the neighborhood of 20-25 dollars and there is a pretty big mark up on them they come with all the plumbing to but I have worked in shops where they break that down and charge the customer for each part of the cooler to.

So if the customer would do a little research and spend a few dollars in making a few long distance calls and sometime even the dealership he or she would find that they are paying for the unit to be rebuilt at or above new right from the auto manufacture not always the case but often enough. You see in sales what the difference in it being sold for ten dollars or twenty dollars?, Is to just ask and whats a sales mans job?

her problem is the NORM but most people are duped into beliving that it is not by the amount of positive advertising they do. they are the best known name in the buisness and people tend to take that for a good reputation. but if you really ask people who have had a transmission problem in the past they have said for the mosy part,( ther are exceptions to every rule) that they would NEVER go or go back to aamco if they had already made the mistake the fist time. There prices are double other BETTER shops and do a terrable job at customer svc. I hade the problem in brandon fl below in the list and have had to file a dispute with the state.

First of all I am sorry Avis is so confused. Her car was brought in for our External Diagnostic service to Diagnos whether her problem could be fixed with an external repair or whether it was internal. The charge for the E.D.S was $49.95 which she signed authorizing us to do so. Avis description of her problem to me was trouble pulling off from a stops. After the E.D.S we determined The vehicle was slipping in reverse and 1st gear. We checked the fluid condition and found it was severely burnt indicating a severe build up in heat within the transmission.

After sitting down with Avis and going over the report I explained to her that it was an internal problem and would require rebuilding to correct. She was informed that the cost to rebuild the transmission completely depended on the damage inside the transmission. She was informed that the base price to rebuild the transmission was $1300 dollars and this only covered the labor and soft parts (ie clutches,seals,gaskets,fluid, filter and bushing. That any hard parts damage or if it needs a converter would be additional.and that we would be able to determine that damage only after an internal inspection.

Avis then read and signed the following section of the repair order
Aamco may operate this vehicle for the purpose of testing and delievery at my risk. I understand that if a torque and/ or hard parts are required, the cost will be in addition to the base price of $1300.00. I have the right to authorize the additional cost, or to request reassembly and reinstallation of the unserviced transmission for a labor charges of $625.00 which includes the cost of disassembly and examination.
it was signed and dated 4/12/04.

After the internal inspection several problems were found. The main cause of the failure was the Torque Coverter$493.00 which failed due to excessive heat and dumped metal into the vavle body and soleniods $502.00. This is common with this type of transmission and happens due to insuffecent cooler flow thru the transmission cooler. This transmission is also used in Nissan Pathfinders and 240sx also in the Mazda 929 The dealers in many case,s replace the whole Radiator at charges up to $500.00. we choose to save the customer some money by installing an external cooler which by passes the radiators cooler and on runs only $199.00 parts and labor also her metal cooler lines were leaking which we offer to repair for only $95.00 the last thing we found is that her rear main engine oil seal was leaking and since you have to take out the transmission to get to it we offered in a customer satifaction effort to replace the seal for only $40.00. This brought the total to $2629 for ALL the above listed repairs. Just as a cross reference THe dealer cost on the Transmission ALONE without any labor is $2703.00. Avis apparently proceeded to call around shopping price's from people who have never even looked at the transmission. She recieved some prices on installing a junk yard Transmission. We only do Quality repairs and do not install junkyard transmissions. I have been in the industry many years and have seen a number of people throw good money after bad putting junk yard transmissions in and still never getting the vehicle right. Due to this I tried to explain to Avis the Cons of not fixing the vehicle proplerly.

I then Offered to fix only the transmission and not her other problems for $1995 rather then see her throw her money away. She again refused saying she didnt have that much money. I am sorry Avis apparently is mad but we did not break her car we are only trying to fix it properly for her. I am very suprised this site is allowed to post some of the outlandish remarks clearly by a customer who is not speaking with any facts to support her claim. How can this site post something calling someone a "sexist, racist ,oppurtunist , liar ,scam Money hungry" without any facts to support the statement. also how can she judge the quality off our work and call it a "half a*s job" She has not authorized any repairs and therefore has not recieved any.

Her car is not being held hostage it is being put back toghter to be reinstalled per her request for the reassembly charge which she authorized.
I am sure this response will never see the light of day but it is unfair that a customer who understandably upset at haveing to spend money on a repair which no one ever wants to have to do can come on here and post comment about a reputable business and make slanderous remarks about an individual she nows nothing of which repairs 12-16 transmissions weekly with many more very happy customers than mad. Avis is the exception not the norm.