AA Budget Repair Service

I was initially contacted by mr *** asking for a quote to install a used motor he was going to provideI informed him at that point that without seeing the vehical or the motor in question there would be no way to give an accurate estimate because of way to many unknowns.I did tell him book
time to remove and replace the motor as an entire assembly 15hr @80.00per hr and at least a in fluids filters etcbut as a minimum not a quote to get startedHe at that point told me he would continue shoppingHe then called back at a later date and told me he would like us to do the job and would arrange drop off of motor and vehical, we scedualed a time the motor arrived on time the bravada several days laterWe got it on a lift as soon as we could and it quickly became apparet that almost every thing on the bravada was original and the motor was locked up solid-this may not sound like a big problem but the motor has to rotate to remove flex plate to converter bolts to allow separation from trans and due to no space to even attempt a more potentially damagitrans- of pulling motor with converter attachedI informed mr *** that it would take several extra hours at that point to remove the front axel so we could remove the oil pan and loosen rod and main bearing bolts to get crank to rotate and release converter bolts and that the used motor provided was out of a van and all front of motor manifolds and much more would have to be transferred in itself adding several hours gaskets so hardware etcand at that time was told to proceedWhen we reached the point were his old motor was out and we could accurately determine what would be required -keeping in mind his desire to keep it a couple more years and expecting all to be right-I gave him different price scenarios from the must haves#1,the should haves-such as all new seals and gaskets#and the it would be a good idea while out list that should be done but could be gotten to later-like serp belt ignition tune,starter(prevused part coming apart etc#3-bearing in mind all the while figuring well under actual times to help the situation as much as possibleHe told me he would get back to me after he talked to his dad to determine how much to do so we did finish teardowns of all known to be transferred parts and finished as much prep work as possibleI was then contacted later the following day to inform me that he wanted to go no further and that I should get things together to be picked up by the salvage yardNow we had to reassemble axel into vehical to make it roll clean out rear of truck put down cardboard and neatly put all loose items in back drag it out and wait for pickup and motors blocking part of a bay for a few daysThe bill for hours plus tax was well over hours under time spent without considering incidentals like pick up and estimation times so when he did show up by 8am tues18th with cash for his bill-which he thought was 7$more anyway-I did not think it was the end of the world and had he implied that it was I would have barrowed a Quarter from a mechanicThe reason I have the effort of listing pertdetails is to 1st paint the whole picture and 2nd to show the side not often seen by the consumer that makes it so hard for a honest shop that prides itself in quality of workmanship attention to detail that cares about their customers well being to conduct business efficiently and effectively-which is why I believe we lose very few customers and we can consider most of our customers friends if not extended familyWe tried to do our best for mr *** but his goals and expectations simply were not a possible realityWe strive to do our absolute best for everyone we are always willing to demonstrate what we see and why it could be a problemI do not know who could have or would have done more for him in this situationThank you for your attention in this matter***

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:
Sincerely,
 
[redacted]I was quoted  verbally by ** that my bill would be parts ,motor repair and bushings in front end plus a rear caliper installed for 30 hrs labor. then there  were a couple things he wanted to do just to make look better(was told numerous times that he would do his best to sticking to his 30 hr. quote but might be slightly higher.  Thern car was given back to me leaking oil due to machine shop. I towed back to shop on my own bill. I NEVER auth. a $12000.00 repair bill which I was given. Due to fear of loosing my car I paid the majority but like I said kept finding more problems with work donr What does repair manuels state as lagitamate times for this work? I'm sure its not$7000.00 labor. Please let me know what book times are. AGAIN I WAS NEVER TOLD MY LABOR BILL WOULD GO FROM $3000.00 TO$7000.00 + I WILL NOT BE HAPPY UNTIL THIS IS STRAIGHTENED OUT. Please let me know how to go about this as I am no sure of steps I need to take to rectify my situation.  I hope Revdex.com can point me in right direction. I have no paper work authorizing  the extra billing. If he does it is no legitimate.

The 1st thing I must say to [redacted]s complaint is (REALLY)!,2nd I never quoted 7000.00,3rd we were in constant contact throughout the operation and there was so much more done than his motor cleaning and painting of his whole front frame and under hood areas, engine related accessorys,rebuilt his...

entire frontend ,repaired much electrical, installed gauges,made new trans. lines serviced trans and rear diff,changed a rear caliper ,bleed brakes and so much more. As for the leaks I did offer to have it towed but he said he would take care of it, when I got the car back we repaired the leaks ,frt crank seal and the block issue he refers to was a chisel mark in the oil filter seal area that the engine builder did not think would be a problem (and that leak was minor),but to rectify the problem I installed a very expensive oil filter relocator system (over 500.00 in parts) at no charge to [redacted]. The 2nd time the car came back was to do its 1st oil change and to install a shifter that [redacted] provided (no leaks). I again at that time let [redacted] go still having about a 1000.00 balance. It was not until I called about payment that [redacted] decided to file this complaint. Please keep in mind that the 7000.00 that [redacted] thinks he should have paid would not even cover parts and tax let alone the dozens of hours of work all the free parts and the fact that he got the motor and many other parts at cost(he got the motor slip)and there was much time not added as well. What I will offer [redacted] at this point is to waive money still owed to be done with this nonsence.

Review: I brought my car in to have motor work checked /done. I was told after checking motor that it needed to be rebuilt/repaired. I authorized rebuild.I was told with repair work done that my bill would be approx.$7000.00. I authorized this work and once work was done I was told to pay $12000.00. I complained and ultimately charged what I could. I got veh. home and began to notice oil leaks which. I had to pay to have car towed back to repair. as car was not driveable. I had to return for another oil leak that was due to an oversite at there machine shop. found block actually had to be replaced to do proper rebuild. I was not informed or given a chance to decide on before rebuild. This man actually told me multiple times it was getting close but he would keep within budget. I am going to take this company to court to make right my being way overcharged.Desired Settlement: I would like to have my $5000.00 overcharge returned to me.

Business

Response:

The 1st thing I must say to [redacted]s complaint is (REALLY)!,2nd I never quoted 7000.00,3rd we were in constant contact throughout the operation and there was so much more done than his motor cleaning and painting of his whole front frame and under hood areas, engine related accessorys,rebuilt his entire frontend ,repaired much electrical, installed gauges,made new trans. lines serviced trans and rear diff,changed a rear caliper ,bleed brakes and so much more. As for the leaks I did offer to have it towed but he said he would take care of it, when I got the car back we repaired the leaks ,frt crank seal and the block issue he refers to was a chisel mark in the oil filter seal area that the engine builder did not think would be a problem (and that leak was minor),but to rectify the problem I installed a very expensive oil filter relocator system (over 500.00 in parts) at no charge to [redacted]. The 2nd time the car came back was to do its 1st oil change and to install a shifter that [redacted] provided (no leaks). I again at that time let [redacted] go still having about a 1000.00 balance. It was not until I called about payment that [redacted] decided to file this complaint. Please keep in mind that the 7000.00 that [redacted] thinks he should have paid would not even cover parts and tax let alone the dozens of hours of work all the free parts and the fact that he got the motor and many other parts at cost(he got the motor slip)and there was much time not added as well. What I will offer [redacted] at this point is to waive money still owed to be done with this nonsence.

Consumer

Response:

Review: [redacted]

I am rejecting this response because:

Sincerely,

[redacted]I was quoted verbally by ** that my bill would be parts ,motor repair and bushings in front end plus a rear caliper installed for 30 hrs labor. then there were a couple things he wanted to do just to make look better(was told numerous times that he would do his best to sticking to his 30 hr. quote but might be slightly higher. Thern car was given back to me leaking oil due to machine shop. I towed back to shop on my own bill. I NEVER auth. a $12000.00 repair bill which I was given. Due to fear of loosing my car I paid the majority but like I said kept finding more problems with work donr What does repair manuels state as lagitamate times for this work? I'm sure its not$7000.00 labor. Please let me know what book times are. AGAIN I WAS NEVER TOLD MY LABOR BILL WOULD GO FROM $3000.00 TO$7000.00 + I WILL NOT BE HAPPY UNTIL THIS IS STRAIGHTENED OUT. Please let me know how to go about this as I am no sure of steps I need to take to rectify my situation. I hope Revdex.com can point me in right direction. I have no paper work authorizing the extra billing. If he does it is no legitimate.

Review: I was given a phone quote for approximately $1400 to replace the engine in my vehicle. I was also told about 15 hours which was comparable to other estimates I had gotten. I was being realistic and expecting to maybe be looking at close to $2000 upon completion as certainly some things always pop up in these types of repairs. That's over 25% over the original estimate.Once into the job the price kept escalating. first to $2500 which now all of a sudden didn't include going over the new engine with gaskets and seals and then to $3800 if I wanted it "done right". Other wise at the lower level I was told there is no guarantee to engine works long term. I ended up having to junk the vehicle which was a very clean vehicle with no rust and everything but the engine working. I also had to pay $850 to this garage to square up with them for pulling out the old engine and to get my key.I feel like I was bait and switched. I understood that the budget may increase. I even budgeted 25% above what was originally estimated but coming within a couple hundred dollars of tripling the original estimate with no changes to the general scope of the project is entirely unreasonable. Even upon arrival I paid in cash and the shop didn't have enough money to technically give me proper change and shorted me twenty cents or so. The twenty cents isn't the issue its the poor customer service and the fact that ** assumed it was okay to short me.Desired Settlement: Nothing was accomplished other then causing me to abandon the vehicle to a recycler because they did enough to tear it apart but never added any value to the truck. Once it was apart they had me and kept jacking the price up. I would like a partial refund of 50% this would amount to $425.00

Business

Response:

I was initially contacted by mr [redacted] asking for a quote to install a used motor he was going to provide. I informed him at that point that without seeing the vehical or the motor in question there would be no way to give an accurate estimate because of way to many unknowns.I did tell him book time to remove and replace the motor as an entire assembly 15hr @80.00per hr and at least a 200.00 in fluids filters etc. but as a minimum not a quote to get started. He at that point told me he would continue shopping. He then called back at a later date and told me he would like us to do the job and would arrange drop off of motor and vehical, we scedualed a time the motor arrived on time the bravada several days later. We got it on a lift as soon as we could and it quickly became apparet that almost every thing on the 97 bravada was original and the motor was locked up solid-this may not sound like a big problem but the motor has to rotate to remove flex plate to converter bolts to allow separation from trans and due to no space to even attempt a more potentially damaging-to trans- of pulling motor with converter attached. I informed mr [redacted] that it would take several extra hours at that point to remove the front axel so we could remove the oil pan and loosen rod and main bearing bolts to get crank to rotate and release converter bolts and that the used motor provided was out of a van and all front of motor manifolds and much more would have to be transferred in itself adding several hours gaskets so hardware etc. and at that time was told to proceed. When we reached the point were his old motor was out and we could accurately determine what would be required -keeping in mind his desire to keep it a couple more years and expecting all to be right-I gave him 3 different price scenarios from the must haves#1,the should haves-such as all new seals and gaskets#2 and the it would be a good idea while out list that should be done but could be gotten to later-like serp belt ignition tune,starter(prev. used part coming apart etc#3-bearing in mind all the while figuring well under actual times to help the situation as much as possible. He told me he would get back to me after he talked to his dad to determine how much to do so we did finish teardowns of all known to be transferred parts and finished as much prep work as possible. I was then contacted later the following day to inform me that he wanted to go no further and that I should get things together to be picked up by the salvage yard. Now we had to reassemble axel into vehical to make it roll clean out rear of truck put down cardboard and neatly put all loose items in back drag it out and wait for pickup and 2 motors blocking part of a bay for a few days. The bill for 10 hours plus tax was well over 4 hours under time spent without considering incidentals like pick up and estimation times so when he did show up by 8am tues. 18th with cash for his bill-which he thought was 7$more anyway-I did not think it was the end of the world and had he implied that it was I would have barrowed a Quarter from a mechanic. The reason I have the effort of listing pert. details is to 1st paint the whole picture and 2nd to show the side not often seen by the consumer that makes it so hard for a honest shop that prides itself in quality of workmanship attention to detail that cares about their customers well being to conduct business efficiently and effectively-which is why I believe we lose very few customers and we can consider most of our customers friends if not extended family. We tried to do our best for mr [redacted] but his goals and expectations simply were not a possible reality. We strive to do our absolute best for everyone we are always willing to demonstrate what we see and why it could be a problem. I do not know who could have or would have done more for him in this situation. Thank you for your attention in this matter. [redacted].