Carozza's Service Center

I called Carozza’a and spoke to a lady (the “secretary”) and told her that I had a truck that I believed needed a clutch and if I bought the clutch with me, how much would they charge for labor, she told me $500. I then asked how long the owner has been a mechanic and proceeded to tell me that he’s been doing it for many years, so I scheduled to drop it off. At drop off, we had some casual conversation that I did some work on cars but nothing big like this, I only do brakes and such, then we had some other casual conversation. At no time did they ask me if I knew for sure that my clutch was bad or why I felt that it was bad, they assumed it because I brought it in for that. I hope Doctors don’t work that way! I then told Dave that I would like for him to look at the oil pan to see if he felt that the gasket needed changed or not, he slid underneath my truck and said that he didn’t see that the oil pan gasket was really bad at all since there was not much down there and splashed around, but he did proceed to tell me that it would be good to put in a new rear main seal since they would have the transmission out already, so I asked the secretary (his wife I believe), how much is a rear main seal and she said not much at all, so I agreed to it. I said that I was in no real hurry for we were headed out on vacation and this is not my main vehicle. I went to pick up my truck about 1 week later and was told the bill was $655, I asked why, assuming that maybe it was the cost of a rear main seal and something else, but to my surprise, they didn’t even do the rear main seal, he said that it wasn’t needed yet he told me that it would be best to do since it would already be out and I agreed to it, instead I guess that I was charge $155 for a small piece to be welded that broke off? I did not argue with it because I was so happy to get back a vehicle with no gear shifting problems, yet again to my surprise, the vehicle appeared to be no different than when I dropped it off. So, I called and said that I would like to come in and talk about this and have Dave drive it, she agreed. Once I got there, Dave was not there at that moment, so I began conversations with the secretary, and I proceeded to say that the clutch must not have been bad since nothing feels or seems different, she said, that it was a little worn, I said then why would you change or not think that maybe something else is wrong, then she said, well it was pretty worn out, so the clutch got worse the more I talked with her. She said that Dave didn’t notice anything wrong when he drove it, I said that your story is now conflicting, we spoke already and because it was a mechanic that drove it and never noticed anything wrong that now we were going to have Dave drive it, this is one of the reasons I came down here, she stuttered and moved on to trying to get ahold of Dave to see when he would be in, she said 15 minutes or so and he’d be here, so I ran down the street to take care of something else. Once I walked back into the door, Dave was obviously prepared to serve up his conclusions without taking a promised test drive with me. He told me that I came in and “appeared” to know what I was talking about so he didn’t question me, yet then he proceeded to tell me that every time in the past that he’s not questioned someone, that this is where it ends up, so why, as a supposedly good mechanic with years of ownership experience in this type of situation, not ask me? He wouldn’t allow me to talk till he set the stage to his so-called closing act to not wanting to assist me in any way. Once I felt the opportunity to speak as a customer should have, he then butted in and started drilling me with questions like, what do you do for a living, I answered that I run 17 shops nationwide, we manufacture and install leather interiors and power roofs etc., and when a customer has an issue, we are there to assist them in any way possible, even at worse case, refunding their monies (this is not what I was even wanting by the way). He quickly moved to his next question, if a customer comes in and says here is what I want, do you try to talk them out of it, I answered, yes, and this is what I train all of my people, to ask and ensure that they know what their getting and why do you want to do it this or that way. I gave this example, if someone comes in and wants to order a yellow leather interior with purple stitch, you bet that we will ask them questions and many times try to sway them from it. That answer obviously wasn’t what he was looking for, so he moved on from there by standing up, moving towards me and getting even stronger in his tone. I wanted to try and resolve this somehow but he was definitely was not headed in that direction, it was all about blaming me and then saying something to the effect that he could point out all the other problems my truck has but wasn’t going to do that, although he just did. If they would’ve asked questions at the beginning or drove my truck beforehand or once they had it apart, seen that the clutch wasn’t that bad and set it aside until they got ahold of me and let me know that there must be something else wrong, but no, nothing but I’m the one at fault. This was one of the worse cases of customer service that I’ve ever experienced, he was not at all willing to resolve this besides “now” wanting to supposedly to a diagnosis on it.