Complaint Review: Elite Transmission

Several weeks ago we had some trouble with the transmission in our Ford Bronco II. I called a couple of transmission repair shops to see if they could work on my manual transmission, but they were closed.

I finally called Elite Transmission and they said they could
do the work so I had our insurance carrier's towing service tow the truck to Elite's shop. That was on July 18th of this year. After a couple of days we checked to see what the estimate would be and the mechanic said he wasn't sure, but he would have the owner work up a price for me.

I asked the mechanic, since I am disabled and might have to borrow some of the money to pay for the repairs, about how much he thought it should be. He wasn't sure, but when I asked if it would is over $1,000 he said he didn't think it should be anywhere near that, even with repairing the clutch, which had broken also. I felt they knew what they were doing so I didn't worry too much about it.

Well, here's where the trouble starts. I called one day, about two weeks after they had received the truck, to check on the progress and was told they hadn't gotten the parts yet, but would be getting them the next day and all would be repaired in a day or so.

On Friday July 30th, I called to see if they were done yet. The owner told me they had had to go out of town due to a family matter and when they got back their mechanic hadn't done any work on the truck, or anything else, and so he fired him. He said he would get someone in to fix our truck over the weekend. I waited until Monday, August 2nd, and called again. They still hadn't even bought the parts for my truck and they were in a bind for money, supposedly because of the mechanic, and the owner asked if I would pay for the parts up front. I said I would, but I had to have my truck back soon.

We had been asking everyone we knew for rides to work and everywhere else and this was getting old with our friends as well as with us. The owner promised he would have the truck fixed by Tuesday. I said fine. I kept asking how much it was going to be, but all he would say is that he was going to "take care of me" and that because of the length of time he has had the truck he was going to give us a discount. But he would not give us an estimate no matter how many times we asked him.
On Tuesday, my wife called their shop and she was told the truck was fixed. They just needed to check the fluids and test-drive it. I called them about ten minutes later and the mechanic said they didn't even have the parts for it yet. They were supposedly out getting the parts and would call me back later to give me an update.

I ended up having to call them around 5:00 PM and got an answering machine. A few minutes later the phone rang and it was someone from the owner's family. I told him who I was and asked to speak to the owner. I heard the owner, in the background, tell the family member to talk to me, but he didn't want to so they hung up on me. Several attempts to reach them immediately afterwards only met with an answering machine. By this time I am getting really worried.

I finally got them to answer the phone and the owner got upset and told me the repairs were going to be $1,800. I was dumbfounded. All I could say was "What?" Then I told the owner I would talk to him later. My wife and I decided we had had enough of this. We wanted our truck back, fixed or not, so I went down to their "shop" the next morning to check on things. They had the transmission out of the truck and in several pieces. They still didn't have the parts they needed. I went into the office and told the owner I had checked on prices for the parts needed in the repair and they didn't total $100. He went crazy, yelling, cursing, becoming irate and telling me he was doing me a favor by not charging me what it really should cost.

I told him I just wanted to get my truck and have it towed
somewhere else. He told me I could do that, but I would owe him
$1,500 for parts. These are the parts he hadn't gotten yet,
remember. I just said I would have a tow truck there at 2:00 PM, the time he said he would allow someone to come and get it. This was Thursday morning.

I took a taxi home and called my wife at work to give her the bad news. She said she would call and talk to him and try to get
something done sooner. She wanted the truck fixed on Wednesday or a tow truck would be there within the hour and that they would let us have it, or else. She then took off from work and went down there, to the repair shop, to make sure something was done. Either the truck worked on or towed away. She stopped at home, picked up a folding chair and a book and went to the repair shop. I would have done the same, but after five back surgeries I just wasn't physically up to what she was about to go through. She sat in their shop from 10:00 AM until 9:00 PM and watched the mechanic work on the truck. Finally, at 9:00 PM she was able to drive our truck home.

We were just glad we were done with these people, but we weren't.

Friday morning and we were leaving home so I could take my wife to work and run errands that had been put off for almost three weeks. As I was backing out of the driveway I noticed a shaking not normal in the truck. It only happened in reverse, so I took my wife to work and came home. I tried to call the repair shop, almost hoping they wouldn't be there, but knowing I had to get this resolved. The owner called me and said he had called and that my bank said I didn't have enough funds to cover the $984.41 check I had written. I explained to him that I had just deposited over $1,000 into my account that morning and the check would have to clear the bank. The funds would be available first thing the next morning. Actually, at midnight that night. He said okay and we hung up.

Well, I took the truck into their shop and the mechanic said a bolt that holds the engine mount was stripped and he would fix it by putting in a larger bolt. No problem, right? Think again. The owner tells me he had done me a favor by knocking off $500 off of the price and he wanted cash or a cashier check, not the personal check I had given him. I had him call my bank and had my bank tell him the funds were there, just not available until the next morning. The check I had deposited had to clear. All he had to do was deposit the check into his bank account, which I think, is the same bank I use, but he wouldn't have that. He
was keeping my truck until I gave him cash or a cashier check.

Then he told me I had broken the law by writing him a bad check and he was going to call the police on me. I told him to go ahead. I wanted the police there. They did and when the police arrived, heard the story from both sides, asked me to go and get a cashier check, come back and pay them with it, get my truck and leave. The police even gave me a ride home.

So, I called my bank, told them the story and they were kind enough to write out a cashier check for the amount owed. I then called my wife, who had to take off work again, so she could go get the cashier check, pick me up and take me back down there. All just to have some work done on a car or rather truck.

I don't feel I was out of line at any point in this story. I was
patient, understanding, and even polite under stress. I have learned my lesson with regard to repair shops, but after this guy called the police on me, put me through a living hell for three weeks, cursing me, lying to both my wife and me, well enough of being nice. Now I want revenge. I am owed that. He over charged me for the work he did and any warranty that might go with the work he did and the parts is basically useless because I don't want to go anywhere near these people ever again. I don't think I am able to even if I want to. The
police told me I was not welcome on his property again.

I apologize for the length of my story, but it is hard to tell my story the right way without going into detail. I've even left out some of the story because I didn't want to send you a book as a complaint. Again, I apologize and hope you might be able to help me get back some of dignity I lost not to mention the need to put this guy in his place.

Thank you for your time.