Don't rip me off

My grand daughter is in college about 100 miles from me. She calls me and says her car doesn't start. The towing co. told her the starter is bad. I contacted Pep Boys to change the starter. I was quoted over the phone 406.00. I think it may be a little high, but not much I can do about it. Her dad picked up the car and the bill was 548.00 I asked what was the difference was. The electrical system needed to be checked to make sure the starter was bad. 63.00 for that. I guess that was normal. Now what was the other 85.00 for? We made a mistake on the bill, we didn't have to remove the intake manifold, we will refund the 85.00. From trying to start the car her battery was way down. They tried to sell her a new battery. She remembered I just put a new battery in it about 3 months ago, so they just charged the battery. We help on her car repairs since she in in college. Stan

my dodge has 200,000 miles on it, went to walmart came out, tried to start it nothing happened, called the dodge place they said they would have to tow it in that the security system was locked up probley close to $1000. for repair. I said Ill get back to you, got out raised the hood had a wrench tighten the negative post than tried to thighted the positive post and it had broken into. moved it back and forth a little, hit the key to start it and started right up. after I got home put a new end on cable, no more problems 4.99 for total repair. Then I called them back and ask for service guy again , ask him if he just wrote tickets or was he a mechanic, said he knew nothing about being a mechanic, than I hung up.

I've probably mentioned this before. Daughter called me fro college, she didn't like oil leaks from her 4 cyl Nissan. The guy she had been getting to service the car told her it was leaking under the valve cover, actually a aluminum plate that covered the overhead cam. He said there was components like AC stuff on top of the motor that had to be removed, $200 labor. I told her I would call her back, went outside where I had a similar car. NO components on top of engine, all the Phillips screws were uncovered and easy to get to. Called her back and tole her to take her Phillips screwdriver out there and tighten the screws and if that didn't work it was simp[le to get a new gasket and change it out and not to go back to that crook again. No telling how much business he lost because she told all her friends about him.

KEH

Every time I take a vehicle in for service anywhere they try to sell me new tires,a battery,or an alignment job. 20000 miles on my wifes car and was told she needed new tires.I was setting in the waiting area of a Honda dealership waiting for a friend who was getting some warranty work done on his new Honda.The service manager came in and sat down beside an old woman near me.He told her the new wiper blades she wanted would cost 98 dollars,and they checked the battery just to be safe and discovered it was probably going bad and she didn't want to break down somewhere.They told her a new battery was 150 bucks.She said ok.

I deliver NAPA parts part-time. Yesterday a guy called from a nearby rest stop, had a Ford 350, said he needed a starter. Took one out to him, he said he was sure he had a starter problem because bumping it made it "almost" work. (must had someone else turn the key) He had a Pennsylvania license, a gooseneck trailer with an older forage harvester and detached corn head. I asked him if he ever looks at yesterdaystractors dot com, he said he hasn't. He got his starter replaced for a shade over $150. Offered me a $20 tip that I refused. Told him to call back if that didn't fix it. Pays when someone can do things for themselves.

We bough a new Ford Escape in 2008 and on the second ot third oil change we took it to the dealer ship as it was all covered in slush. I went to the parts dept for something and my wife took it to service and did the paper work. I met here in the waiting roon and soon someone came kneeled on the floor by her and showed her all the things that was wrong with it and needed replaced. It came to a couple thousand dollars. All this time they did not know I was with her. He told her he would show her and we went to the shop. They pointed out the shocks leaking the steering was bad and a wheel bearing was bad plus many other things. I said thats fine when do you want to fix it. He looked at me and said we can do it right away. I then told him it was covered by Ford. He said it was out of warrenty. I pointed out that it only had less than 15000 miles on it and we bought it in the sping. I never saw someone back pedal like he did. The service manager got involved and the owner of the dealership came out. I did not use any nice language and I have never been back there since

(quoted from post at 13:47:43 04/25/15) My grand daughter is in college about 100 miles from me. She calls me and says her car doesn't start. The towing co. told her the starter is bad. I contacted Pep Boys to change the starter. I was quoted over the phone 406.00. I think it may be a little high, but not much I can do about it. Her dad picked up the car and the bill was 548.00 I asked what was the difference was. The electrical system needed to be checked to make sure the starter was bad. 63.00 for that. I guess that was normal. Now what was the other 85.00 for? We made a mistake on the bill, we didn't have to remove the intake manifold, we will refund the 85.00. From trying to start the car her battery was way down. They tried to sell her a new battery. She remembered I just put a new battery in it about 3 months ago, so they just charged the battery. We help on her car repairs since she in in college. Stan

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It's sad, but customers of the female gender are gold mines to these people....I'm not sure how they can sleep at night.

My Daughter,(a single Mother of 2) called me 2 weeks ago and told me she needed brakes all the way around and 2 tires. The place she went to (I won't mention names) in Des Moines quoted her $1400 for the brake job and $100 each for the tires. I told her to drive it to my place last Sunday, and I made an appt. at my local tire shop for Mon morning. Total for brakes, and 2 new tires.....$529.98.

I'm pretty lucky in that I live in a small town. The local shop I use is very good and family owned. Owners , he runs the shop and the wife is the service manager. I don't think anyone is overcharged there. His brother in law is the compition in town. If I had any problem would trust either one of them... joe

When I worked as a mechanic in a small 2 man operation my boss was a real good guy. We had a lady come in with a repair estimate from another shop. I was just finishing up a bill when he showed me the estamate. I started laughing. The lady got upset thinking I was laughing at her until I explained to her that I was laughing at the audacity of the guy who wrote it. We explained to her that at least she smelled something wrong.

A mechanic who worked at another shop was doing after hour work out of his shop at home. He was telling customers "while I was doing (name repair) he found something else that he could do cheaper than his place of work could. I know the shop owner well and know he's not a crook. I took the estamate to him and watched him tell the mechanic in question to pack his tools and get out.

The repair in question? Replace the pinion shaft seal on the rear axle of a front wheel drive car.

Rick

My '96 F250 psd pickup died last fall and I was too busy to look at it until two months ago. After checking everything I could think of, I took it to Ford dealer. $1500 later and it still didn't run. They was blaming the injectors by this time. Another $1500. I said forget it, took it home checked everything again then remembered I had put a cam position sensor in it from Oreillys. So I got a real Ford one and put it in. Fired up like it was just ran the hour before. $1500 wasted for a $36 part. Still has a miss so I took it back to Ford complaining about their misdiagnosis and they agreed to recheck it for nothing. Blamed it again on injectors. Had them tell me which cylinders it was missing on. Took it home again.By this time it is really missing. Took the y-tube off the intake fired it up and it had real serious popping out the intake. Turns out it has a bad intake valve. Just why can't a dealer find this stuff.

I calling rip off and not going back except for parts.

The local John Deere dealer does the same thing,,,their dishonesty keeps my shop busy...

My daughter used to live in Phoenix. She had a 1996 Chevy Cavalier She took it to a local Midas shop for oil changes. Always happy until one time she called me that when she needed an oil change they told her she also needed a new alternator. Said a new alternator would cost about $450. I asked to talk to the service manager. He said they did a free electrical system check and found it. I then asked daughter if any dash lights were on when she drove in there. She said no. I asked how it had been starting she said OK. I told her to take the care and go to the local Auto Zone and have them check it. She did and they said it was OK. She drove the car another year with no problems. I wish I didn't live 1800 miles away. I would have paid the service manager a visit. On second thought maybe its a good thing I live 1800 miles away.

Our Hondacar will be 25 years old this December. The driver's seat belt is frayed, Honda has a lifetime warranty on seat belts so I took it to the dealer. Problem is I have to agree to pay $100 to "diagnose" the seat belt If I want them to submit a warranty claim. They also started checking all the lights and fluids, betcha the seat belts won't be under covered under warranty unless I agree to buy a transmission or cooling system flush and one of their $75 oil changes where they don't even reset the maintenance reminder. They are not smart enough to figure out someone that's driving a 24 year old car with 300,000 miles that's only worth about $1,000 is not going to spend $500 on maintenance, especially in a NO-Fault state where if I fix the car and some texting teen blows a red light or maybe decides to drive on the left hand side of the road I'm out a $1,000 vehicle with $500 dollars of repairs to it.

Hondacar has been a good car for the last 24 1/2 years but I doubt I'll ever buy another one, it's not worth dealing with the shysters and thieves that sell them, it's that typical auto dealer mentality "I'll steal from you, I'll sell you things you don't need, because it's all about numbers and that's all that matters" but let you bounce a check on them or steal from them and it's 5 kinds of heck you'll face.

I was on the road. When my wife took her car in for an inspection. Called home that night and she told me the battery didn't pass inspection. So she had to buy a new one. I told her there is no inspection for the battery to pass. Called the station the next morning and got the run around about it.So I told the guy I was calling the DPS station inspector.To ask about this test.Hung up.Called the house that night. She said some guy came by from the station.Told her there had been a mistake and gave her the money back.Also told her to keep the battery.Six months later the DPS shut them down.

Two weeks ago my wife said her truck (02 Ranger) was running a little funny and she said she was going to go to the Ford dealership and have them scan it, I told her ok as long as I come down there when she dose it. Now she is down in KY taking care of her mother so she is 375 miles from me here in Ohio. I got tired up in traffic and got there an hour later at the dealership than I figured. I walk in to see her truck up on the rack all the tires off and 3 guys starting to work on it. I asked what they were doing, Guy says that they have to work on the truck because it's unsafe to be on the road. I told them to stop and don't touch a thing till I get back. Went in to see the service manager to see what the deal was and found my wife looking very rattled! I asked the manager what they were doing to the truck? He said That they had to put brakes on it as they were shot and the front end needed a complet rebuild and it needs an oil pan and a battery and new brake cables and brake lines and 4 tires. $3800 would be the cost unless they found more wrong with it. He then said that the truck had to be fixed as it was UN-Road worthy! I grabbed him by his tie and drug him out to the truck and asked him to show me whats wrong with it! He said what do you mean? Show me whats wrong with it!! NOW! He starts to stammer and mumble, ENOUGH!!! I started in on him in a loud voice, 1 All 4 tires are new 2 if you look the hole brake system is new 3 the front end has already been rebuilt and has 4 new shocks on it and 4 the battery was new in November. So now I have shown you how wrong you are what do you have to say for yourself?

Owner walks in and asks whats going on? Manager looks like a cat in between two hungry pit bulls! I hand the owner the what he had wrote up. Owner looks at me then the truck and says looks like they did the work so what's the problem? Problem is they haven't touched it yet all the work you see is what I already did to it and this bill is BS! What do you mean? They did the work on it! No they haven't touched it all the new you see is what I did last fall and all they did is pull the wheels off for no reason. Owner looks at the mechanics and asks what they have done to it, Nothing but pull the wheels off. Manager get fired on the spot, Owner is very apologetic and sorry for the problem that's been caused and wants to make it right. I told him to put the wheels back on and let me get out of there! They did. I found the problem with it, A plug wire was knocked loose by a cat I guess. $3800 for nothing can you believe that, That's more than the truck is worth! Total cost for the fix $ .00 nothing just a 4 1/2 hour drive! Bandit

If a part is under warranty, I see no way they can legally charge you for diagnosing something that is obviously worn out!

I might have mentioned this before, but when my youngest daughter started driving she told me that she wanted to learn to change oil and tires, and everything else she could, so that she would know if someone was trying to rip her off. She can do all that and spark plugs as well. A few years ago she had a job traveling over most of the state and one day she called me, said Daddy, my car won't idle right and when I raise the hood I can hear a hissing sound. I told her it sounded like a vacuum line had slipped off. I told her to find the local Ford dealer and tell the service manager, and if it was something that cost much for him to call me and we would work something out. (At the time, I was working parts dept. at our local Ford dealership). About an hour later she called me back and said the service manager, or a tech. had looked at it, found a loose vacuum hose, clipped the end off with his pocket knife and slipped it back on. Didn't charge her a thing! That's one time we got lucky.

I agree. The bad part is there are some guys that are falling into that category because a lot of people now days don't get hands on living behind a desk.