Bill Gray Automotive Enterprises Inc

Review: We own a 2005 Volvo XC90. We tend to keep our cars for a long time and perform all necessary maintenance per the handbook recommendations. My wife took the car for a scheduled service 120k to Bill Gray Volvo on March 7. Paid over $700. There were no issues going in to the shop and no issues coming out (new wiper blades). Within a week, March 14, the Check Engine Light was on. We followed the handbook and finally had the car towed to the dealership on Sunday 3/22. Obviously, we are looking at replacing the engine, at a cost of $10,000 to $12,000 or may be $5000 if we used an old engine. They claim that the issue existed before and we probably did not change the oil and a dozen other reasons, though we have always changed oil and maintained the car, except that they may have done something to the engine, damaged it intentionally or unintentionally during the last service. So, right now as it stands, everything and everyone except them could be the culprit. We are getting the car towed again to a different dealership for review. Our fear is that these dealers have a motive and a reason to convince people with older model cars to give up their cars and buy new ones or spend $12k on fixing them; or they can offer to buy our car for peanuts. All losing options for the consumer but winning options for the dealers. I also called a local mechanic and he said that he can't get in to the software, only dealer can. This is a rip-off on it's own.

If this was our first experience with this dealership, it may have been easier to digest. We have been pretty good customer to them bringing them repeat business. In May 2014, we took the car in for some service and paid $1066; in July 2014, we took the same car to fix a noise in the front and paid $1,787. They claimed to have fixed it but to find out in 2 weeks that the noise was back - when we took it back again August, there were additional issue that they identified for the same problem and charged another $504. Each time it was my wife taking the car and them giving her these reasons how these things are all unrelated. I was in Philly, in the process of moving our family to Pittsburgh. We had a great experience with dealership in NJ and Wayne PA, so we were completely surprised by this type of experience.

I have asked Brad to have the owner call me. We have retrieved our car and taking to a different dealership to get 2nd opinion. But I would like for these folks to get investigated so my car can be fixed correctly.Desired Settlement: We want these folks to fix the problem and admit their mistake.

Business

Response:

I have reviewed the customer complaint and subsequent information, and can find no fault onour part for the failure as described by the customer.Approximately two weeks after our initial service (copy enclosed) the vehicle was towed to uswith a complaint of “engine oil light on” (copy enclosed). According to the records the customer drovethe vehicle 464 miles between services. We checked the oil and found it to be furl and clean. Wescanned the diagnostic system fortrouble codes and found a code for camshaft variable valve timingsystem. It appears an internal engine pans failure maybe the cause of the problem, not related to ourservice. The customer declined our offer to attempt to clean the oil passages and drove the vehicle fromour shop against our advice.As to the customers allegation we intentionally damaged his car, I find this offensive borderingon slander. I understand that he is upset with the circumstances but will not tolerate recklessaccusations.Sincerely,[redacted]Bill Gray Volvo C

Consumer

Response:

Dear [redacted]:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted]. I have had the car towed to a

different dealer, who have addressed the issue and fixed it to our satisfaction,

without installing a new engine. The other dealer identified fault codes that may

or may not be same as Bill Gray identified, as BG did not include the codes in

their invoice.

Since the car has been fixed, by a different dealer, I wish to close this

complaint. I am disappointed that the ownership has not taken this as an opportunity

to self-evaluate their operations and determine why issues take multiple visits

before being resolved and problems not identified during major maintenance

services.

Thank you for your help.

Regards,