Complaint Review: Repair For Less - Mesa Arizona

There are two charges in dispute, one for $800 (4/1/02) and one for $1716.48 (4/8/02). The $800 charge was a deposit and the 1716.48 was for the rest of the cost. They total $2516.48.

I believe my dispute is more than justified, and that I should not be charged, due to Repair For Less's

1- Lack of documentation showing the engine's supposedly low mileage.

2- No valid serial number.

3- Unfair towing charge.

4- Misstated warranty coverage.

5- Low oil indicated pressure.

6- Excessive engine vibration.

The following is a synopsis of my dealings with repair for less.

3/26/02 I called Repair For Less, to get a telephone estimate for comparison purposes. I had broken the timing belt on my 1993 Plymouth Laser, and I knew that in the best case I had bent some head valves. I told Eric the manager, who gave me some basic information, that I had seen their ad in the Yellow pages and it said they offered free towing. He confirmed that they did not charge for towing.

3/27/02 I visited Repair For Less and spoke with Eric, who gave me a basic estimate based on head damage only. Once more he told me they offered free towing. I authorized them to repair the car based on our conversation. I knew more damage could be detected once they actually looked at the car.

3/28/02 The car was towed to the shop by Best Towing, the towing company provided by Repair For Less.

4/1/02 Early in the morning, I called the shop and spoke to Eric, he stated that the damage involved a bad head and pistons. He offered me a used engine with 32,000 miles and said it was fully covered for 15 months. Because I was concerned with a possible future broken timing belt(s) I asked him to inspect them prior to installing the engine. He promised to inspect the timing belt(s) and let me know the status before installing the engine. He said he needed a deposit before starting. I went to the shop at about 1 P.M. to leave a deposit and inspect the damage before proceeding. Jim, the mechanic, showed me the partially dismantled engine and the extensive damage. Eric was out of the shop. Jim said he could take my deposit. Before actually leaving a deposit I asked Jim to confirm my understanding that the engine had only 32,000 miles, and that the engine was fully covered for 15 months. He explained in some detail how the engine was gotten and why it only had 32,000 miles and that the engine was fully warranted for 15 months.

4/4/02 Thursday. I called the shop and spoke with Eric and asked about the status. He specifically said they would call later today about the status, before proceeding. However I did not receive a call Thursday. I was home all-day and made sure the answering machine was on and working properly.

4/5/02 Friday. I received several calls pages/calls from the shop, however I did not see them until about 11:15 1130 A.M. Eric and Jim knew I worked late and got up late. I made it a point to inform Eric of that on 4/27/02 because I was concerned about delaying the repair process. When I met Jim on 4/1/02 I also informed him of my work hours and late getting up times. When I talked to Eric about noon, he

said the engine was already installed. He then had me speak to the mechanic who said he installed it after I did not get around to calling back. The first page was 8:24 am the last call was about 10 A.M. Because I was extremely upset about the mechanic's abusive attitude (which Eric later apologized for), was groggy from just getting up and was in a depressed state over the situation (I am a 60 percent disabled veteran due to chronic depression) I felt I had little choice when Eric said the timing belt needed to be replaced and it took about 5 hours labor. He said he could not be responsible if the belt broke and the engine was once again damaged. I reluctantly agreed, after Eric refused my repeated requests for a lower rate, due to their not calling me before installing the engine.

4/6/02 Sat. When I went to pick up the car it had a bad idle and hesitation. At first Eric didn't believe me, then said drive the car for 500 miles and that should make it run better! He then had to be shown the problems and then stated it maybe had a loose vacuum hose. While I was there he called the mechanic, who stated that there was not a problem with the car, he test-drove it and it runs fine. Even though Eric just confirmed problems. The mechanic then said the problems were with some unspecified parts from the original engine.

When shown the bill, I was extremely upset to see a towing charge, and that the engine was in fact not fully covered, but required me to pay labor and parts costs. I spoke to Eric at length about these discrepancies. He said free towing was only for less than 10 miles distance. This was never mentioned to me when we had spoken earlier. He also said that the warranty was a standard one and he would not alter it regardless. In regards to the engine installation, Eric said he got the repair ticket at 7 am on Friday, so it seems the engine must have been installed on Thursday, not Friday as they claimed, especially given the times the tried to contact me and the time I called them, which was less than 2 hours. I doubt an engine can be properly installed and adjusted in less than 2 hours. I reminded him that he agreed to let me know before installing the engine if a new timing belt needed. Once again I told him that I agreed to the extra labor based on being rattled by his obnoxious mechanic, and being upset. He said they could not wait on me and that he had a production shop to run and had other customers to worry about.

I then asked for verification that the engine only had 32,000 mile on it. He said no one in 13 years ever asked for that before! And he said he could not produce any documentation proving the engine's mileage only that his supplier told him it was low mileage. Nor could he give me the engine serial number. I told him I was very upset and that his explanations were not acceptable. I refused to accept delivery of the car because of the mechanical problems.

4/8/01 Monday. I returned to the shop and Eric said the timing had to be adjusted to fix the hesitation. Even though his mechanic, said on Saturday there was no problem. He said the A/C idle solenoid was not working and that his mechanic said it was not his problem and it must be my parts. Even though I noted no such idle problems before the timing belt broke. I spoke to the mechanic who said it must be my old parts.

I again questioned the warranty coverage, lack of serial number, the towing cost, and failing to wait for me to get back to him, before installing the engine. Again he refused to make any adjustments to the bill. He said that it is the standard even though he told me differently.

I paid the bill, and once again I asked Eric to provide me with new engine S/N and documentation stating engine had 32k miles. And was again Eric said he could not produce any such documents. I only picked up the car, as I needed to get to work and wanted to consider my options.

4/8/02 Monday I called shop about 3 p.m. and complained about the oil light coming on at idle and considerable engine vibration at freeway speeds. At first the mechanic stated the oil problem was probably a bad sensor and vibration was from original parts. Even though I explained about engine's internal balancer. He still said it had bad motor mounts or a bad dampener. He said the car ran fine he drove it for 15 miles and let it idle for 30 minutes. Finally he said bring it in and he would check it.

About 6 P.M. I called the credit card company, and put the payments into a disputed area for resolution.

4/9/02. I returned to the shop. Jim, the mechanic, looked at the car, he said it had a bad motor mount. He pointed out the one he said was bad. He checked the oil pressure with a gauge. I pointed out that he had the idle was way too high, he replied, how did I know my car's tachometer was accurate. He did not check the idle speed with a second tachometer. One again I talked to Eric about all of my concerns. He refused to make any compromises concerning the mechanical deficiencies or towing charges, and again he refused to provide proof of mileage, proper engine number or any adjustment to the bill. He did call his supplier who gave me the engine number over the phone but no written documentation. I then went to Darner Chrysler. A very helpful service manager explained how some shops could get away with such unethical practices. I asked him to look up the engine number I got from Repair For Less. After researching his computer he said he could not find a matching serial number.

I replaced the bad motor mount and oil sensor. The engine still vibrates badly and the oil light still comes one at an idle (at the proper indicated idle speed), after 30 miles of freeway driving in hot weather. If I accelerate in first or second gear to anywhere near the red line the engine vibrates so badly that a very strong buzz is felt throughout the car and it makes very load noises.

JOhn

Mea, Arizona