If I could leave zero stars and take stars away from other people's reviews I would, but google does not allow me that. I never feel inclined to talk about a business unless the experience was beyond amazing or the worst I have ever experienced. SADLY, this was hands down the colmenation of all the bad experiences I have ever had wrapped in one and multiplied by five. I have no idea how these people are in business, OH WAIT, I know how... by ripping people off ENTIRELY, and standing around to laugh about it.
Let me start with the staff. There is a guy there named Joel whom I encountered in person as well as over the phone. You can hardly understand him over the phone as it sounds like he is talking through a mouth full of marbles. What I did understand was that after paying them nearly 600 dollars to rip my car apart they were not "inclined" to help my friend push my two door convertible onto a tow hitch. ALSO... 600 dollars did not incline them to even put my engine back together! They handed my engine to my friend in a box, then gave him another box with the heads. The steering column was just hanging on by a thread. They literally ripped my car apart like the animals they are and just left it there for dead.
Back to Joel... What were his reasons for not helping? The first reason was that there were only two people there at the time and he had to stay in front of the cash register. Every cash register I have ever seen since the beginning of physical coins comes with a key so you can lock it. So Joel was unable to lock the cash register for five minutes to help a paying customer? If locking the cash register was not good enough as maybe he was afraid someone could run off with it, then I am sure there is an office they could lock the already locked cash register in. *Please take note that the two hours my friend was there trying to rectify this horrible situation there was not a SINGLE customer at their station. Please also note that the un-named employee number two sat by the entrance of the station the entire two hours chain smoking and smirking at the situation at friend and chin wagging with his buddy Joel*
Reason number two he could not help us was because "he wuddent gunna lose his jawb over halpin us." I am sorry Joel, do you NOT work for a car business? Is the business of "Vestavia Amoco and Tire Express" not solely based on cars and helping people with their cars? Maybe I am wrong, maybe their paychecks come to fruition by standing around scratching themselves and chewing tobacco.
Reason number three Joel refused to help was that he was not going to "hurt" himself rolling my car onto a tow hitch. This I do not blame him for. I blame the sorry person who hired Joel. Vestavia should not hire employees who are NOT physically able to do the work required to help their paying customers. After seeing Joel in person I understand WHY it took them over 20 hours... yes people, 20 hours to tear down my engine. I could be wrong and Joel's sole purpose in life is to stand in front of that cash register. If that is the case, I am sorry for making any assumptions as to his job requirements. Please understand that they charged me for every hour they "worked" to tear down my car. I understand people move slower in the south, I was born and raised here.
I also know that it is NOT custom to take your sweet time so you can rack up a ridiculous bill that not even the town major can afford. I wish Joel would have taken some of the marbles out of his mouth and put them back into his head. Furthermore, he commented that because I am a woman I don't "know NUTHIN" about cars and what it takes. I might be a female but I know the difference between good people who care about you and want to help you and the other people that see you as a paycheck and something nice to look at. If Joel was truly worried about getting fired he could have called his boss and asked him his thoughts on the situation. I am sure his boss would have said "customers are more important than you standing behind a cash register." Then again, I could be wrong....
Lets talk about money because that is ALWAYS the bottom line right? They charged me 80 dollars to literally tow my car across the street. ACROSS THE STREET. My three nephews could have pushed my two door car for free, and had a good time doing it. Furthermore, they charged me 500 dollars to tear apart my engine to "diagnose" the problem. After said diagnoses they wanted to charge me 7500 dollars to replace both head gaskets, the radiator, and the thermometer. I kindly declined their services and told them I would be coming back to them with a tow and be taking my car back to mechanics that I know and trust and that would not rip me off because I am a single, white, young female that "dont know nuthin bout cars." They told me over the phone "you are making a mistake." SORRY GUYS... my first mistake was ever stepping foot onto your property.
This leads me to the end of the story. My friend rented a truck and a car tow hitch and drove nearly 300 miles down to get my car (he is amazing and has my respect and admiration forever). Upon getting there he finds out from the guys across the street that they saw Vestavia put my 30,000 dollar car onto a forklift and do donuts around the parking lot and handle it with anything less than care. My friend called me as soon as he saw my car for the first time in nearly a week and said "it looks like they took a RAKE to the side of your car...there are scratches everywhere." I have had this car for four months and "Black Beauty" is in mint condition. They looked at me as their yearly raise or Christmas bonus.
Then to ad insult to injury the two guys refused to help my friend roll my car onto said car tow (reasons are above). Furthermore, when I asked Joel if I was correct about his resistance to help he said "yeah." I then asked Joel if I could call his manager in the morning and tell him about his horrible attitude as well as phone etiquette and he responded with "yeah he will be here at 7." While my friend was trying to figure out a way to push this car on himself these two guys sat there watching him (for nearly two hours), making racist comments about previous customers, as well as, trying to convince my friend that he should just drive back to Nashville and pay them to tow my car back. YEAH JOEL... Let me just poop out 1k for you jerks to manhandle my car all the way back to Nashville. Sounds like a great plan.
My friend ended up going across the street to Pep Boys and getting those guys to help. Four of those dudes came over and had the job done in ten minutes. My friend kindly chucked them 100 dollars just for being good dudes. They then informed my friend that they would have done all that work for under 2k. SO PLEASE MY FRIENDS, do yourself a solid and go across the street to PEP BOYS. DO NOT USE VESTAVIA EVER.
I would rather pull my eyelashes out one by one whilst getting beat with a wooden paddle than ever have to do business with these low life people again.
To Vestavia, you will be hearing more from me. I am utterly sick to my stomach by your lack of manners and the animals you have decided to employ. Congratulations, monkeys could do finer work.