Arocha's Auto Service

Review: horrible service, customer service everything. this shop started taking my car apart without my permission telling the warranty company false information, they had my car for 3 weeks and did not solve my problem saying it was the head gasket, then the timing belt , then the motor. on top of that never called me with information about my car telling me how much there services was and can they start on my car, never kept the customer involved. then when I called about my car they said its apart and waiting on a motor and its going to be 600.00 for the breaking down of the car but never told me the service fee, how did you know if I had that kind of money, again did not contact the customer for anything, didn't have no paper work on my car that I told them to tear it down , no paper work period.then the owner got an attitude disrespect me and told my he is not working on my car give him 600.00 and take my car, so we called the cops because he had no paper work on it saying we owed this kind of money so the officer said that is theft give them the car, they said no so now im filed a complaint and taking them to court.Desired Settlement: this shop instigated, my car and to let people know do not take your car there and a letter of apology and a reimburse

Consumer

Response:

No I want to take them but you can take that out

Business

Response:

This letter is in response to a concern submitted on 7/24/13 ID #[redacted], customer name [redacted].

Her car was towed in by [redacted] with a non start issue. Customer stated vehicle did overheat and made no power when gas pedal was pushed. Customer said she was on her way back from [redacted] Pa when this occurred.

The car was towed to Arocha’s Automotive and was not capable of starting. On July 10 at 9:08am [redacted] was contacted by [redacted], a tech at Arocha’s, at that time **. [redacted] expressed that her car had a warranty. She was then informed that we would need all the paperwork with the warranty information so we could start a claim with her warranty company.

With any warranty company you have certain procedures to follow for them to pay any claim. Those procedures are:

1) Invoice with owners name, year, make, and model of car, current mileage, complaint from customer, cause of complaint, correction of complaint.

2) After writing up invoice you call warranty company to start claim. They informed us we would have to tear down motor to show the cause of breakdown. Before doing so you have to get customers approval for teardown in case warranty does not cover repairs customer is responsible for cost of teardown.

We then contacted **. [redacted], her mother, and her father all three gave permission to proceed with the teardown understanding that they would be responsible for diagnostic work and if not covered by warranty they would be responsible for teardown. They were also informed there might be some things the warranty company won’t cover and that would be her responsibility also. They were also informed how a warranty works, once the motor is tore down and the problem is found Arocha’s has to call the warranty company to inform them of what was found then the warranty sends someone out to take pictures. All this information is then sent to warranty company and we wait for a decision on if they are going to cover it and how to fix the problem. That whole process can take up to a few weeks which we informed **. [redacted], her mother, and her father.

The problem with the car was the timing chain guides failed. Classified as an interference engine a failure of this magnitude causes the piston to come in contact with the cylinder valves in which bending the valves. Causing loss of power, overheating, and eventually engine failure.

After the teardown and sending the cylinder head to the machine shop, which we also got approval for from **. [redacted], the warranty company stated it would be cheaper for them to replace the motor rather than fix the problem with her motor.

After working up the invoice with the warranty company stating what they would cover and what **. [redacted] would be responsible for we contacted her to let her know exactly what was covered and what she was responsible for. **. [redacted]’s bill would be around $600.00 her warranty would cover the rest, about $1100.00. That is when it turned into a problem. A certain level of ignorance was expressed by the customer and after many nasty profanity filled phone calls made by **. [redacted], her mother, and her father, we informed **. [redacted] that it would be better for her to take her car somewhere else for the repairs. We also called the warranty company to inform them of our decision in which the gentleman from there informed us that **. [redacted] had also called him and was very nasty with him also.

A few days later her father called us to apologize for their actions and behavior and agreed to come get the car and take it somewhere else. He asked if there was a bill for the work that was done we informed him the amount due was around 350.00. That is when **. [redacted] called the police and said we were holding her car hostage. The officer arrived and when he was told the story and showed all of the paperwork he informed us and her it was a civil matter and there was nothing he could do. A few days after that incident her father called again apologizing and asking if we would accept a payment of $200.00 and release the car. After all the frustration we said yes and released the car.

After 5 years at this location we have never had a more unpleasant experience then this one. **. [redacted] clearly did not understand her warranty when she purchased it from the dealer and took that anger of not understanding out on our shop.

Thank you