Complaint Review: Stan's Auto Repair

To whom it may concern,

A Mr. Ben Powers has been emailing, writing letters, and faxing items about repairs done at Stan's Auto Service. I have written one letter to Mr. Powers already explaining some items addressed in his first letter. This is my second letter to set the facts straight and explain about the issues Mr. Powers has with the repairs.

My first letter should be read to coincide with this one. He has put Stan's Auto on the RIPOff report. This is my rebuttal. First of all he states that we are not AAA approved. Of the 10's of thousands of shops in Colorado only approximately 100 shops are AAA approved members. That is a very small percentage. To be AAA approved it costs $1500/per year. Where will a shop make up that overhead cost with no guarantee of any members using that shop?

Mr. Powers makes reference to our neighbor Berthoud Fair Deal Auto for no reason other than they have a large inventory of vehicles. He should do his homework before making accusations. Mr. Powers keeps referring to my brother in his letters and he has not worked here since August of 2006, again research!! He also claims we only tow vehicles to our shop, this is wrong. We tow for many other shops and dealers, all of which have exclusive towing accounts with Stan's Auto. The tow drivers are paid on commission and get nothing extra for bringing vehicles to Stan's Auto. We are also not the only tower for Loveland Police Dept, Larimer County Sheriff, or Colorado State Patrol, we are dispatched on a rotation listwith many other Northern Colorado towing companies. As for motor club towing, Mr. Powers has no idea what it costs to run a towing business with Workman's Comp Insurance, and General Liability Insurance, etc. So how would he know if we make money off of our towing business or not. Has he seen a Profit & Loss? Does he realize the price of fuel? Does he know the price of a tow truck?

Mr. Powers complained about estimating other problems on his jeep that we noticed while working on it. I explained this in my first letter about the safety and budgeting and other repair issues. He complained about the power antenna repair that we estimated. The repair order states the power seat and the power antenna are on the same fuse circuit so we bypassed part of it so it would not blow, again! We also repaired wiring in his fog lamps (not bulbs only) as the repair order states again.

He says now, not when he brought the vehicle in, that he had just purchased it, inheriting someone elses problems. He states that we called back for an emergency brake cable that sticks sometimes. You cannot see inside a cable casing and if it is rusty inside it can stick periodically, you may not catch it the first time. As stated in the first letter the caliper pistons did stick on the road test, but before hand pushed in fine in the shop during the brake job. So we had to do the job twice and he did not get charged for that. No one ever threatened to hold his car hostage as stated in his letter and no one threw his credit card at him, he is just flat out lying and making up stories.

He claims we charged him 8.0 hours for brake work. He needs to look at his repair order we charged him 6.0 hours for the brake work and we discounted the job $85.00 which makes it a 5.0 hours. The rest was for electrical repairs and Chiltons or Mitchell (which we use) show no flat rate for that repair. The manuals state right on the front of the book ESTIMATING GUIDE, prices are not set in stone.

Mr. Powers stated to Mike McAvoy, (director of Program Management Sonsio Inc. NAPA Piece of mind warranty), that all shops should charge the same labor rate. This is called Price Fixing and is illegal according to the Federal Government. He complained about pricing to Mr. McAvoy saying that shops should not be able to make a profit. He based his complaints on the NAPA online pricing, which does not include shipping & handling or down time in the bay if the part is incorrect, which they were because Mr. Powers looked up some of the wrong parts. Parts can be purchased at discounted prices, but the parts stores will NOT install these parts for you only a repair facility can do that for you unless you can do it yourself. All reputable shops know they must make some profit on parts & labor to cover the overhead of the training of technicians, instruction manuals, websites, and computer programs, etc. What is NAPA's MSRP on parts? I have never seen one so where is Mr. Powers getting this information?

Mr. Powers keeps assuming things in regards to Stan's Auto. He complains in his report about the bookkeeper Diane Barthlama who has been semi-retired for 3 years and was not working during any of Mr. Powers visits. He says Rick Barthlama, who also has not worked here for over 1 years, told him to pay his bill in full, (which were the prices agreed upon by Mr. Powers) or the car would have to stay here until it was resolved. It is our perogative to accept or deny any type of payment we see fit. There is no law stating any business is required to accept any certain payment types.

Mr. Powers also says we seek out other suppliers for parts. No one parts supplier has everything especially for 18 year old vehicles. Yes, we do use others and yes, we did because at the time of the repairs some of the items were not in stock at NAPA. As a NAPA Auto Care facility we are not required to buy exclusively from NAPA. He also states that we were dishonest because we did not use exclusive Napa Auto Parts. We explained this in the 1st letter. Why does this make us dishonest? I am sure the other local parts stores we purchase from like AcDelco and Car Quest would like to know. Mr. Powers says he wants a copy of the NAPA Auto Care warranty, it is available on-line. If anything had been written about a 12 & 12 warranty on his repair order it is not on any of the original copies. He states that we told him only we could work on the vehicle for the Auto Care Warranty. He is wrong and we never said anything implying that. I believe he went on-line or was sent information by NAPA Auto Care on what the warranty entails.

He states that we refuse to warranty Napa parts if purchased by the customer. That is not what was said. We said that if the customer purchases the parts and brings them in and we will install them, there is no LABOR warranty. And if the parts are wrong and it ties up the bay & hoist while the customer must go and exchange them for the right parts, there is an extra charge. Many technicians work on commission and if they cannot get into a stall or on a hoist that is money lost for them.

Mr. Powers conversed and emailed Joan Johnston (Auto Care Wholesale Program Coordinator), Bill Carey(Wholesale Manager at Napa Denver Dist. Center) also Mike McAvoy (Director Program Management Soniso, Napa Peace of Mind Warranty) and the answers Mr. Powers received were not to his liking. For instance the percentages that Mr. Powers states we made on parts was not near as high as he claimed. He clearly does not understand the gross profit margins. All representatives that were in contact with Mr. Powers consider this issue to be Case Closed a he was not being reasonable to deal with or accepting any explanations.

Mr. Powers needs to stop referring to items that he does not have the correct facts on like the current employees, obviously he did not speak to or see these particular people if they were not here! He also says in another email and citysearch website that he would not patronage Justine's Pizza, a very well known and highly complimented Loveland business, because they did not deliver and also because they were not open on certain days. Justine's is an ICON in Loveland and has been around for many years. Their longevity proves that they have a loyal customer base and are a successful business. I am sure the owners would like to talk to Mr. Powers about the accusations made about them.

In yet another email to a Napa representative he states bust the Federal Reserve and abolish the IRS!... He should not speak his mind about this unless he a plan to take the place of the IRS. Surely the thousands of IRS employees and hundreds of thousands of accountants that would be out of work would love to hear Mr. Powers plans for running our country.

Stan's Auto Service has been in business for nearly 24 years. We employ approximately 20 employees and help to support all of those families. Being in business that long and out of the tens of thousands of customers we have provided services to, this is the first time we have ever been accused and slandered like this. We do not believe we could have stayed in business for 24 years if we had been running our business the way Mr. Powers accuses us to have been. How long do you think Mr. Powers has been living in Loveland? Where did he live first before moving to Loveland? Where did he get his false information? Do you want to work on his vehicle? If so we will be glad to give you his address and phone number, and email address.


Sincerely,
Sheldon Barthlama
Owner Stan's Auto Service

I erred in the amount I stated that the Barthlama brothers overcharged me for parts. It is actually $210.60. A mark-up of over 65% over NAPA's retail prices! My earlier $99.90 amount is how much over NAPA prices I was charged for non-NAPA parts. Remember, these guys are a NAPA AutoCare Center that gets a sweetheart deal on parts from NAPA. By my estimation, at least 50% off of retail. NAPA AutoCare Centers are also supposed to use ONLY NAPA parts.

Also, be advised, Stan's is NOT AAA (aka. Auto Club) approved. They will NOT tow a stranded vehicle to the repair shop of your choice. They will ONLY tow stranded vehicles to THEIR repair shop. These guys are the PREFERRED tow company of Loveland PD and the Larimer County Sheriff's Dept (perhaps even Berthoud PD).

They are also a preferred tow company of Allstate Auto Club, please take that into consideration if you've been considering Allstate Auto Club over AAA. The Barthlama bros. make A LOT of money this way. Pay the over-priced repair bill (ransom?) or we will place your vehicle in impound and charge an undisclosed CASH-only impound and storage fee.

There is a used car lot right next to Stan's Auto Repair, Berthoud Fair Deal Motors, how many kidnapped vehicles find their way over there when a hijacked motorist either cannot or will not pay the Barthlama Bros. ransom? Are the Barthlama Bros. co-owners of Berthoud Fair Deal Motors?