Complaint Review: Full Service Chevron

I want to start off by saying... the employees were nice (for the most part)... and I can only vouge for my experience.

My car broke down, a 2000 Chevy Cavalier, on my way from work between work and school. It actually was about to overheat, as I was watching the heat gage rise way above center... It was very close to the red and I had been stuck on the 101 S. Freeway for 40 minutes and this Full Service Chevron was right there. I pulled in and immediatly turned my car off, in a total panic as I once had a car overheat and it blew a headgasket many years ago.

The mechanic was about to close shop... He was actually very polite and accomodating and stayed open a bit late to take care of me; however, the next morning he called me at 8am. I had the day off so I was asleep... and I woke up to him telling me the repair would cost me $600 dollars. I asked him to give me a list of what he intended on repairing, I asked how much were parts and how much was labor. I'm a student and $600 bucks is a lot of money to me right now... so I need clarity.

He gave me a list of parts... hoses, the thermostat, etc... and it was clear to me that he didn't know what the problem actually was. He made the problem sound as though it were ambigous and that replacing multiple parts was the only way to ensure that the issue would be resolved. When I questioned this, he snapped at me and was incredibly rude and said "If you don't like it you can not pay for the inspection and take your car somewhere else!" I was half asleep and was doing my best to make sure I didn't lose a ton of money over unnecessary repairs... which chain mechanics are netorious for doing. 

After literally asking him to please not get mad at me, he said if I replaced the thermostat and the lower bypass hose, I should be okay. He went ahead and did it. I went and got my car the next day. Well, 2 days later I had the long commute (the one that I had had the issue with before)... well the heat meter decided to start going up. So I spent $380 dollars for absolutely nothing... but I thought to myself "perhaps it's because I didn't do all of what he recommended." So I gave him the benefit of the doubt... 

Well I took it to a mechanic across the street from my place. The people there were incredibly friendly... and they actually test drove my car a long while to make absolute sure of what the issue was. It was the fan motor. Well, the Full Service Chevron didn't mention the fan at all... and told me all of these other things were wrong with my car. Well, they weren't. I called my mechanic in the Valley and he told me that those parts didn't need to be replaced and that what probably happened was BECAUSE they are located in such a busy intersection, they probably aren't test-driving the cars and just giving you the whole list of what they can repair... and if I don't do all of it... it's my fault for not repairing a ton of stuff for no reason, except for whatever random part was actually the problem. 

I ended up spending only 210 dollars to fix the fan and my car has been driving perfectly for a week... So I spent, if you include taxes, over 600 dollars to fix my car when I really should have only spent 210 had the mechanics actually checked it out... and tested the car out until the fan was supposed to turn on after running long enough. 

The point is... I wasted a lot of time and money because I trusted a place to help me... I should have just had my AAA take my car home until I got ahold of a mechanic I trust. 

It's a bummer, and 600 bucks is a lot of money to me... a student and an intern with no family support... an old car and only good friends to help me out when I'm in a bind... and I think it's awful to precariously charge people for ambigous repairs... as though they had unlimited funds to blow on potential issues.