Auburn Auto Doctors, Inc.

The customer had an issue with our power steering repairs and said the alignment was off. We said absolutely we would be happy to look at the concern and would perform another alignment to double check our previous work. After performing the alignment the second time with the same results [redacted]...

called again and said we need to re look at the vehicle and that the alignment was still off. We made another appointment which was cancelled on 3 separate occasions. We are happy to recheck any work we performed if there is an issue but after cancelling 3 appointments in a row, making multiple false accusations about other problems with the vehicle completely unrelated to repairs performed, and using a racial slur against a hispanic employee in the shop, we are no longer able to continue our relationship

Review: We took my daughters Suzuki Grand Vitara in for repairs needed to the engine. We were told that after what the insurance (warranty)would cover we would be responsible for up to $1000 in additional labor and cost. I authorized the amount of $1000 over what the insurance(warranty) company would cover. When the repairs were finished and we went to pick up the car the amount owed was $1548.41. I said I only authorized $1000 and their response was "we forgot to put some items in the estimate." I asked why wasn't I notified of the amount change and the gentleman told me "I don't know, it must have fallen through the cracks." I only allowed them to charge $1000 to my credit card since that is what I authorized. After I left they then made my daughter sign something saying she owed the additional $548.41 that was not authorized or they would not release the car.I just recently was told that a repair shop legally has to inform the client if there will be an additional amount and have it preauthorized prior to completion. This was not done and I feel the shop should take the loss for the additional amount.Also when we got it back the blower for the air/heater kept shorting out. After taking it back several times they kept telling us/her that they are not responsible because they didn't work on that. A different repair shop we took the car to said it had shorted out due to something being hooked up improperly. I feel they should also be responsible for purchasing a new blower motor for this vehicle and we will take it somewhere else and have it installed. Further they dented the front fenders with a lightbar that attaches on the fenders over the engine compartment.Desired Settlement: The $548.41 needs to be taken off the balance owed to make it a zero balance.The blower motor needs to be purchased by Auburn Auto Doctors to replace the one which was shorted out due to improper connection. We will have another shop do the installation.We would also like to take the Grand Vitara to a body shop to get the front fenders repaired which were also damaged by this shop. Which Auburn Auto Doctors should take care of the bill.

Business

Response:

To whomever it may concern,

I am responding to a concern from [redacted] regarding work performed on a 2006 Suzuki Grand Vitara belonging to [redacted]. The vehicle was brought in and I originally spoke with a gentleman named [redacted] who said he was the father of [redacted]. A lot of the work was authorized by him or [redacted] herself and I only spoke to [redacted] on a couple of occasions before the vehicle was picked up when repairs were completed. As far as the work goes and what was authorized my documentation shows as follows. We initially agreed with the customer that the engine had an internal problem and was fairly obvious from the noise it was making. They had an aftermarket insurance policy to cover repairs and before they would make any payment they needed visual evidence of a failure in the engine that could be documented with photographic evidence. on 4/15/13 [redacted] authorized additional labor to remove the oil pan for further diagnostic to determine the failure. It was then determined that the engine bearing clearances were out of specifications and the insurance company agreed to cover the claim. There was only $4937.43 left on the customers contract with the insurance company so it was determined that some money would have to come out of the customers pocket. I had a conversation in detail with [redacted] because he better understood the options that were available at that time. We determined that it would be better to use a new engine block from Suzuki and send the cylinder heads to a local machine shop to be re-manufactured and hopefully give the engine the most longevity. We provided the customer with an initial ESTIMATE of $5853.36 for the engine repair job. The insurance company would only cover a maximum of $4937.43 so that left the customer responsible for a difference of $915.93. The customer stated in her complaint that she authorized $1000 extra but that is not correct, the authorization was on 4/22/13 and I spoke with [redacted] that time for authorization. Once we got the authorization we got the engine completely apart and sent the cylinder heads out for machine work. They originally estimated the cylinder head work at $395.00 and that was the price quoted to the customer on 4/22/13. The machine shop called back and said the cylinder heads had some problem and not only needed the estimated work but would need extra work performed in order to have the valves properly adjusted when the job was completed. Also all the exhaust valve guides needed to be knurled in order to ensure proper clearance. This brought the machine work from $395 to $600. Also this is the first and only Suzuki engine job we have done so we estimated and order a complete engine gasket set but that ended up not containing EVERY seal or gasket we needed to complete the repairs properly. Once we had started to reassemble the engine we needed the following parts that were not included in the "complete" gasket set from Suzuki. As a side note most manufacturers included these gaskets with their sets so it was unexpected. The gaskets/parts purchased after the estimate were:

oil pump, front crankshaft seal, egr pipe gasket, oil pan o-ring, oil pump pickup tune o-ring, oil dipstick tube o-ring, valve stem seals, and spark plug seals. These unexpected extra parts increased the total cost of the work order which increased the customer final amount owed to $1548.41

The vehicle was picked up by [redacted] and [redacted] on 5/8/13 when the work was completed. Before they came and picked it up [redacted] and I had a conversation on the phone about her daughter being a single mother and would have trouble paying for the additional amount and asked if she could pay the $1000 and her daughter would pay the additional as soon as possible. It is normally our policy that a vehicle does not leave until full payment is provided but after talking with them I felt because most of the bill was being paid it was the right hing to do in this situation if it would help them out. They signed the completed work order and took the vehicle.

On 7/16/13 we still had not received any payment from the customer but [redacted] brought the vehicle in to recheck our work because the check engine light had came on and the blower fan for the heater and a/c had stopped working. The customer stated the light had just came on and the blower motor worked for a while after she picked up the vehicle but some time later had stopped working. We pulled the check engine light and found codes P0456 (evaporative emissions system small leak detected) and P2631 (o2 sensor pumping current trim circuit high bank 2 sensor 1). We determined neither of these codes were related to previous work performed. Customer would be responsible for 1 hour of labor to diagnose but it was declined. We also checked the blower motor issue and at that time they said they found a new shop and they said it was our fault even though it worked when it left and for a while after. We checked the circuit and found the blower motor had power all the way to it but it would not operate so the blower motor itself had just gone bad. When we diagnosed it all the wiring was fine simply the motor would not operate. The customer took vehicle at that time. Customer was not charged anything at that time for inspecting any of the vehicle concerns.

I don't believe it is possible anything we could have done with installing an engine could have damaged the blower motor. If the wiring tests all ok then I don't think it's possible for anything to cause damage to the blower motor. Every vehicle component has a plug so nothing could ever be hooked up backwards etc. If the customer can produce proof from another shop that damage was done and how or that a wiring repair was done due to damage I would be happy to work with the customer on repairing that at our expense but I have never seen anything yet to this point. At the time we diagnosed it bad we even offered as a goodwill gesture to not charge the customer the $42.50 labor to install the blower motor if they bought the part but they were convinced it was our fault and wanted the full cost covered.

As far as the body damage goes I have never heard of this at all until I received this complaint. I have tried patiently to collect this debt as fairly as possible and in January I sent another statement to [redacted] in the mail regarding her past due balance and I threatened to finally send the account to collections if it remained unpaid and two moths later I received this complaint with now the additional problem of the body damage which was never spoken of until now.

To address one last thing that the customer said which were all repairs need to be authorized with the customer. As I stated before, all ESTIMATED costs were given to the customer to the best of our ability but unfortunately there were a few unforeseen costs. By law our estimate does not have to include sales tax and that was $273.62 so if you take the customers unpaid balance of $548.41 and subtract the sales tax of $273.62 the customer only ended up with $274.79 of additional expenses that were not officially authorized which is a fairly small amount considering a job of this magnitude.

I am also attaching copies of the completed and signed work order by [redacted], the insurance companies authorization, and also the estimating requirements from the Bureau of Automotive Repair. Please feel free to contact me if any further information is needed.

Auburn Auto Doctors

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