Jeff Pohlman Tire & Auto Service Inc. Jeff Pohlman Tire & Auto #6 Cheating Customers: break your car and charge you to fix it Oxford, Ohio
My son (a student at Miami University) brought his car for tire change at Jeff Pohlman Tire & Auto #6 (304 West Spring Street, Oxford, OH 45056: 513-523-8900) in Dec 2010. When he went to pick up the car, he found one of the door handles was missing. The company acknowledged they broke it since the door was frozen and promised to fix it for free next time when he is back from the winter break. A few weeks ago, when my son brought the car back to the service, they fixed it but then told him that he had to pay $100 the service. The company engaged in cheating a customer in four aspects: 1) When they broke the handle, they should fix it right away. By promising to fix it for free later they hope the customer, who they knew was a student, would not come back. 2) When my son brought the car back for them to fix it, they broke their promise and claimed that they only agreed to free labor. 3) For any car service, if there is a charge, the company must tell a customer how much the service will be costing in advance. In this case, the customer was told the amount to pay after they did the service, which my son had always assumed to be free because of their liability or promise; he so did even not bother to ask ahead of time. 4) How much does a Toyota Camry 1995 door handle cost? I searched on the Internet and it varies in the range $20-26 (e.g., autopartswarehouse.com). Therefore, in this case, the company even made a profit by breaking the door handle. Is this how a repair company runs its business: breaking you car and then charging you to fix it?
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Jeff Pohlman
Oxford,Ohio,
United States of America
Two sides to every story
#2REBUTTAL Owner of company
Mon, April 04, 2011
In response to Mr Lui's complaint I would like to make everyone aware that there are two sides to all stories.
1) We informed the customer that the handle broke when we went to open the door and that it could have been caused from being frozen or the age of the vehicle. We could not fix it that day as the handle had to be ordered as it is a painted handle and we agreed to help the customer by replacing it at cost or if he provided the part we would install it at no charge.
2) Mr Liu's son called us on 3/8/2011 and asked us to order the part, we gave him the cost, and he scheduled to have the part installed on 3/14/2011.
3) Again we made the customer aware of the cost since we had to order the part and did not want to be stuck with a special order part that we cannot return.
4) We did not make a profit on the handle. We purchased the handle from Performance Toyota in Fairfield, Ohio, Part # 6922032091G2, on invoice number 124703 at a cost of $93.01 and we charged the customer $93.01 for the part without any cost for labor. Mr. Liu may find a handle for $20-$26 on line but it is not a painted handle as we installed.
Mr. Liu filed a complaint with the BBB and didn't even wait for the Bureau to try and resolve this complaint before he went and posted negative reviews on our company. I think Mr. Liu needs to have a heart to heart talk with his son so he can get the full story before making false accusations. My company services over 20,000 vehicles per year and our BBB file will show that we are a company in excellent standing with their organization and we will always do what is best for the customer as long as they are being reasonable.