Affordable Car Care

Service has been down for well over a month nowOwner gives excuses that there is a fiber optic cable somewhere that has been cut We know people who know him personally and they tell us he simply hasn't paid HIS bill again and has been cut off from serviceSo since he cannot pay his bill, all of us our SOL as far as service goes This is not the first time we have been stranded with no service, but never for such a long period of time
We switched providers from DB Wireless to TDS, which is much more reliable Owner owes us for months service that we paid for ahead of timeWe have been repeatedly asking for the money back and we have still not received it He spends half his time in the corner bar outside of town called Country CornersHe has money to buy drinks but no money to pay for our service so his customers can have internet service!

Service is frequently down for DAYS at a time with no explanation. This time around we are on day SIX without internet! Calls and texts are repeatedly ignored and remain unanswered. I would NOT recommend this company to anyone needing reliable internet service.

Review: I took my jeep in to be fixed due to it cutting off randomly while driving, after a few days I was told that it was fixed and I could pick it up went to get the jeep on 08/14/2015 drove it home and it shut off, I called the Garage and told them what was going on, they told me to bring it back and they would take a look. I tool it back. since that time I have never been called to be told what was going on, ive had to call them everytime, I am then told that they will call me back and they never do. as well as each time ive called I have been told there is something new wrong with the car, I was told that the jeep overheated while the tech drove it back to work after taking it home that night, without my permission, and that it would need a new thermostat, and coolant flush, I then waited over a week not hearing from them as usual I called and asked if it was done, I was then told that the headgaskets were now blown, and that was why it was overheating and shutting off. I had many issues with the fact that this was happening all while I didnt have the car, I tried to see what they would do and was told that it would be my responsibility to pay for the repairs, that it wasnt thier fault it overheated, even though it happend while thier tech ewas driving my car home and back. I then apprehensivley told them to fix it as I felt stuck and needed my car, again I waited and no one called me to tell me what was going on, I then called today and was told that they were waiting for me to pay for the repair before they even did it. in total this has been going on over a month. I dont feel that I should have to pay for the repair in the first place, but I was willing to, but now im being told that they told me they were waiting on the payment before they fixed it, which was never told to me. I eel that im stuck bc its my car and they know that and are taking full advantage of this fact. over a month and the car is still there and not fixed. I should mention that they told me they would take 300.00 off the repair leaving me with an amount of 629.00Desired Settlement: I would like them to fix the jeep and I would like to see a very large discount to the repair as this isn't something I feel is right, and no way to do business.

Business

Response:

[redacted] did bring his 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee to Affordable Car Care for an intermediate cutting off issue. We thought the cutting off issue was due to a relay that was replaced for no charge. All he paid was the diagnosis fee. He called us back and said that it was still doing the same thing so we told him to bring it back. We could not get the jeep to duplicate the issue and we had to drive it until we could get the vehicle to repeat the problem it was having. One of our technicians drove the vehicle home and back to the shop and it started to run hot so he pulled the over at a service station until it cooled down and then drove it back to Affordable Car Care. We told him we wanted to change out the Thermostat and do a coolant flush to rule out the possibility of having to do the head gasket. Unfortunately that didn't take care of the issue. The head gasket was the reason the Jeep was cutting off and overheating. We told him that it would be $1,029 to do the head gasket job and he said that there was no way he could afford that. We then gave him a discount and told him we could do it for $629 and that wouldn't even cover all of our cost for parts and labor. He said that he still couldn't afford it so we told him that we would let him pay us $300 and make small payments on the remaining $329. He seemed happy with that and told us he needed to get the money together and he would call us back. We never heard from him after that until today (9/25/2015) when he called and asked if the vehicle was ready yet and we told him that we were still waiting on him to bring in the $300 for us to start the repairs. He then proceeded to get an attitude and curse at [redacted] (garage manager) and hung up on him.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

[no deal to pay 300.00 was ever made with me. They never contacted me about this, I did not in any way swear at this person. He told me on the phone he was waiting for a payment from me never even told me how much. As a matter of fact he told me he would call me back after contacting another person to see what was going on, and again has yet to call back. Most importantly when has it ever been the practice of a business to charge before the job has been completed. Even if this deal had been made, I've been told parts for the jeep have yet to he ordered. Nothing had been done.

Regards,

Review: I had my black 2001 Lexus RX300 towed to Affordable Car Care on February 9, 2015. Two weeks later [redacted] the manager called and said the reason the vehicle wasn't running was because of a bad fuel pump. They ordered the fuel pump the next day, but when it arrived it was the wrong fuel pump. The correct one was ordered, and put in. The correct new fuel pump did not make the car start. [redacted] called me back and stated that the new reason the car wasn't starting after the new fuel pump was put in was because something went wrong with the battery, and or the theft system. He later stated that we needed a certain key with a chip in it to get the car running. I told him I had another key that may work (which I took to him), from how he described the key I needed. They called again and said the funny smell coming from the fuse box under the hood was bad and that was the concrete problem. I asked him if I get a new fuse box and the car starts then will it still need a fuel pump. [redacted] said no, if it starts they'll take the new one off and put the old one back on, and we won't be charged for the fuel pump. I ordered a fuse box and had it sent to the shop. The next phone call [redacted] says his best technician is working on the car and now the problem was down to one wire behind the harness. I called day after day only to keep being told, it's being worked on. Finally after a month (March 6th 2015) I lost faith that they were not able to fix it, so I called and told them I was coming to get the car and I asked how much we owed to get it. [redacted] stated he had to tally up everything and he'd get back to me. A few hours went by and he called and said we were being charged for the fuel pump and also charged us some laboring charges. I asked him how can I be charged for a car part that didn't fix the car. [redacted] stated that the part could not be returned. He charged us $581.00 total for us to come get it. I am disputing the moneys for the fuel pump, in the amount of $378.64. My car still does not run.Desired Settlement: I would like a refund for moneys regarding the fuel pump, which did not make the car start.

Business

Response:

In the process of repairing Mr. and Mrs. [redacted] Lexus , Our lead tech spent roughly 20 hours under the hood and roughly 5-8 hours just studying wiring diagrams and control module tasks. In his testing, he found the fuel pump bad . The customer was contacted for authorization to replace this and authorization was given to do so . Further diagnostics found the power distribution module thats built in to the fuse box to be shorted. The customer was then contacted for this concern. She offered to and carried out finding the module and having it sent to us . After replacing this and even further diagnostics, he was basically down to researching a couple of wires that were still not receiving the correct signal for the vehicle to run. During the time the vehicle was in our shop , our tech was not completely dedicated to this vehicle only due to the extremely busy schedule and due to the depth of this vehicles issue . The customer was made completely aware of this on a daily basis as she called 2-4 times a day . When the vehicle was brought to our shop, we were not informed by the customer, that it had already been to 3 or 4 other shops for this issue . We obtained this information from the wrecker driver who brought it in. The vehicle had sat at another shop for 5 weeks waiting for the appointment at our shop. When I was contacted by the customer that they were coming to get the vehicle , they gave us no prior notice of this and the car was still disassembled. She said that were trading it in, wanted to pick up the car immediately and she wanted wanted a final cost on the bill. When I relayed the cost of the bill to her, she was avid that we remove the fuel pump which is non returnable after being submerged in gasoline. She said “That’s fine, we will be in very shortly to pay the bill and pick up the vehicle.” When the couple came in to pick up the vehicle, both became very rude at my counter over the price of the bill . I only charged for the fuel pump and 3 hrs. labor because she had told me earlier they were just going to trade it in . When the wrecker driver picked up the vehicle , she told him to take it to the [redacted] Service Dept. The labor rate for our garage is $68/hr for a total of $1360 in labor. The customer only paid $581.31 the break down on this price was:Fuel Pump $310.84Towing $50.00Only 3hrs was charged for labor which is broken down as:1hr Fuel pump removal2hr fuse box replacementTax $16.47A total of $1156 in labor we did not charge the customer for. We went more than the extra mile to help this customer out and even ate $1156 in labor to help them even though we had spent the time on the vehicle that had a hoist of issues. We never did any work without the customers approval and did not over charge for any parts or labor placed in the vehicle. Parts for vehicles are not free and most can not be returned once used. At no point was the customer taken advantage of and the items they were charged for were the items that were replaced with labor.Attached you will find a copy of the bill to the customer.Thank YouAffordable Car CareManagement

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

We were not made aware of the tech not being dedicated to working on our vehicle. I actually stopped by there to check up on my car days prior, and was told to not take the car away because the tech was so involved with the car in getting it to run. We called constantly to get updates on the car, and I was always told "his best guy is working in it". After they told us they found an issue with the fuse box, I asked them, were they 100% sure the fuse box was the problem before I buy and have it sent, he said yes (this was after they were 100% sure it was the fuel pump to begin with). They constantly misdiagnosed my car and never found the issue. Our vehicle did not sit at any other shop for weeks! The new fuel pump that they were so sure of was the problem did not start the car, it should have been removed and we should not have been charged. They never got my car running, so the fuel pump they put in was never used. The fuel pump sits on top of the gas tank, and there's no way it could be submerged in gasoline without the car running. The part was never used, they never got my car running.