Grease Monkey Auto owner Scott charge for service that was not performed Virginia Beach Virginia
Grease Monkey advertises that they provide air conditioning recharge servicing. I took my Ford Escape into this location for a recharge. The owner SCOTT, sold me an a/c check and then if that's passed he would refill the system with freeon. I told the owner that there was a leak because the freeon had leaked out from the last servicing. Scott said the system passed so he filled it with freeon. How could the leak have fixed itself? Scott Charged me $132.26 and sent me on my way. Next morning the a/c felt like a heater. Returned the Escape back to Scott but he was not in. His mechanic took a look with his flash light and found freeon on the engine and not within the system. The mechanic instructed mt to take the Escape into another a/c repair shop to fix the leak he found. I did as instructed and it was repaired fir $493.00. I returned on 4 different days to meet with the owner Scott but he was never in. Grease Monkey advertises "100 % Satisfication Guarantee" online, on their website, and in their stores. I was going in to pick up my refund based on their own company policy. They also, make written statements that they will "never sell a product or service that is not needed". Really? Scott certainly did not provide me with a service or product that repaired my Escape. What did he sell me? Nothing!
I finally had had enough of Scott's absence from his place of business and asked for Scott's mechanic to get Scott on the phone. I requested my refund and Scott refused. He did however, instruct this mechanic to hand write a release for me to sign and then he would give me $60.00 to go away. No way! I was completely ripped off and I would never take less than half of what is due me and just let it go. Fraud is Fraud! The public needs to be warned of frauds like Scott and Grease Monkey. The corporate is not backing their "100% Satisfication Guarantee" either. They continue to turn my complaints back to this thief of a business owner, Scott! Never take your vehicles to any Grease Monkey Auto shop. You will be completely on your own if anything is not handled professionally. Nothing about Grease Monkey is legitimate or professional. Stay clear!!
1 Updates & Rebuttals
GM333
Virginia Beach,Virginia,
USA
Not Totally Accurate
#2REBUTTAL Owner of company
Sun, October 29, 2017
It is never easy to respond to any complaint like this, but I will endeavor to do so. First, I am the Owner of this shop and personally dealt with this customer. As you can tell, this person is extremely angry and therefore is twisting the facts to make his position seem accurate.
What I can say is the person did come into my facilty and we did do an Air Conditioning Recharge service on it. He did come back in one or two days complaining his air conditioning system had stopped working. When he came back, my Manager did find a large leak in his condenser unit which caused all the Freon we had put in to leak back out.
He did come back numerous times to see me and was extremely frustrated and angry I was not there each time he came in. The problem was I am not there 7 days a week as I have a Manager, and he refused to come in on the days I am there. I did finally talk with him on the phone and told him why it failed and told him it was not our fault. To be customer service oriented, I did offer to refund 50% to meet him half way and he refused to take it. He wanted 100% or nothing so he got nothing.
He contacted Grease Monkey Intl to file a complaint and it was forwarded to the Chief Operating Officer and to our Regional Manager. After they investigated it, they determined it was not our fault and advised the customer as such.
Now for the details. He came in asking for an AC recharge service. I discussed his situation with him and what was going on. I explained in gruesome detail what an AC recharge was, how it was performed and how long it would take to do. I also explained that the process, which was performed on a brand new Robinair recharge machine, included a vacuum test and leak check which would find approximately 75% of all leaks. He was never told it would find all leaks.
He said to go ahead. I first looked at his air conditioning system and then hooked up the equipment. The machine is computerized and does the work by itself. It found no leaks. I told the customer and he authorized us to perform the recharge. The process went perfectly. No issues whatsoever.
Once we started the vehicle, we checked his system with our gauges through his high and low pressure ports. The pressure was pretty high. I checked everything and it looked ok. I then spoke to two senior ASE mechanics and asked them about the high pressure readings. They told me it was ok, some systems just do that. I told the customer and he said he had no more time for me to check his system and said he had to go. I billed him out and he left. Let me reiterate, his system was functioning perfectly after the service. We ran it for approximately 30 minutes and it ran well all that time.
When he came back after it stopped working, my Manager examined his system. Right in front of the vehicle in an extremely obvious place was a large hole in his condenser. It was easy to see. My Manager showed it to the customer and suggested he go get it repaired. No such leak / hole was there when we did the recharge. If it had been, we would have easily seen it and the system would not have functioned properly.
What we tried to explain to the customer was we think one of two things happened. First, when he first came in for the service, he probably had a small leak that was not detected by the machine. After he left, due to the high pressure in his system, the hole may have enlarged, causing the current problem. Alternately, he could have had a rock or something else hit it and cause the damage. The condenser sits in front of the radiator right behind the front grill on the car. AC Condensers are frequently damaged by rocks or other debris kicked up on the road.
He was unwilling to accept any explanation other than what he wanted to hear. He wanted his money back and nothing else. Even though I did not feel we did anything wrong, I tried to meet them half way. They did not want to do so.
These people are not calm people. You can probably tell from their method of writing. They yelled, screamed and his wife even used profanity. They are doing everything they can to stir the pot. Please remember they even contacted Grease Monkey Intl and the Chief Operating Officer and our Regional Manager got involved and investigated what happened. They agreed we did nothing wrong. Sometimes things just happen and I am sorry it did for this customer. Sometimes its nobody's fault, which is what happened here.