A & K Automotive

Hello Revdex.com!!!My name is [redacted]. I am the owner of A&K Automotive of Peabody, MA. I received an email from Revdex.com in regards to a client of mine, [redacted]. I am writing this email in response to the negative feedback my business received from [redacted] and would appreciate the time to...

give the Revdex.com my perspective of the issues at hand and why the complaint was written.Customer found my contact information online and called me about a transmission issue with his 1999 [redacted] GXE van. I told him to have it towed to the shop in order to determine if the transmission had completely failed or if it needed other work. When it had arrived, I told him I was extremely busy and would bring it in the shop within a couple days to verify the drive ability issue with his vehicle.After determining that there was infact a 3 inch wide hole on the case of the transmission, I was then able to give the customer an estimate on the total cost of the repair. Further, I explained to [redacted] that it is shop policy that any and all engines/transmissions or other drivetrain components that are purchasd from a salvage yard and are used/recycled are to be paid in full by the customer before parts are ordered. It is a fair policy, as the parts are used and I give clients cost on the parts to help them save money.[redacted] seemed to leave out the fact that it took two and a half weeks to come up with just a portion of the cost of the transmission ($400) when the part actually costed $580. It was phone call after phone call promising me he would be there on Friday or monday or any other day for that matter with the rest of the money. I went ahead and ordered it anyhow because I didn't want the vehicle to sit outside any further. Once the transmission was ordered, I then brought the vehicle back into the shop (it was pushed outside to not take up valuable shop space) and removed the transmission.After installing the "new/used" transmission into [redacted]'s [redacted], we found out that the speedometer was inoperable and there were other diagnostic codes that needed to be diagnosed. It took a couple more days to figure out what else needed to be removed/replaced. It is a 15 year old used transmission and issues do come up. After getting those issues resolved we saw that the Overdrive light was flashing and overdrive was inoperable. After further "free" diagnosis, we found that a portion of the shift solenoid pack on the valve body was no good and needed replacing.After receiving the initial complaint email from the Revdex.com, I went ahead and spent another $423.00 dollars of my own money out of good faith on the solenoid pack and got the vehicle up and working perfectly. The vendor where I purchase almost all of my second hand deivetrain components (LKQ/Keystone) does not warranty electrical components of said parts. They would have to send me another transmission which would take more time and I would have to remove/replace again for the second time. I would rather not take a chance on installing another transmission and have it be worse. I believe that the vehicle had other issues that might have contributed to having transmission failure to begin with. The vehicle has 167,000 miles on it. I only charged the client the labor on the job and discounted cost on the two other sensors that needed to be replaced. I knew money was tough for him and I took that into strong consideration. Overall, the total on the job exceeded the original estimate because of the additional parts. But because we paid for the necessary solenoid pack, the shops profit was minimal, which I am honestly fine with at this point.As far as the vacation that I went on (three days off) it was over February vacation and was planned weeks prior. I feel as though if the client came through with the initial deposit for the transmission and didn't have to try and borrow and scrounge up as much as he could, the car would have obviously been completed in a much quicker fashion. I have had a perfect track record with Revdex.com and have both five-star reviews on both [redacted] and [redacted] and would like to keep it that way.I would appreciate Revdex.com to consider removing this complaint from my business' history/file as the facts are the facts. I feel as though the customer was more unhappy with the fact that affordability to repair such an older vehicle wasn't exactly easy and other means of purchasing newer transportation wasn't an option. I personally wouldn't have repaired that vehicle with the age and mileage/condition. It just wasn't worth it.Thank you for your time.Best regards,[redacted]A & K Automotive###-###-####