Complaint Review: Pep Boys Auto - Baltimore Maryland

To Whom It May Concern,

So far I've paid $550.00 for Pep Boys to render my car inoperable

This is a formal letter expressing my complete dissatisfaction with the Pep Boys franchise #385 located 4621 Harford Road Baltimore, Maryland 21214. Friday August 30, 2002 at 7:00am, I brought my 1993 Volkswagen Passat into that establishment to have some repair work completed.

As a result of my visit, my vehicle was rendered immobile and became a victim of vandalism and larceny. As of October 8, 2002 my vehicle is still immobile and Pep Boys has not assumed any responsibility for the events that have occurred since August 30th.

I bought my vehicle to Pep Boys to have a cooling system pipe replaced. The vehicle had a couple of leaks in the cooling system but the pipe was a major leak that needed immediate attention. There was also a leak in one of the pumps associated with the cooling system but this leak was minor so I decided that I would wait to have that fixed the following week.

My first complaint is that when I brought my vehicle in for service the attendant told me my vehicle would not be serviced until the next day. I called Tuesday morning to find out why I hadn't heard anything concerning my vehicle; I was informed that they had just begun servicing the vehicle. Why it took them 3 days to begin working on the vehicle I still don't know especially when I was told that it would be serviced the next day.

I was contacted September 3, 2002 and informed that my vehicle was ready to be picked up. I picked up my vehicle the evening of the 4th; I live 3 blocks from the shop, and parked my vehicle for the night. The next morning I proceeded to drive the vehicle and did not get 15 minutes away from my home before I noticed steam rising from the vehicle. The thermostat did not indicate that the engine was overheating so I pulled over to investigate the problem. When I lifted the hood coolant was gushing from the pump. Apparently the coolant was hitting hot spots on the car creating the steam.

I attempted to drive the vehicle a little further when the vehicle totally stopped. It would no longer turn over. I had to have the car towed back to the shop. When the car was returned to the shop we lifted the hood and noticed that the electrical harness was exposed, before having the car serviced the electrical harness was wrapped with electrical tape. This tape was now gone which is my second concern. I suspect this my have contributed to the reason for the car not turning over for these wires were saturated with the coolant that gushed from the pump.

My third concern is that if the car had been test driven or at least turn on, the mechanic would have noticed how badly the pump was now leaking and would have advised me not to drive the car until the pump was replaced. The assistant manager informed me that the shop does not test drive vehicles if they are doing repairs on the cooling system. This response sounds ridiculous. How would they know if the repair had been completed correctly and securely if they didn't turn on the car to see if the pipe leaked?

My vehicle sat at the shop waiting for someone to look at it for a few more days before I had to contact them again to find out the status of my vehicle. This is when I was informed that the night before (September 8th) my vehicle had been one of four cars that had been broken into and the radio stolen. I was also informed that the shop would not assume responsibility for the theft. I know that the shop has a disclaimer on their repair orders but my concern here is that my vehicle sat for days waiting for them to figure out what was the cause of it not running. They hadn't even touched it in since it being towed back to the shop.

In addition to that, the facility has no enclosure around the lot that houses the vehicles waiting for repairs and to this date, October 8, 2002 the lot does not even have working lights that would make vandalism less attractive to a potential thief. Of course I did not realize that the lights on the lot were not lit until after the vandalism of my vehicle. I would think in the gesture of good business that the shop should be responsible for taking some type of measures to make the lot less of a target.

This has been a nightmare for me. The vandals smashed my driver side window to steal the radio. My windows were powered windows and as a result of the vandalism the alarm on the car got stuck on draining the battery. This prevented me from being able to have the window repaired because the mechanics at the shop could not figure out how to turn off the alarm. I was told that I would have to take the vehicle to a dealer to have them correct the alarm problem before I could have anything else diagnosed.

Although I hated to remove the car form Pep Boys' lot, since they are a major factor in what went wrong with the car, I had to have it towed to a dealer. So far I am out $550.00 and I don't have a running vehicle. I paid $300.00 to have Pep Boys cause the car not to operate and $250.00 for an insurance deductible to have the problem with the alarm investigated. This is where I stand as of October 8, 2002.

I've inquired legal council and it has been suggested that Pep Boys is indeed liable to some extent. Since this situation is ongoing it hasn't been established the full extent of the liability. This letter stands as an official notice of the events up to date and should be considered an official complaint with Pep Boys location #385.

Vivian

Baltimore, Maryland

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