Complaint Review: Meineke Car Care Center 292 - Smyrna Georgia

Thanks for taking the time to reply- I would "cut them some slack" if it were just once or even twice we had to go back- but having to go back and keep taking time off work for the truck to not even be fixed is very frustrating and is not acceptable. 

..but I think you need to cut this shop a little slack.

I will explain. It seems evident a part that was replaced was defective. Since replacing the SAME part or parts later on allowed the light to stay off through the drive cycle and you passed emissions.

The problem is the mechanic did all the work already. There is no way for the mechanic to know the light will come back on until after it is driven. It does seem like this problem threw them a little, and there seems to be some confusion or mis-communication about picking up the part...but nonetheless the mechanic did replace the right parts according to the code reading, it was just unfortunate that one of the parts (the sensor or the thermostat) was bad out of the box.

It happened to me once. Drove me nuts and I am a really experienced certified mechanic. I replaced a thermostat and the car still was overheating. I thought at that point it may be a clogged radiator or cooling system so I blew it all out..no clog.

Luckily I do all the work myself so it only cost me time and parts..but I found it was the brand new thermostat out of the box.. was froze shut. So I returned it (it was a really cheap one) and bought the more expensive one..problem fixed.

So sometimes, it is the fault of a defective new part that causes all the extra time, work and head scratching for the mechanic...and it ends up aggravating and inconveniencing the customer as well. It was just bad luck in this case. I can't really see how this mechanic ripped you off.

If the mechanic had supplied the defective part..then I would agree the mechanic would have to warranty the part and labor to get the vehicle to pass emissions. It was most likely a bad sensor since if it was a bad thermostat it would have been running too hot or too cold, not just have a light on.

We took my husbands truck to this shop for a PO128 OBD code error. The shop replaced the thermostat for $185.00 and then a week or 2 later the light came back on. My husband took the truck back to the shop and was told the sensor would have to be replaced. He was given a price and told them he would come back when he could get off work. He took the truck back on 9-18-10 to get the sensor replaced. He arrived around 9:30-10 nd sat there till noon- he was told his truck would be done in a couple of hours at this point. Then around 130-2pm a shop representative approached him and asked him where the part was. My husband was confused by this and replied "what part?" The shop tech then proceeds to tell my husband that I told him we were furnishing the part- my husband calls me and tells me this while he is on his way to advanced auto to pick up the sensor they now need him to go get. I then call the shop, furious as you can imagine, bc I was not even there when he told my husband the sensor needed to be replaced or how much it would cost. After I put up a protest at being lied to and having to wait 4 hours when my husband could have gone to pick up the part already (mind you the vehicle would now have to cool down again) the shop rep tells me "if you are going to file a complaint then I cant fix your husbands truck" after I stopped and protested what this tech had just told me, I was then offered a discount of 20.00  

My husband picked up the part came back and waited another 2 hours for the truck to be done. The rep gave him an extra 10.00 discount to make it a total of 30.00 off. this was a nice gesture (bc he knew they were wrong) but it didnt make things sit right with us but if the truck was fixed finally we were willing to walk away. Which we did until 3 or 4 days later when the light came back on again. 

This time I filed a complaint with their corporate office and was assured if we took the truck back they would fix it. Hesitant, we didnt know what else to do being that we had already paid them 230.00 dollars + parts to fix the truck and had taken all this time off work etc. So reluctantly my husband took a day off work and took the truck back. They replaced the thermostat AGAIN and said they had inspected the vehicle and found a tiny leak in a vacuum hose that they fixed "for free" but that this was the end of the free stuff. (Mind you we never asked for anything to be free, we just wanted the truck  fixed right) 

so after leaving the shop yet again, we are once again hopeful. However that hope was short lived. We took the truck to get the emissions done bc we are down to the wire on getting the tag for it- it failed- it said "computer not ready" we were told all we could do was drive it to get the computer to kick in and well 3 or 4 days later the computer kicked in and the light came BACK ON again. At this point we are about to pull our hair out. We cant pass emissions with the light on and we cant get the tag with out emissions. I call the GM that had made contact with me after my corporate complaint and his response was "bring it back by and we will have a look at it" well after all these missed days from work, all the time and money spent at this seemingly incompetent shop we resolved that we would rather NOT go back there. 

So this past Saturday we made the 2 hour trek up to my in-laws house where we went to the mechanic that they use. This mechanic replaced the thermostat and sensor yet again bc he too verified the code was correct. We got these repairs total done for about 165.00 After getting back home and driving a couple of small stops here and there my husband took the truck to get the emissions tested and it PASSED! the computer had kicked back on and the truck is fine. 

Now I called the GM of the shop to find out how his shop could work on the truck 4,5,6 times and it wouldnt pass emissions and the light kept coming back on but somehow we could take it to this other mechanic just once and have the work that they did replaced and low and behold it WORKS! of course he says "maybe it was the sensor you bought" to which I protested that even if it WAS the sensor- we got the one they told us to get and the part was warrantied so even if there was a remote chance of it being the sensor why didnt they go ahead and swap it out back when we were there the time previous to this one where they swapped out the thermostat again? at this point the GM decided he no longer wanted to talk about it- and I advised him I was filling a complaint with anyone I could find that would listen. 

I am sure we will never get our 230.00 back from this shady shop- however I will make d**n certain that anyone else who is thinking of using them knows how they treated us and what they did to us and I will make sure that neither my car (2010 VW GTI) or my husbands truck EVER go back there. 

I am disgusted with how this shop has done us- this used to be a reputable place back when Don was there now it seems they are incompetent and shady and nothing more. 

(edited due to typo)