Why do Service Shops suck??

[bash555]

Is it impossible in this day and age to operate a shop in some professional manner?

I could not find the Electrical Fault that was causing my Fuel Pump to cut off. I spent a month and narrowed it down to the harness next to the Fuse Block.

Sooo.... I took it to a Independant Porsche shop that had been in biz for over 25 years.

I asked to find and fix this fault.

What I get in return?

14 days later I get my car back, (after 3.5 hours of billable work)and:

1) Fault at fuse panel found and repaired.
Fault at relay board (backside) found and repaired.

Perfect; just what I asked for.

1 hr Labor @ $70/hr

2) New Fuel Pump.
Ok, if it was broke, then replace. (@ $400?)

New Pump - $400 ($100 over Pelican, $75 under MSRP)
1 hr Labor @ $70/hr

3) New points and Condensor
Fine; I probably burned them when trying to start it so much.

4) Car was not firing right, so:
Inj. Points checked.
Ignition Points and Condensor checked and replaced.

Points/Condensor - $18
1.5 hr Labor @ $105/hr

5) Welded in new pins for the trunk springs to ride against.
WTF? I never asked for this nor have I ever cared; it's been broken like that since I bought the car 4 years ago.

2 hr Labor @ $35/ hr - $70



OK, so WTF???

I asked for step 1, not 2 through 5.

So instead of a $70 bill, I had to pay $785.

Am I retarded or does this seem off to any of you?

Oh, and here's the kicker!!

The dam car would barely start up and I could barely rev it over 3K all the way home. by the time I got it there, it was overheating badly.

The problem?? The dam distributor was turned 180 degress out.
You would think that they would have road tested it.

I am so disgusted, I not even going to touch it until this weekend.

I don't trust shops, I never have, and I never will.
I have always worked on my car; but this time, I was in a tough spot and did not have the time to diagnose it any further.

The car has run like a top and returned 30+ mpg since I bought it 4 years ago.

What choices did/do I have?

1) Refuse vehicle and payment and request that the timiing be fixed.
Ok, great, more labor cost, and they may still screw it up.
Also, they will take their sweet ass time like they already have.

2) Take car, put stop payment on Credit Card and fight it out.
Still a sucky deal.

3) Take car and complain to BBB and post it on all News Groups.
This is what I am shooting for.


In the meantime, I am out the $715.
AND A SH**TY RUNNING CAR THAT IS OVERHEATING.

What a F***IN botch job.

I really want to hear from people on this.

I have wanted to open my own VW perf. shop since High School.
Do I have to operate like this to make money??

What a joke. It's really really sad.

btw, I will not post the name of the shop here, but they are in South LA Area in Cali..

If some people want to know, then email me privately.

[AaronM]

First of all, in Ohio there is a law saying that a shop has to notify you if they want to do work that you have not asked for. If they did work that you did not approve then you may (and I stress _may_) not have to pay for the work you did not approve.

As for the distributor being in 180 degrees from proper, that falls under normal shop stuff. These mechanics do literally thousands of repairs and it's inevitable that sooner or later something like that will happen since no-one is perfect. Granted it stinks that it happened to your car and they probably should have tested it but unless something is irrevocably damaged then you don't have any recourse on that unless, as I suggested, you're not liable for payment for unauthorised repairs.

Aaron

EDIT: Having paid them may constitute agreement on your part, I'm not sure. You need to ask a lawyer. Preferably one who does _not_ advertise on TV or in the papers.

[AFJuvat]

Well, I work at an independant Porsche shop (not the one discussed here) so I'll chime in.

Before starting work, the shop should have had you sign an estimate or some statement saying that you either don't request a written estimate or that you only request one when the repairs will exceed a customer definaed dollar amount.

If you did none of the above, with your story, here in Florida, you could have his license revoked.

Not familiar with laws in the Peoples Republic of California so YMMV.

The fuel pump and points mat have been legitimate, but the shop should have called you at the very least before changing them. Were you shown the defective parts removed from your car? You are entitled by law to the return or in the case of a core part, inspection of any part removed from your car.

Curious as to why there are two labor rates.

Shop had no right or legitimate reason to perform body work on your car.

Dizzy 180 degrees out: Taken seperately, mistakes do sometimes happen, under normal circumstances, you should be able to bring it back and have them correct it on the spot.

Road test: Should have been done - depending on shop's insurance, a road test may be limited to driving the car up and down the street through.

Lastly, no, you do not need to operate this way, the shop I work in has been in business for over 17 years, 95% of the business is repeat customer or referrals from existing customers. Only about 5% of our customer base is "walk-in"; and we operate by appointment ONLY.

Best of luck in getting some resolution

AFJuvat

[Barber Dave]

As Arron, said in ohio we have pretty good laws protecting the coustomer. I beleve that they can only go over a written estamate by 10% without your verbal or written approval. I would contest the charges you did't aurthorize, with your credit card company. Also call them and explain your posistion calmly,
give them a chance to do the right thing. If they don't ,then and only then stick it to them ! Your potision is a lot stronger if you can say ,that first I tryed to resolve this ,with out any drastic action . Just my two cents Dave

[Dbelleperc]

Originally posted by kdfoust
You can have a look here: Consumer Affairs Automobile to file a complaint.

First talk to the shop about your problems that you are having and that they didn't call you on the other idems they wanted to put in. Second if they are ass' about it tell them you will be making a complant with the repair board. I did this to a shop that royaly f-ed up and they turned into these nice people that would all of a sudden bend over backwords for me. Lets just say the problems were fixed and I am never going back there again. And it will help you out when complaning if you do talk to the shop first and try to resolve it, and besure to take a tape recorder as evidence and to save your own a$$.

[Biggy72]

now I work on lawn mowers for a living, but if I'm going to charge anyone a significant amount of money I better make sure that I did it right. If they have enough balls to charge you that much money your car should have been running like a top.

[bludden]

If I get bed service anywhere, I tell people. If you are confident in your claims, posting the name of the biz in places like this is a great way to warn your friends, as well as directly affect their business as a result of their shoddy work.

It also gives the shop in question a chance to rethink their actions, or maybe even explain them to all, and make things right.

Once I had a 1 month old speaker go bad, and I took it back to Best Buy. I had the reciept for the surround system I bought from them that day, but lost the speaker reciept. They refused to even look at it. Now I make a point of letting everyone know how customer unfriendly this company is. There are 4 other places I can go to buy the exact same stuff that are the same or less distance from my house. I know I've managed to stop a few people from buying stuff at Best Buy - a drop in the bucket but a moral victory nonetheless.

[Zeke]

Paying the bill did not lessen your ability to seek recourse. As stated, start with them. They should reset the dizzy and retime at no charge. They should pay for towing back to the shop so you don't overheat the engine. They should remove the welding charges from the credit card charge. And they should have returned the faulty fuel pump to you. Some of the stuff is in a grey area, but they should have called you after determining the course of repair to get your authorization. Without an estimate signed by you, they were essentially unauthorized to do anything except investigate (at an hourly charge which you owe)

If you don't get the above concessions, it's time to take action against them. Don't waste your time with the Consumer Affairs. CA is so broke that it will take years for them to do anything. File a report with them just so you have something to show in court. Procede directly to small claims court. Somewhere in the process the shop will probably decide to either refund your money or fix your car or both to avoid court. One last thing, demand a time frame if you have your car taken back to the shop. 2 days max. Or tell them you are going to add loss of use of vehicle to claim.

[nhallman]

Word of mouth is effective; unfortunately that tactic can be (and has been) used to sully the reputation of truly honest and customer friendly businesses.

Great care needs to be taken to resolve a situation like this in a professional manner, through the right channels, before blasting a business on every message board you know.

Case in point: right here, on their very own board (and several others), Pelican got smeared pretty badly for something that, AFAICT, they didn't even do wrong.

If I owned a business, I would want to have a legitimate shot at resolving any beefs my customers might have before I became the target of a smear campaign.

[dc914guy]

I would not even worry about going back to the shop.. Call your credit card company and calmly explain to them what has happened, I have found more often than not your credit card company is on your side.

~Eric

[JohnB]

I'm with you on this shop reputation issue. My local Porsche-Audi dealer did the 90k svc on my A8 and offered to do PM on the water pump and thermostat (NOT a 914 item, natch!) with the explanation that the labor cost to open up the engine would be covered by the labor to replace the timing belt, therefore saving me a double charge. Seemed reasonable given that water pumps are a weak link. Well, guess what showed up on the bill? Everything by the Shop Labor Estimate book, including the two different hourly charges for both timing belt and water pump. No amount of discussion would get them to change it. Needless to say, I am not happy with this dealer and will never buy anything from them again. They're in Northern Virginia if anyone wants names.