Ayers Automotive Repair

If I could give negative stars I would I don't know how this place is in business with its shady business practices, salesmanship/con artist ways The owner of the place doubled my charge and when questioned about it he said no one could dictate his pricing Essentially this place perpetuates the stereotype that mechanics are untrustworthy and will try to take advantage of you to get every last penny they can from the customer Their upselling and consequently shaming guilt they con you into purchasing, whatever it is that "needs" to be done in the sake of "safety" is a complete farce, consistently overpriced and borders on the criminal I have no idea how or why a place like this is still in business and I for one can not, with a clear conscious, not say something Do yourself and your pocket book a favor and go ANYWHERE else but this place

Complaint:
I am rejecting this response because: You are lyingYou never told my wife our vehicle was safe to driveShe was freaked out and you took advantage of her fear by talking her into leaving it overnight which stranded her in Santa Barbara with no choice but to take
a taxi
I am attaching the documentation of my visit to our local repair facility which ran diagnostics on the vehicle and found absolutely no problem with the vehicle even though you insist that it needs workThe Revdex.com requested the documents so I asked them to forward them to you and they did not so I am attaching them here as well
Your reasons for doing the repairs are only valid in your shop and not in a Toyota dealership, so that tells me you either don't know what you are doing or that you are tricking people into having work done at your facility and I genuinely believe that your attitude indicates you have no regrets or that you don't believe there is nothing wrong with our car, so I will be filing a complaint with the state unless this is resolved immediately
My wife visited your repair facility ONLY to see if the vehicle was safe to drive homeThat is allShe went there for no other reasonShe did not go to you for repairs until you said it was not safe to drive
You did not do the right thing and clear the dash of errors so that you could make a proper determination and provide an answer that would give her a choice to drive the vehicle home and that is the basis for this complaint against youYou did not tell her it was safe to drive and she needed to know and you didn't make it possible to give her an answerYou waited until the next day to clear the dash and see if repairs were necessary or not
Again, YOU DID NOT tell my wife she could drive the vehicle home safelyMy wife wanted to go homeMy wife did not want to spend $on a taxi or to rent a car either because she could not do so on that day
Your immediate reply is appreciatedThe fact that you are dragging this out will go into my complaint with the state if this is not resolved immediately
Regards,
*** ***

If I could give negative stars I would. I don't know how this place is in business with its shady business practices, salesmanship/con artist ways. The owner of the place doubled my charge and when questioned about it he said no one could dictate his pricing.
Essentially this place perpetuates the stereotype that mechanics are untrustworthy and will try to take advantage of you to get every last penny they can from the customer. Their upselling and consequently shaming guilt they con you into purchasing, whatever it is that "needs" to be done in the sake of "safety" is a complete farce, consistently overpriced and borders on the criminal.
I have no idea how or why a place like this is still in business and I for one can not, with a clear conscious, not say something. Do yourself and your pocket book a favor and go ANYWHERE else but this place.

Review: My wife took our Prius to Ayers Automotive to have them look at the car to see whether or not it was safe to drive it home because the red triangle warning came on the dash indicating the vehicle should be operated.When she got it Ayers two blocks away, the technician turned it on and the warning lights were still on. The technician told her to leave it and they would run a diagnostic for $150. There were no more buses running at that time of night. They offered a rental but my wife could not pay Enterprise as she had no way to pay. My wife took a taxi home for $155 from Santa Barbara to Lompoc, CA.The next day they told us there were over $650 worth of repairs that needed to be done after completing the diagnostic for $150. They said they would not apply the diagnostic to the repair balance. The technician said that one of the repairs was the replacement of a battery cable, which is free of defects, and that the cost of replacing it with the labor alone was over $200. They said that the car battery was too low and it needed to be replaced because of damage to the terminal post. These were all things that needed repair to make the vehicle safe to drive according to them. Regarding the battery, this is what their report said:Unsatisfactory: Capacity Test (Take Picture)Observation: Capacity Test is Marginal, Damaged negative terminal postAction: Recommend Replacement of BatteryTheir report (which I have) also indicated 7 other items in need of repair.I told them I did not want them to perform any work on the car and asked them if it was safe to drive. They told me I could come pick it up. After I took a bus there the next morning for $7, I picked it up, paid the $150 and then took it to the local dealership. The local dealership ran a full diagnostic and said that other than a low battery (which they charged free), the car had NO PROBLEMS.As it turns out, my wife would not have been been forced to take a taxi for $155 and paid $150 for a diagnostic if they had done what's rightDesired Settlement: I want a refund of the unnecessary $150 diagnostic because all they had to do to determine if the car was driveable was to reset the dash lights to see if there were any persistent warnings which would make the car unsafe to drive.Since they stranded my wife an hour from home and my wife was forced to take a taxi, I want reimbursement for $155 for the taxi drive.I also want them to acknowledge on Yelp that what they did was wrong.

Consumer

Response:

Review: 10030108

I am rejecting this response because: You are lying. You never told my wife our vehicle was safe to drive. She was freaked out and you took advantage of her fear by talking her into leaving it overnight which stranded her in Santa Barbara with no choice but to take a taxi.

If I could give negative stars I would. I don't know how this place is in business with its shady business practices, salesmanship/con artist ways. The owner of the place doubled my charge and when questioned about it he said no one could dictate his pricing.

Essentially this place perpetuates the stereotype that mechanics are untrustworthy and will try to take advantage of you to get every last penny they can from the customer. Their upselling and consequently shaming guilt they con you into purchasing, whatever it is that "needs" to be done in the sake of "safety" is a complete farce, consistently overpriced and borders on the criminal.

I have no idea how or why a place like this is still in business and I for one can not, with a clear conscious, not say something. Do yourself and your pocket book a favor and go ANYWHERE else but this place.