Complaint Review: Best Auto Specialist Inc. - Las Vegas Nevada

As of this date of 12/19/07 we have not received the additional refund in the amount of $500 as agreed upon in a written contract. Additionally we have not heard from them also. When Best Auto called regarding this refund we asked them what their justification was to offer $1000 as a refund. The response was "Just to make it go away so no one has to go to court." It seems that not only does Best Auto provide inferior mechanics and service, that they also do not honor warranties, that they also do not honor written signed contracts of refunds. The response to the BBB on 11/26/07 from us was that we preferred to keep the complaint open until 12/16/07 to see if they would honor their word. BBB has been notified that as of today, no contact has been made from them, and the final refund amount of $500 has not been received and that we wish for the complaint to stay open with an additional complaint of not honoring written contracts for refunds. Time to go to small claims court as it seems they did not seem honorable in their statement of wanting to "just make it go away." Do not EVER deal with ANY individual at this business unless you want to end up in court.

Best Auto's Response to the complaint to the B B B. 17NOV07 We received a letter from the BBB with Best Auto's response on the matter as follows, with the spelling errors intact however, I am not typing in the letter in caps as it was received or the punctuation errors as it was received. __________________ 'This letter is for the complaint on Mr [Censored] we worked on Mr [Censored]'s vehicle back on 02/07/07 We fixed the vehicle and the customer was happy when he picked his vehicle up. It is now 8 months later and the customer has problem with his vehicle. Customer states check engine light is on and he wanted us to check it so we did. We found that the vehicle had a misfire. This was on 10/18/07. We called Mr. [Censored] about this vehicle and stated to him that he had some damage internall. We pulled the valve cover off the vehicle at that time (not the head) to inspect it. We found that the cam had broken in half. The customer states all of this in his letter that he talked to a racing magazine for the input he provided you with 90% of this is incorrect and the customer also states that my employes Steve was fired for drugs. Well that is a bunch of bull. All of my employes are drug tested random and for this vehicle the customer stated in front of 4 people. At my shop that his wife is always trying to git something for free and she wrote this letter. Not Mr. [Censored]. When we talked to [Censored] at the shop he understood that it was not nothing we had done. That it was just something that happened. Now I am gitting this letter from the BBB and at this time we are not in fault of this and the customer was told this and understood before leaving my repair shop. Thank you and have a good day. Brent Barney.' ___________________ Brent Barney is the Secretary/Treasurer for all Best Auto locations. His wife is the owner of all the properties. Upon receipt of this letter, we did call Best Auto to speak to Mr. Barney. And as expected he was not available. At this point we called Mr. Barney's residence as it is listed in the phone book. We spoke to his wife, who is the owner, and she did not have any knowledge of this incident. At that point Mr. Barney 'walked in the door' and we spoke to him. We told him we have pictures of the engine and certain engine parts in our possession. We also advised him of mistakes that the mechanics had made. He wanted to arrange a meeting to see the pictures, at which point I advised him that we had posted them on the web and that I would be more than happy to email him the URL. We said our goodbye's and I sent the following email to him as a response. _____________________ RE: BBB Complaint #188429 Thank you for taking the time to speak with me on Saturday, November 17, 2007. Per our discussion, the following is the link to a web page that shows the pictures of the engine and a description of what was found. http://www.geocities.com/yankeegal01/ Additionally I would like to reconfirm a statement that I have made to you. In your reply to the BBB you stated, 'She wrote this letter not Mr. [Censored Name].' I would like to again confirm that anything that is sent to the BBB and used for this incident is reviewed and approved by [Censored Name] however, due to the nature of his employment he is on the road nearly 70% of the time thus the reason he asked me to handle this. One other statement you have made in the response to the BBB regarding myself is, 'That his wife is always trying to git something for free.' In regards to that statement, if wanting to know why your company refused to tow the vehicle, wanting to charge $115.00 to tow the vehicle 4 miles because it was under warranty is trying to get something free, although your ads state 'Free tow with repairs', then nearly every person that calls you is guilty of this. Additionally it is our, meaning [Censored Name] and myself, feeling that the reason the camshaft broke, along with the other issues is due to issues from your mechanics working on the vehicle. We are not alone in this issue since there are complaints regarding your business on the BBB site as follows: * 5390 S. Decatur Blvd. #3 - 3 complaints the past 36 months * 1266 N. Nellis Blvd (Best Auto Transmissions)- 5 complaints in the past 36 months * 7870 W. Ann Rd. #110 - 1 complaint in the past 36 months * 1266 N Nellis Blvd (Best Auto Specialist) - 5 complaints in the past 36 months Additionally you are also listed on 'The Scambusters' website for the Nellis location as receiving the 'Best Auto Ripoff in Las Vegas' award located here: http://www.blacklistandscams.com/automotive/Best_Auto.html Also there are multiple complaints on the 'Rip Off Report' website for you company located at the following as examples: http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/226/RipOff0226649.htm http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/019/RipOff0019127.htm These are only a few examples that we have found. Additionally it is rather hard for you to know exactly what was said in conversations with your employees in person and on the phone when you were not present. We fully expect your employees to lie about telling us that Steve was fired for failing his drug test, as would any judge. Is it not a fact that Steve does not work for your company anymore? And is it not a fact, per your response to the BBB, that you do infact conduct random drug tests? We are willing to 'discuss' the amount in question however, remember we did just put $1500.00 into the same vehicle dropping another engine in it. Does it not seem ridiculous to charge someone $3000 to 'fix' a vehicle, nickels and dimes at a time , calling everyday saying 'well this didn't work, so we are going to try this instead' with the vehicle breaking down less than 3,000 miles later in areas where your mechanics would have had to remove and re-installing (not necessarily new, but if not usable they would have suggested replacement, or re-installing the original part) the items that cause the engine failure vs dropping another engine in the vehicle at a cost of $1500.00 less. Also, we are very interested to see the copy, which should be in your possession, of the original incident back in 02/07/07 of the signed quote to fix the vehicle for the amount of $2967.22, as would a judge. [Censored Name] does not remember signing a quote in the amount of $2967.22. As we have stated, we are willing to 'discuss' this issue out of court however, we have no issues with filing an additional complaint with the Nevada Consumer Affairs Division, the DOT, and filing in small claims for the original amount, plus documented expenses because of the vehicle beginning 10/18/07 to 10/25/07 at which point the car was returned to us from another mechanic with a different motor dropped into it. Our phone number is [CENSORED]. Thanks. [CENSORED NAMES] cc: File, BBB file

17NOV07 We received a letter from the BBB with Best Auto's response on the matter as follows, with the spelling errors intact however, I am not typing in the letter in caps as it was received or the punctuation errors as it was received. __________________ "This letter is for the complaint on Mr [Censored] we worked on Mr [Censored]'s vehicle back on 02/07/07 We fixed the vehicle and the customer was happy when he picked his vehicle up. It is now 8 months later and the customer has problem with his vehicle. Customer states check engine light is on and he wanted us to check it so we did. We found that the vehicle had a misfire. This was on 10/18/07. We called Mr. [Censored] about this vehicle and stated to him that he had some damage internall. We pulled the valve cover off the vehicle at that time (not the head) to inspect it. We found that the cam had broken in half. The customer states all of this in his letter that he talked to a racing magazine for the input he provided you with 90% of this is incorrect and the customer also states that my employes Steve was fired for drugs. Well that is a bunch of bull. All of my employes are drug tested random and for this vehicle the customer stated in front of 4 people. At my shop that his wife is always trying to git something for free and she wrote this letter. Not Mr. [Censored]. When we talked to [Censored] at the shop he understood that it was not nothing we had done. That it was just something that happened. Now I am gitting this letter from the BBB and at this time we are not in fault of this and the customer was told this and understood before leaving my repair shop. Thank you and have a good day. Brent Barney." ___________________ Brent Barney is the Secretary/Treasurer for all Best Auto locations. His wife is the owner of all the properties. Upon receipt of this letter, we did call Best Auto to speak to Mr. Barney. And as expected he was not available. At this point we called Mr. Barney's residence as it is listed in the phone book. We spoke to his wife, who is the owner, and she did not have any knowledge of this incident. At that point Mr. Barney "walked in the door" and we spoke to him. We told him we have pictures of the engine and certain engine parts in our possession. We also advised him of mistakes that the mechanics had made. He wanted to arrange a meeting to see the pictures, at which point I advised him that we had posted them on the web and that I would be more than happy to email him the URL. We said our goodbye's and I sent the following email to him as a response. _____________________ RE: BBB Complaint #188429 Thank you for taking the time to speak with me on Saturday, November 17, 2007. Per our discussion, the following is the link to a web page that shows the pictures of the engine and a description of what was found. http://www.geocities.com/yankeegal01/ Additionally I would like to reconfirm a statement that I have made to you. In your reply to the BBB you stated, "She wrote this letter not Mr. [Censored Name]." I would like to again confirm that anything that is sent to the BBB and used for this incident is reviewed and approved by [Censored Name] however, due to the nature of his employment he is on the road nearly 70% of the time thus the reason he asked me to handle this. One other statement you have made in the response to the BBB regarding myself is, "That his wife is always trying to git something for free." In regards to that statement, if wanting to know why your company refused to tow the vehicle, wanting to charge $115.00 to tow the vehicle 4 miles because it was under warranty is trying to get something free, although your ads state "Free tow with repairs", then nearly every person that calls you is guilty of this. Additionally it is our, meaning [Censored Name] and myself, feeling that the reason the camshaft broke, along with the other issues is due to issues from your mechanics working on the vehicle. We are not alone in this issue since there are complaints regarding your business on the BBB site as follows: * 5390 S. Decatur Blvd. #3 - 3 complaints the past 36 months * 1266 N. Nellis Blvd (Best Auto Transmissions)- 5 complaints in the past 36 months * 7870 W. Ann Rd. #110 - 1 complaint in the past 36 months * 1266 N Nellis Blvd (Best Auto Specialist) - 5 complaints in the past 36 months Additionally you are also listed on "The Scambusters" website for the Nellis location as receiving the "Best Auto Ripoff in Las Vegas" award located here: http://www.blacklistandscams.com/automotive/Best_Auto.html Also there are multiple complaints on the "Rip Off Report" website for you company located at the following as examples: http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/226/RipOff0226649.htm http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/019/RipOff0019127.htm These are only a few examples that we have found. Additionally it is rather hard for you to know exactly what was said in conversations with your employees in person and on the phone when you were not present. We fully expect your employees to lie about telling us that Steve was fired for failing his drug test, as would any judge. Is it not a fact that Steve does not work for your company anymore? And is it not a fact, per your response to the BBB, that you do infact conduct random drug tests? We are willing to "discuss" the amount in question however, remember we did just put $1500.00 into the same vehicle dropping another engine in it. Does it not seem ridiculous to charge someone $3000 to "fix" a vehicle, nickels and dimes at a time , calling everyday saying "well this didn't work, so we are going to try this instead" with the vehicle breaking down less than 3,000 miles later in areas where your mechanics would have had to remove and re-installing (not necessarily new, but if not usable they would have suggested replacement, or re-installing the original part) the items that cause the engine failure vs dropping another engine in the vehicle at a cost of $1500.00 less. Also, we are very interested to see the copy, which should be in your possession, of the original incident back in 02/07/07 of the signed quote to fix the vehicle for the amount of $2967.22, as would a judge. [Censored Name] does not remember signing a quote in the amount of $2967.22. As we have stated, we are willing to "discuss" this issue out of court however, we have no issues with filing an additional complaint with the Nevada Consumer Affairs Division, the DOT, and filing in small claims for the original amount, plus documented expenses because of the vehicle beginning 10/18/07 to 10/25/07 at which point the car was returned to us from another mechanic with a different motor dropped into it. Our phone number is [CENSORED]. Thanks. [CENSORED NAMES] cc: File, BBB file