Michael
Henderson,#2UPDATE Employee
Tue, January 10, 2006
Dear Chris, I've had the pleasure of working with Hutch for over 2 years now, and I have to say that he is the most honest and hard-working manager I've ever worked with in my career. He's a family man with children, a priest in his church on sundays and a great friend as a private person. I assure you that he didn't want to rip you off. He's just doing what his job is. His job is to take the shop's cost on parts and multiply it by 2.5 as a shop basic mark-up. This mark-up is lower in some other areas of Las Vegas. Then he gets the alldata labor estimating guide and multiplies the going shop rate (currently $65.00 at the Eastern store) by the required labor hours. The total amount of this parts and labor is what you as a customer has to pay if you authorize the work. I'm sure that if he asked you to replace the tensioner, it was a defective part. Also surely you wouldn't enjoy to pay another $500.00 to do the labor over again if your tensioner went out in 5000 miles. If you contact your local car dealer, they'll recommend the exact same procedure. It's called commonsense. We are very proud of our location at Eastern. It's been one of the most successful stores in 2005 in both car count, sales and customer service. If you have any problems with your vehicle Chris, I assure you that you have 100% warranty on all parts and labor, and you are more than welcome to contact Hutch at the shop. And by the way the Benz is a SLK320...
Michael
Henderson,#3UPDATE Employee
Tue, January 10, 2006
Dear Chris, I've had the pleasure of working with Hutch for over 2 years now, and I have to say that he is the most honest and hard-working manager I've ever worked with in my career. He's a family man with children, a priest in his church on sundays and a great friend as a private person. I assure you that he didn't want to rip you off. He's just doing what his job is. His job is to take the shop's cost on parts and multiply it by 2.5 as a shop basic mark-up. This mark-up is lower in some other areas of Las Vegas. Then he gets the alldata labor estimating guide and multiplies the going shop rate (currently $65.00 at the Eastern store) by the required labor hours. The total amount of this parts and labor is what you as a customer has to pay if you authorize the work. I'm sure that if he asked you to replace the tensioner, it was a defective part. Also surely you wouldn't enjoy to pay another $500.00 to do the labor over again if your tensioner went out in 5000 miles. If you contact your local car dealer, they'll recommend the exact same procedure. It's called commonsense. We are very proud of our location at Eastern. It's been one of the most successful stores in 2005 in both car count, sales and customer service. If you have any problems with your vehicle Chris, I assure you that you have 100% warranty on all parts and labor, and you are more than welcome to contact Hutch at the shop. And by the way the Benz is a SLK320...
Michael
Henderson,#4UPDATE Employee
Tue, January 10, 2006
Dear Chris, I've had the pleasure of working with Hutch for over 2 years now, and I have to say that he is the most honest and hard-working manager I've ever worked with in my career. He's a family man with children, a priest in his church on sundays and a great friend as a private person. I assure you that he didn't want to rip you off. He's just doing what his job is. His job is to take the shop's cost on parts and multiply it by 2.5 as a shop basic mark-up. This mark-up is lower in some other areas of Las Vegas. Then he gets the alldata labor estimating guide and multiplies the going shop rate (currently $65.00 at the Eastern store) by the required labor hours. The total amount of this parts and labor is what you as a customer has to pay if you authorize the work. I'm sure that if he asked you to replace the tensioner, it was a defective part. Also surely you wouldn't enjoy to pay another $500.00 to do the labor over again if your tensioner went out in 5000 miles. If you contact your local car dealer, they'll recommend the exact same procedure. It's called commonsense. We are very proud of our location at Eastern. It's been one of the most successful stores in 2005 in both car count, sales and customer service. If you have any problems with your vehicle Chris, I assure you that you have 100% warranty on all parts and labor, and you are more than welcome to contact Hutch at the shop. And by the way the Benz is a SLK320...
Chris
Henderson,#5Author of original report
Fri, October 07, 2005
To Robert in Florida, I thank you for confirming what I thought I was ripped off for, $300 dollars. No they did not replace the water pump, nor did they even recomend it. Thay were most likely waiting for me to come back in for my next oil change and then conveniently remind me that the water pump needed to be replaced. PS. I saw a lot of elderly people in that shop. Please DO NOT let your grandparents or anybody else that you know, take their vehicles to the henderson purrfect auto store at eastern and st. rose parkway.
Robert
Jacksonville,#6Consumer Comment
Thu, October 06, 2005
If they replaced the water pump as they should have, the job at my shop would have ran about $650. Without the pump, $500. The tensioner assembly has the pulley attached to it from the box, and the other idler almost never wears out. The tensioner doesn't wear out either, but some shops replace them just "because". They either took you for a little, or alot. The real question is "did they do it correctly"? If they did, learn from this. But please, everyone needs to stop thinking the price you can by junk from AutoZone, is the same price you are going to pay a shop that uses a good part.
Chris
Henderson,#7Consumer Comment
Thu, October 06, 2005
YO, HAWAII DUDE!!! DID I FORGET TO MENTION THAT THOSE WERE THE PRICES THAT I WAS QUOTED OVER THE PHONE AS A CONSUMER, NOT THE PRICES THAT PURRFECT RIP-OFF PAID FOR THEM, BEING A WHOLESALER AND ALL. OH YEAH, I DID MENTION THAT DIDN'T I! Hopefully consumers are following all of the B.S. I'm being fed, because anybody with half a brain would realize they need to take their vehicle to an HONEST auto shop. I just remembered that the beach boy wanna-be is probably from hawaii, could you possibly be his lover?! calm in henderson ps. consumers, do not take your vehicles to purrfect rip-off and don't let any of your "loved" ones take their vehicles there either!!!
Marc
Makaha,#8Consumer Suggestion
Thu, October 06, 2005
Robert has it exactly right. The shop has to make money on the parts, or close his shop down. The usual mark up for parts in my area is 100%. Would you complain that your favorite steak house charges %50 to serve you a $5 steak? Of course not. It looks to me like the shop did the repair correctly, did they change the water pump too? I never change "just the belt." I'd send you on to another shop first. That's because you will be back in a month or two paying for it all over again, saying I'd ripped you off the first time. And if that happened, you'd be banned thereafter. My advice is to find a good mechanic, trust him to take care of your car, and don't gripe about what he charges. You'll come out ahead that way, and he won't be dreading talking to you, rushing you out the door, or sending you to the competition so they'll have to deal with you. Believe me, there are customers that are so bad we avoid them as if they're carrying the plague.
Marc
Makaha,#9Consumer Suggestion
Thu, October 06, 2005
Robert has it exactly right. The shop has to make money on the parts, or close his shop down. The usual mark up for parts in my area is 100%. Would you complain that your favorite steak house charges %50 to serve you a $5 steak? Of course not. It looks to me like the shop did the repair correctly, did they change the water pump too? I never change "just the belt." I'd send you on to another shop first. That's because you will be back in a month or two paying for it all over again, saying I'd ripped you off the first time. And if that happened, you'd be banned thereafter. My advice is to find a good mechanic, trust him to take care of your car, and don't gripe about what he charges. You'll come out ahead that way, and he won't be dreading talking to you, rushing you out the door, or sending you to the competition so they'll have to deal with you. Believe me, there are customers that are so bad we avoid them as if they're carrying the plague.
Marc
Makaha,#10Consumer Suggestion
Thu, October 06, 2005
Robert has it exactly right. The shop has to make money on the parts, or close his shop down. The usual mark up for parts in my area is 100%. Would you complain that your favorite steak house charges %50 to serve you a $5 steak? Of course not. It looks to me like the shop did the repair correctly, did they change the water pump too? I never change "just the belt." I'd send you on to another shop first. That's because you will be back in a month or two paying for it all over again, saying I'd ripped you off the first time. And if that happened, you'd be banned thereafter. My advice is to find a good mechanic, trust him to take care of your car, and don't gripe about what he charges. You'll come out ahead that way, and he won't be dreading talking to you, rushing you out the door, or sending you to the competition so they'll have to deal with you. Believe me, there are customers that are so bad we avoid them as if they're carrying the plague.
Marc
Makaha,#11Consumer Suggestion
Thu, October 06, 2005
Robert has it exactly right. The shop has to make money on the parts, or close his shop down. The usual mark up for parts in my area is 100%. Would you complain that your favorite steak house charges %50 to serve you a $5 steak? Of course not. It looks to me like the shop did the repair correctly, did they change the water pump too? I never change "just the belt." I'd send you on to another shop first. That's because you will be back in a month or two paying for it all over again, saying I'd ripped you off the first time. And if that happened, you'd be banned thereafter. My advice is to find a good mechanic, trust him to take care of your car, and don't gripe about what he charges. You'll come out ahead that way, and he won't be dreading talking to you, rushing you out the door, or sending you to the competition so they'll have to deal with you. Believe me, there are customers that are so bad we avoid them as if they're carrying the plague.
Chris
henderson,#12Author of original report
Sat, October 01, 2005
HERE ARE SOME NUMBERS FOR YOU... 1999 DODGE INTREPID ES CHAPMAN DODGE: $144.00 TIMING BELT TENSIONER $ 56.00 PULLEY ( GENUINE DODGE PARTS ) NOW, THESE WERE THE PRICES THAT I WAS QUOTED OVER THE PHONE, MIND YOU THAT I AM NOT AN AUTOSHOP AND DO NOT GET AUTOSHOP PRICING. PURRFECT "RIP-OFF" AUTO PRICING: $216.00 TIMING BELT TENSIONER $116.00 PULLEY MY QUESTION IS, HOW MUCH DID PURRFECT ACTUALLY PAY FOR THESE PARTS? 100% OR MORE MARK UP ON A PART IS A PURRFECT EXAMPLE OF A COMPANY THAT I WILL NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH AGAIN AND NEITHER SHOULD ANY OTHER CONSUMER!!! CHOW FOR NOW CALM IN HENDERSON PS. TO CONSUMERS, I WAS ALREADY PAYING LABOR FOR A TIMING BELT REPLACEMENT, SO DON'T THINK THAT COST OF LABOR NEEDED TO BE ADDED IN, BECAUSE I WAS ALREADY PAYING TO HAVE THE ENGINE TORN APART.
Robert
Jacksonville,#13Consumer Comment
Fri, September 16, 2005
I won't bother with much in your post, just the basics. Without knowing year, make, and model, nobody can offer any real assistance. These are the 3 most important things involved with ANY repair. First, ALL shops mark up the parts. It's a business. The dealership marks them up too. If the part "lists" for $216, that is the minimum that the repair shop will sell it for. The repair shop is not going to sell the part to you for the same price they paid. Why should they? They are taking ALL of the risk. Parts pay for the shop, labor pays for labor. That is how this business works. Parts mark-up pays for all of the bills, including WARRANTY work. I will assume the pulley you mention is the one attached to the tensioner assembly. It comes with the tensioner on some, and doesn't on others. The manuals all recommend replacing the tensioner and pulleys when the timing belt(s) is replaced. I don't bother unless it is abviously bad. I think I've replaced 2 in the last 10 years. Second, the only place you will find "genuine Dodge parts" is the Dodge dealer. Carquest gets their parts from Balkamp among others, just like NAPA. In fact, CQ and NAPA use the same part numbers on just about all of their lines. Here's a shock to most people...even the parts store marked up the price. The list price is different on all parts depending upon where you live and where your distribution center is. The list price on a part in New York NY is much higher than it is in Jackson MS. If I order a part from NAPA, and they have to get it from a competing store, NAPA will get a discount from that other store, and MARK UP the price before selling it to me. The price I will end up PAYING is going to be higher than what I would have paid originally, and may even be higher than the list price I would have sold it at. It's a business. Third, you may have been ripped off by Purrfect, who knows without providing accurate details? Please provide Y,M,M, and engine details, and I will be glad to give you an estimate for the repair. Include the going labor rate for your area.