Complaint Review: AAMCO - 111 Briarwood Dr/N State Mississippi

Attention: Attorney General, State of Arizona

Subject: Case against AAMCO Transmissions & GEICO Insurance

From: Vickie Kilgore, CELL: (602) 432-1748 or LOCAL: (205)328-5656

This is to document the facts concerning breach of contract and unethical business practices on the part of GEICO insurance and AAMCO. On January 26, 2002, I was on route to Phoenix, AZ on U.S. Interstate 20, to the east of Jackson, MS when a piece of wooden furniture fell from a pick up truck loaded with furniture.

I dodged to try to drive over it, but caught the edge with my tire. I could hear it hit the underside of the car, but only faintly since I had my headphones on from my stereo CD. Approximately 30-45 minutes later just outside of Jackson, MS, I noticed white smoke coming from the back of my car.

The car proceeded to fail to engage forward in gear, so I pulled to the shoulder of the road. I hailed a passing motorist and called AAA from their cellular phone.

The AAA driver examined the transmission pan under the car and said that it looked as though it had been hit and that all the transmission fluid had probably been lost causing the transmission to burn up. This was on a Saturday evening and the dealerships had closed until Monday, so I had it towed to the parking lot of the Days Inn where I stayed.

I decided that it would be best to have a dealership do the work and had it towed to Hallmark Toyota, (601) 956-9696. I proceeded to contact the GEICO insurance and spoke to agent, Jason Massey (1-800-841-9160 x2744) who arranged for the pickup of an Enterprise rental car. Jason had the adjuster, David Pemmington, contact me while at the dealership and assigned claim #0151344050101020 to the incident.

I indicated to him that I was having them assess the damage to give me an estimate on installation of a rebuilt transmission and wanted them to do the work. When David Pemmington arrived at approximately 2-3:00 p.m., Tuesday, January 29, 2002, I had already gotten a price quote from the dealership for a rebuilt Toyota transmission, labor and additional work such as hydraulic hood brackets needed to hold the hood open, CD stereo and an compression check.

I checked the price of the rebuilt over several Toyota sites on the Internet and their price seemed within engine diagnostic/ range. The individual I was dealing with at Hallmark Toyota, Ed Bradley, indicated that GEICO would probably want me to have it done at AAMCO since they were transmission experts?, but I again expressed to them that I wanted it done by Hallmark Toyota due to the additional work requiring Toyota parts and that I was prepared to pay the price difference or depreciation costs as per my insurance policy.

I emphasized that I had a long trip ahead of me to Phoenix, AZ and it was very important for my Toyota to be in the best condition for the travel and so that I could get to job interviews. My words seemed to be totally wasted, and David Pemmington made it sound as though Hallmark Toyota didnt want to do the work and said that AAMCO would be best, which wasnt what the Hallmark Toyota people told me.

When Mr. Pemmington said that AAMCO would probably be cheaper, I again tried to make it clear that I was fully prepared to pay the cost difference, but wanted the job done right so that there would be no more breakdowns. It was costing me hotel expenses and time I needed to be spending on my job search and certification/credentialing.

Thinking that I had no other choice, I contacted AAMCO at 111 Briarwood/N. State, Jackson, MS 390206 and had it towed to their site. I continued to express verbally that I expected a rebuilt transmission. AAMCO advertises themselves as transmission experts.

Most dealerships and "experts" have a procedure that is standard to any repair work they do in order to warranty the work. I was expected in Dallas, TX and headed on, although I wasnt really satisfied with having it done at AAMCO. They proceeded to install a used transmission located by the adjuster David Pemmington, which initially failed on the test drive.

I was so frustrated by the lack of communication between myself, Pemmington, Toyota & AAMCO. I had continually referred to wanting a factory rebuilt transmission and had even requested the dealership to put a new transmission in and was instructed by the mechanics that a factory rebuilt was the only option for an 11 year old car.

When I was contacted to pick up the car, about 21 days later, I wasnt even given a written copy of the standard warranty. Again, I was pressed for time since I had originally scheduled arrival in Phoenix, AZ almost 3 weeks earlier.

After arriving in Phoenix, I began to setup appointments for job interviews, but while driving out to a remote location of one of the local schools, the car began to fail to engage in gear. This happened too many times and just as I was about to call the AAMCO in MS, the transmission went completely out. '

I had it towed to the AAMCO in Tempe, Mechanical Mgmnt. & Investments, Inc. (#25284), 211 W. Southern Ave., Tempe, AZ 85282, (480) 966-9946. I contacted GEICO, this time being directed to Wendy Lash as the adjuster.

The Tempe AAMCO mechanic told me that the AAMCO in MS did not follow procedure to properly repair the transmission and should have given me a years warranty as well. I had arranged to fly from Salt Lake City, UT to another job interview, but had to wait for the second round of repairs to the car.

They had to put on additional parts, for which there was an additional charge, in addition to the first fix in MS. I immediately headed to SLC after getting the car from the Tempe AAMCO only to get another call for an interview in Chandler, AZ as I arrived in Flagstaff.

I then headed back to Chandler on Thursday evening, May 3, 2002 when about 15 miles south of Flagstaff the transmission again failed. I had it towed to the nearest AAMCO, 2710 E. Route 66, Flagstaff, AZ 86004, (928) 526-4395, which is managed by Dale Pitcher.

I got another rental car, and called to reschedule my interview for Monday. I had difficulty with the GEICO adjuster, Wendy Lash, in Tempe & was switched to Kris Riggs whom I continued to deal with during the Flagstaff repair.

I had been checking the oil level in the car to make sure there had been no engine damage and it remained unchanged. I again checked the oil level while it was parked on the AAMCOs lot in Flagstaff just before they began work on it.

I tried to explain the history of symptoms to the mechanic and gave him the previous paperwork, to which he responded that I was yelling at him! This was absolutely preposterous!! He also insisted that the oil was low on the car and that it had a knock in it, which was preposterous.

I tried to defuse the mechanics hostile attitude and lies about the condition of the car since I did not want to risk having my car become the object of his hostility and brought a combination Mexican taco, burrito & chips platter to them, apologized and hoped this would change their fixation on the phantom engine problems to focus on getting the transmission rebuilt properly.

Unfortunately, this did not help. When I arrived to pick up the car, they again started insisting there was a knock in the engine, which there was not and informed me that they had to add a quart of oil to the engine. I informed them that I did not give them permission to do this and that it was beyond the scope of their designated job.

He very angrily wrote at the bottom of the bill, this same lie about their being a knock in the engine. I also noticed that AAMCO had several older cars parked in their lot with For Rent signs in them and wondered if these were not quick, low priced purchases from other frustrated customers.

By this time I just wanted to get the car out of there and have a dealership in town check to see if they had done anything else to it that I hadnt authorized. I had wanted to sell the car and had forsale signs in the windows. I drove the car a block away from AAMCO to the parking lot of the motel where I was staying and notice that the brakes didnt work either.

When I repeatedly pressed on them they did not engage until pressed completely to the floor and then only after grinding the pads. I realized that the mechanic had also let the brake fluid out of my brakes which definitely endangered my safety.

I feel that this should be the job of law enforcement to deal with unethical and lawless individuals such as these people at AAMCO and hope to get legal assistance from Better Business Bureau or a lawyer.

I headed to Checker Auto to get brake fluid and a fellow helped me refill it. I was fortunate to find out before trying to enter the freeway or stop at a dangerous intersection. I later took the car to Randy's Downtown Garage, 302 E. Route 66, (928) 774-1006 and he determined that there was no knock in the engine and that AAMCO had overfilled the transmission fluid (another sign of their expertise).

I also had another person check the oil and transmission fluid level only to find that it was a quart over on oil and the transmission fluid was extremely over filled while parked it in the lot of the Roadway Inn hotel a block from the AAMCO dealership.

I headed to a nearby pay phone to call Kris Riggs of GEICO about the blatant hostility, lies & damaging treatment to my car by AAMCO. I requested that a GEICO adjuster go with me to a dealership to have it checked and was given the local adjusters, Harry Stabrose, number and told that he would contact me that day, this was around 10:00 a.m., Friday, May 10, 2002. Richard Ging, of Flagstaff Petroquip Inc., (928) 699-9223, called to have a look at the car shortly after this interested in purchasing the car.

I agreed to meet him at the car, told him the facts of the GEICO/AAMCO dealings and he again checked to verify the overfilled fluid levels. Although he was interested in purchasing the car and made an offer, I wanted to follow through with having GEICO get the Toyota dealerships, Bob Sellers Toyota, 3773 East Kasper Drive, (928) 779-2445 or 1-800-630-3467, opinion since the inadequate repair would greatly depreciate the value of the car and require additional work.

I had not heard from Harry Stabrose by 2:00 p.m., but took the Camry to Bob Sellers Toyota to have an examination of the transmission, etc. done without GEICO. I was told that they would want GEICOs adjuster there to authorize repair if they had to get into a diagnosis, since they were to be responsible for payment.

I then called the national 800 number for GEICO to speak with someone at a higher level of management in Customer Claims since it was now 4:00 p.m.. I verified what actions I expected on the part of GEICO since they had disregarded my initial request to have the dealership in MS repair the car 4 months ago!

I spoke to Terry Barton in Macon, GA and asked that the following line items be acted on immediately: 1. Kris Riggs was to arrange a local person to go with me to the Toyota dealership for a second opinion on the condition of the transmission, fluid levels & any additional damage done by AAMCO Flagstaff, 2. Enterprise car rental be contacted to authorize extension of the rental car during resolution of this nightmare, 3. Toyota would be authorized to repair the transmission if they determined that the work had not been done properly or that AAMCO could not guarantee that there would be no more failures and 4.

I insisted that Terry Barton as well as Kris Riggs get back to me that evening or the next day on the status of my requests. Terry agreed to this and checked with his management at that location.

I neither heard back from Kris, Terry or Larry Friday evening nor by Saturday at noon. This had now cost me over $2000.00 in hotels, missed attendance at job fairs, conferences, interviews and additional charges for parts each time. My paperwork containing references, certification verification and other important documents was taken from my rental car.

I still did not have a dependable car and the sales value was depreciated due to the condition of my vehicle caused by AAMCOs lack of expertise, failure to follow logical procedures on the first repair and intentional overfilling of fluids causing it to smoke and leak fluid. I had no confidence that the vehicle would make it to Salt Lake City, but couldnt get GEICO to agree to follow through on verifying AAMCOs terrible work and subsequent unauthorized abuse of my car.

I was informed that they would not pay for another rental car nor extend the 30-day coverage if there was another failure. The transmission again went out so I called a friend in Phoenix to pick me up to forego additional rental car & hotel charges until I could resolve this nightmare.

My largest concern is the blatant threat to my public safety this caused as well as others that could have been involved in an accident had the brakes failed before I had been able to fix them not to mention the lawless theft that occurred to my paperwork and belongings while I had to stay in place that I had no job search plans and did not need to be.

I am contacting the Better Business Bureau and two television stations that advertise consumer advocacy over unethical business practices in hopes of getting them some adverse advertising. I also contacted Richard Ging, (928) 699-9223, to get a written statement verifying the overfilling of the fluid levels and was told by him that he had been one of their victims as well as others. I have attached all the bills from each AAMCO, hotel bills and gas receipts reflecting some of the unnecessary expenses.

I am hoping that you will be able to recover these expenses and come up with some reasonable agreement with Geico to reimburse me for having it fixed the fourth time by someone other than AAMCO and for the five month ordeal they have put me through.

The threatening attitude of the Flagstaff AAMCOs staff and their depreciating treatment of my car is another issue that needs to be dealt with perhaps in the form of a lawsuit. I look forward to your advice on how to proceed in this situation and appreciate your expediency on my behalf to resolve this lawless, unethical scam.

Vickie

Birmingham, Alabama
U.S.A.

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