Complaint Review: Rottweiler Transmissions and Auto Repair

I brought my Ford F250 to Rottweiler to have an axle seal replaced. They replaced the axle seal as well as a pinion seal. At that time Sean the owner told me that my four-wheel drive did not work, however I know for a fact that it did work as I use my four-wheel-drive quite often. Sean at Rottweiler then used this assessment against me in his failure to warranty his work after the seal failed after about 800 miles, causing further damage to my axle.

Sean indicated that he would be doing me a favor in setting up my truck to run without the four-wheel drive but assured me that the repair would function normally otherwise. However, I was driving through Montana when I suddenly had a loud rumbling coming from the front axle of my vehicle, the same axle that he worked on. I looked at the passenger side, the side he worked on, and there was oil coming from the axle. I took it to a local shop in Whitehall Montana and they informed me, after taking the axle apart, that the work had not been done properly and the seals had not been installed correctly. This caused further damage to the stub axle, as well as the transfer case and wheel bearing.

When the shop owner in Montana contacted Sean, he indicated that it was my fault that I had agreed to an incomplete repair and would not be honoring his warranty. He did indicate that he would send some used parts from Denver to Montana, however it was just a few days before Thanksgiving and the parts would not arrive until after Thanksgiving. Also the shop owner in Montana was unwilling to work with Sean's used parts as he was unsure of the quality of the parts,  and stated that Sean had been very rude to him in their conversation. The delay in waiting for sent parts would have cost me hundreds of dollars in hotel expenses as the parts would not have arrived in time to be fixed before Thanksgiving, not to mention the fact of spending Thanksgiving 800 miles from home.

When I contacted Sean to ask about the situation he again maintained that it was my fault that I had agreed to a partial repair, even though Sean assured me at the time of the repair that the truck would function normally. It's hard to understand how he could put me on the road with an unsafe vehicle but that's exactly what he did. Since I would not agree to using used parts that would not arrive for a couple of days and would cost me a week in downtime and as mentioned hundreds of dollars in motel expenses I declined to use his used parts at which point he began to yell at me that it was my fault that I agreed to the partial repair and again stated that the four-wheel drive was at fault. I use my four-wheel-drive almost everyday as I am a professional driver and need that on many occasions to place trailers where I need them.

I know for a fact that my four-wheel drive was working when I brought the vehicle into Rottweiler. During the course of conversation with Sean to attempt to have him honor his warranty and stand behind his work, he hung up on me. He also stated that my vehicle was too old to have the amount of work done on it that I needed to have done on it, even though it is a very reliable vehicle and has many hundreds of thousands of miles left in it. He was insulting to me, he was insulting to my vehicle, he was insulting to the shop here in Montana. I guess you should never trust someone who doesn't have the voicemail setup on their phone, so when I tried to reconnect with him he dismissed my calls and there was no way for me to leave a message.

I will be taking this matter to small claims court in Colorado.