Hawkes Discount Radiator attempted rippoff "weak tubes" Mesa AZ
Hawkes Discount Radiator
10042 N. Cave Creek Road
Phoenix, AZ
Main office 710 East Broadway Rd.
Mesa, AZ 85204
Your Rip-Off Report reporter almost got ripped off this week at the North Phoenix store of Hawkes Discount Radiator of Mesa, AZ. I took a 9 year old radiator in for repair. (It had a slight leak at the tank, where the solder typically weakens.) An hour later, I get a call. Terry (a gal) tells me my radiator has "weak tubes" and it looks like I'll need a new unit. $295! (My other option was a rebuilt for $245, but only a one year warranty on that, as opposed to a lifetime warranty on the new unit.
She really kept talking up the new unit.) Didn't sound right to me - there was nothing wrong with the radiator except for the leak. It's not that old (the radiator in my other Blazer is 23 years old, and doesn't have weak tubes) and I've been good about changing out the radiator fluid.
I decided to call another shop. They would sell me a new radiator for $225, also with a lifetime warranty. They said bring to old one in first to get a 2nd opinion.
So I went back and picked up the unit from Hawkes. As near as I could tell, they hadn't touched it. Maybe ran some water through it. It certainly hadn't been taken apart. I took it to the other place, who took it apart and said "it looked like new inside."
Is this a way to turn a fast buck? Tell a customer he has weak tubes, sell him a new radiator he doesn't need, and then fix up and sell his old one for even more profit? No thanks!
Mike
Glendale, Arizona
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Terry
Phoenix,Arizona,
U.S.A.
Owner recently deceased ..As the new owner of this location, I would like to offer any solution to this problem
#3REBUTTAL Owner of company
Sat, October 25, 2003
My name is Terry Stewart (no connection with the Terry "a gal" in your complaint). I purchased the Hawkes Radiator location at 10042 N. Cave Creek Rd. on 9/23/02 shortly after your incident. At the time of your incident the 36 year old owner of Hawkes at Cave Creek had died unexpectedly in July of 2001 and the company was in probate. Because I had owned the Hawkes Radiator in Mesa I was waiting for it to clear probate to purchase it from the family. At the time it was being ran by the previous owners sister who was unfamiliar with the business. I tried to help with the operations as much as possible. Now that you have the background details let's move on to your complaint.
Weak tubes are a common occurance in radiators caused by the expansion and contraction over a period of time. This is observed by placing the radiator under pressure using 20lbs of air and submersing the radiator in a test tank of water and observing the bubbles and the expansion of the tubes and core. This is done prior to dissassembling your radiator hence the reason it looked untouched.
It is Hawkes Radiators policy to make a experienced judgement as to your radiators potential for lasting long after the the warranty time is over. We try to give our customers options and will always do whatever is asked, although sometimes we may have to do a repair with no warranty due to our evaluation of failure potential.
Our phone personel have been instructed to give our customers the option and opinons after examination of there radiator. Sometimes what the customer wants is just to have the radiator hold water and not be concerned that it lasts long term.
The expected life of a radiator varies greatly from design and type. However I have seen that the average life of a radiator in our hot climate is usually 5-7 years. You are quite lucky to have one that is over 23 years old in your Blazer.
We would like to refund any money you spent with Hawkes as a form of Customer Satisfaction. However, it is not nomally our policy to charge for checkout.
As far as using the radiator for rebuilding and reselling we currently only have 1/2 dozen used radiators in stock at the location in question as the only radiators we rebuild are the extremely expensive models that make sense to put the time and money into rebuilding. All the others are scrapped out.
As the new owner of this location, I would like to offer any solution to this problem that the customer sees fit and assure the public that this was not in any way an intentional policy placed in order to defraud the public and increase our profits.
We encourage any customer that brings their radiator to the shop prior to authorizing any work or purchase to visually inspect our findings with our staff if they have any question at all to the validity of our opinions.
Hear the telephone call
#30
Fri, August 02, 2002
Here is the .wav file of the call.