Complaint Review: Express Oil Change At Greenbriar Mall

I recently bought a used Jeep Cherokee, and decided to get a Transmission flush, because I knew it would need it eventually. I trusted Express with my oil changes, and never had any problems, so I thought I'd take it there for the fluch.

When I got there, Ricky, the GM, told me that I didn't need a flush, I needed a new tranny pan because I had a leak. Although I had never seen any leaks, I said okay. It took 3 HOURS to do the work, which was outrageous. During that time, they admitted that they were having problems putting the filter on. Once I left, I noticed a startling difference in the motion of the vehicle. When I stepped on the gas, the engine would rev, but the car wouldn't move. Then suddenly it would jerk and take off. It had never driven like that before. When I got home, we could see a huge puddle or tranny fluid under the jeep - something we had never seen before.

I took it back, and Ricky said that the reason it was driving like that was because sometimes when you put in new transmission fluid, it's really thin, and the jeeps parts aren't gripping like they should...blah blah blah. He pointed that the leak was because of a seal that I should have had replaced with the pan. I asked why, if the leak was as noticeable as it currently was PRIOR to them doing any work on my vehicle, wasn't it pointed out at the same time as the pan? He admitted that was a good question, so we went to ask the techs who worked on the jeep.

The guy who actually put the tranny fluid in said no one informed him that there were any other leaks, so we went to the tech who worked underneath, and he said that he did tell the tech above that there was this other major leak - which conflicted with the other guy's story. I told him that his team was very negligent, and for that, he gave me passes for 4 free oil changes. He stuck to his story that it was the "newness" of the tranny fluid that caused the jerking. He suggested that I scrap the vehicle and get a new jeep. I didn't trust any of that, so I talked to a mechanic friend.

That friend asked that I bring in a sample of what was leaking for him to test. It turned out that they had used Dexron, which was not meant to be used in my jeep, or pretty much any Chrysler vehicle. I called other jeep repair people and asked them to verify the kind of tranny fluid for my jeep, and to tell me the effects of using the wrong fluid. They all were surprised that the jeep was still running. That would have destroyed my jeep's transmission. I called Ricky back, and he said in all his 25 years of mechanic work, he'd never heard of such a thing - and was basically calling me a liar, and never even considered that I might be correct - and he never researched. I'd had enough. I decided to call that particular Express Oil's owner, as well as contact the Better Business Bureau.

I thought I could trust them for this work, since thay claim they can do it, but my jeep came out so much worse than it went it. They put in the wrong transmission fluid, as well as busted the seal trying to replace the tranny pan, and seemed extremely incompetent and negligent. They also don't want to own up to their mistakes. I don't even want to go to them for my oil changes now.

Nicole
East Point, Georgia
U.S.A.