Girard's Service of Franklin Inc.

I teat our trusty steeds, or cars, as if they're our babies.

As my deceased Dad used to tell me, "take care of your cars and they'll take care of you."

Best advice I've ever received, as my 2000 Saturn L is just shy of hitting the 240,000-mile mark.

The only service technicians I allow to touch this baby are at Girard's of Franklin, as they're knowledgeable, honest and forthright and performs the work in a timely manner.

As long as it's in business, we'll keep doing business with them as they're a rarity nowadays.

Kudos to you, Girards. Keep up the great work! Your honesty is greatly appreciated.

Among other repairs, I had Girard's fix a slow leak in one of my tires. They told me the leak was coming from the rim (which costs more) and supposedly repaired it and charged me. The next day I noticed the tire was again leaking and over the next 24 hours became more significant. I finally ended up with a flat about an hour away from home. I took it to a tire repair shop who found the leak was coming from a puncture in the tire and said the repair around the rim was poorly done. When I called Girard's to ask for a refund, they told me that I must have obtained a new puncture after they fixed it. Seems like a bit of a coincidence... They refused to refund my money which would have been less than $50 of the total $1200 worth of work. Doesn't seem like good practice to me.

Review: I made an appointment to replace the thermostat in my 2003 Chevy Impala. The man at the desk was very short with me, but I was patient and made the appointment for the following day at 8:00 a.m. When I got there, he took the keys, then came back into the waiting area and asked me where the part was (the thermostat). I told him I did not have the part. He insisted that I said I purchased the part for them to put in. I never said that. He walked off in a huff and told me he had to order one. He knew I was waiting with no other mean of transportation. I asked him how much longer that would take, and he shrugged his shoulders and said he didn't know, since I didn't bring the part with me. I have spent THOUSANDS of dollars at Girard's on auto repairs, and at this time in my life when things have been especially difficult for me, I didn't need a simple auto repair to bring me to tears. I took the car and left with no repair. The man was just nasty and mean, and I will NEVER do business with them again.Desired Settlement: I want and DESERVE an apology, and I want this complaint permanently on record with the Revdex.com.

Business

Response:

This is a case of miscommunication and

misunderstanding. The customer had come

in the day before asking for an estimate on how much to install a thermostat,

stating that she could get a thermostat for $12 to $13 dollars. Because of this statement I assumed she was supplying

the thermostat and I quoted here about $90 dollars labor, plus tax and fluids,

to install her thermostat. She made an

appointment for 8:00AM the next day to wait while we repaired her vehicle.

When she arrived I asked her for her keys and asked her if

the part, the thermostat, which I thought she was providing, was in the

car. She said she didn’t have the

thermostat and I told her that I thought she was supplying the thermostat and

that I would have to order one instead.

She took a seat in the waiting room. I instructed my service writer to get the required

specifications from the vehicle so we could start looking up a thermostat in

our supplier catalogs and went back out to the front desk.

When I came back out to the front desk she asked how much

longer it was going to take. Since I had

not even had a chance to look on my supplier’s online catalogs to see which one

had it and which one could get the part to me the quickest, I told her I didn’t

know yet.

This is when it occurred to me that I had quoted her

yesterday for just labor, not the parts, but that maybe she thought the

estimate was for both. I went out to the

waiting area to talk to her about the pricing and that is when she became

agitated, slightly combative, and asked for her car keys. I went to retrieve her keys and gave them to

her, she said she was leaving with the car, did not want the repair done and

was never coming back. All of what I detailed

above happened within a span of about 5 to 8 minutes.

I am sorry for the initial

misunderstanding that she was supplying the part. Had I

inferred by our conversation the day before that I was supplying the part, the

estimate would have been correct, I would have had the part pre-ordered and at

out facility when she arrived, making life easier for both of us.

As far as my behavior, at no time was my behavior nasty or

mean or even in the same ballpark as nasty and mean. In fact, had she been a little more understanding

of our original miscommunication and less combative, I think we would have

worked through this misunderstanding successfully.

Consumer

Response:

I recently had my van towed to Girard's for some work and when picking it up noticed damage done ( during towing by a contracted tow company ). The tow company refused to work with me, and the owner of Girard's was completely cool and understanding of the situation and worked with me to take care of the issue. [redacted] and I both knew that the garage didn't cause the damage, but being an awesome business he took care of me. Take note... This is how it should be done. Now, [redacted] has a returning customer....and I can call another tow company if need be. Thanks [redacted]