Complaint Review: Tuffy Auto Service Center - Loveland Ohio

Three weeks ago(July 17,2006) while taking my granddaughters out to do some shopping I had turned on my car's air conditioner as it was 90 degress plus outside and my speedometer started acting very weird. The speed needle kept jumping all around. Once it would be 65 then 40 and back to 55 just all over the place.The car is a 1999 Kia Sephia with about 73,000 miles on it. I called Tuffy Auto to see if they could work on the problem. I was told by the owner Mark that they do indeed work on these types of problems. So I took my car in the next day which was Tuesday July 18,2006. I dropped my car off at their shop around 7:10am. I came back to sign the car in when they opened like I was asked to do.They kept my car for 3 days before telling me it was a broken ground wire on the air conditioner and they would have to tear out the dashboard to fix it. I told them no that would be too much money to pay out on a 1999 car. Just give me back the car. They called again 2 hours later and said it would be just $200.00 to fix. And they had gone over my car and told me my transmission needed overhauling, all new brakes, and the air conditioner needed to be fixed and that several of my belts needed to be replaced. At a total of about $1400.00 . I was advised by Mark the owner that this work was needed to be done right away or I would have problems with the car. I talked it over with my husband .I ordered the $200.00 for the broken wire and the timing belt and 2 serpintine belts to be replaced at the cost of over $600.00. It took another 2 days to get my car back. Total they had my car for 5 days. I was also paying for a rental car from Hertz on top of the $600.00 . Then 2 days later the same problem happened again with the speedoometer so I took it straight back to them. This time I was told the car would not break down and that I could drive it to Florida with no problems and that they thought it could be a blank spot in the transmission and that they would fix the problem for free and give me a one day car rental also for free. I made plans to take the car back to them in 2 days and pick up the rental. When I brought the car back at 9:00am there was no rental and they could not locate one for me either. I was told I would have to come back again maybe Saturday, or sometime next week. I had been incovienced enough over the last 2 weeks. I wanted to take it to a Kia dealership and get it fixed right. I was offered from Mark a free recharged of my air condioner. The same one he had told me the week before that did not work.He wanted me to bring the car back in in another week to have it looked at. Now I have spent 2 weeks to get my problem corrected. I have never gotten the repair as he can't get a rental. All he had to do was call a car rental business and reserve one for me. But they said I had to show up first then call to see if a car was available which none was. I am still having problems with the speedometer and now my car shakes rattles and rolls as there is a vibration in the steering wheel and the right front tire was not rebalanced when they took my tires off to look at my so called bad brakes. They themselves had fixed all four brakes 2 1/2 years earlier. I was told that everytime I change pads or shoes that I would have to have new rotors and calibers. They replaced all that the first time. I asked what kind of warranty do they have with their brakes and I was told by the owner that there was a life time warranty. I then asked why they are charging me over $400.00 to fix them again? When they should have been fixed for free. Then my husband was told "Oh they could wait another year on the brakes". But I was told it was work that had to be done right now cause my brakes was squelling. Which they was not doing when I took the car in.They also filled both front tires with over 45lbs of air to make my front end act very crazy. My tires should have only 32 lbs of pressure in them. 48 lbs could have caused an accident.So as of today my car is still not fixed right and never will be fixed right by them. They just pushing back fixing it. It took 5 days to fix a broken wire and replace a timing belt and 2 serptine belts..

Emily

Loveland, Ohio
U.S.A.