Cottman Transmission and Total Auto Care #3579

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Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because:
Thank you for your efforts in addressing my complaint with Cottman's Transmission of GladstoneI apologize for being unable to communicate with you soonerI was attempting to find the funds to have my truck looked at by another reputable transmission shop to get an unbiased opinion of what exactly failed and in what order if in fact the transmission Cottman's installed after I paid them $for the work and new warranty is even compatible with my truck.Also after the original transmission, from my Dodge Ram, was already installed, by my mechanic and I, in the Dodge and also after they looked at said transmission and informed me that it had water damage( I have since had five other mechanics smirk or laugh in front of me and inform me that that was an absurd statement) Apparently it's impossible for a transmission to have water damage as it is a sealed partAlso considering that I know for a fact that the torque converter was never taken out of the transmission before we reinstalled it into the from the I just feel completely taken advantage of by these professionalsThis is the exact reason I try to do all my mechanic work myself or with a professional guiding meI had trust issues with shops before this and these guys just reinforced that. In hindsight would it have been possible to request that they agree to another shop inspecting the truck and transmission at their expense if found to be at fault?? Once again thank you for your time taken in addressing this matter it has been greatly appreciated
Regards,
*** ***

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Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:
They are lying and what they are telling you is a half truth, they have never given me a ride back to my apt. I did call several times, was told [redacted] was on vac. and call back in about a week and half, the next call I spoke to [redacted] and he told me he had several men off sick to call him back, they did not fix what they were suppose to and nothing was in writing as to that, I have a voice mail on my phone from [redacted] that I received after I contacted you, I may be an older woman and sick, but I'm not stupid and not that sick, and I will take their advice and "do what ever I need to do" to get my money back, and with the response they made to you just shows me even more the type of company and or people I have done business with. Thank You for your help, and I will wait to hear from you. Sincerely, [redacted]
Regards,
[redacted]

My follow up for [redacted] is as follows,I think the main point here is after she was in and out of our shop several times for repairs both under warranty and transmission rebuild(s) due to a wreck, she said that her truck was driving great at the beginning of March and that she "loved it". She then was driving to work and a loud noise, bang and thump happened. Her examination revealed the drive-shaft had been "ripped" from its cradle at the rear end of the truck and I'm assuming from her description that the rear "U" joint failed that connects the drive-shaft to the differential. I would like to make the following points concerning "U" joint failure. 96% of mechanics will agree with me on these points.1. "U" joints usually don't fail out of nowhere and suddenly cause drive shafts to twist or fail during normal use. They usually give ample warning by exhibiting extra noise, vibration, or some other symptom such as a clunk when putting into gear from a stop. Most "U" joint failures are due to wear and luck of lubrication.2. A failure of a "U" joint would certainly cause a vibration transmitted through a drive-shaft could cause a crack in the bell housing.3. When a "U" joint suddenly fails it can be cause by extreme or harsh use, such as rocking back and forth getting the vehicle out of mud, snow or ice, pulling an oversize or overweight trailer, drag racing, or any other use that overloads it's original design.4. A "U" joint and drive-shaft failure wouldn't be caused by the transmission; the failure is the other way around.In closing I'm sorry that Ms. [redacted] has had so many problems with her Dodge pickup(s). I feel that we did all possible to accommodate Ms. [redacted] to get and keep her on the road. We did fix her transmission(s) as she approved both in and out of warranty. At this point I don't know how we can further satisfy her. After discussing her drive-shaft repairs with my manager and transmission technician we don't see how our transmission repairs could of caused the drive-shaft to fail. The loud noises Ms. [redacted] heard when her drive-shaft failed could of easily been a simple "U" joint failure that would transmit sound and noise through out the truck. We didn't see the truck after she had that failure so we can't say for sure. I feel that we did satisfy Ms. [redacted] in the repairs of her pickups concerning the transmission repairs that we performed.  The last thing we heard from her is that the Dodge Ram was driving fine. Therefore I don't see how we can beliable for her further repairs that she encountered.[redacted]/ownerCottman of Gladstone[redacted]###-###-####

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Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: The story they gave in their report is full of lies. Several of their statements are completely false. I will try my best to keep the dates accurate as I relay the facts of this case in their entirety. In Feb. 2013 the transmission in my 2000 Dodge Ram started going out. After checking prices and reviews of several shops I took my truck to Cottman's Transmission on [redacted]. I paid them 2250.00 to rebuild my transmission. In exchange for the money I paid I got my transmission fixed with a 2 year or 20,000 mile warranty attached. Everything was fine until around Feb 2014 when my transmission burnt up again. Cottmans had to fix my truck on their cost because the transmission was still under warranty. So they had my truck almost two weeks that time. The trucks transmission still didn't run right and cottmans ended up taking it back in the shop five more times between Feb. and April 2014. I wrecked my trucks front end at the beginning of April. At that point I advised Cottmans that I had wrecked my truck and that I intended to put the motor and transmission into a new body. I knew that would void my warranty so I asked [redacted]( is the main manager I had the majority of my dealings at cottmans with) if they could switch the transmission over to the new truck body to keep the warranty intact. [redacted] told me that the corporate policy would not let them do that. He said that if I got the transmission in another truck that was running he would still take it back into the shop and see what the problem with it still was. He reminded me that it wouldn't be under warranty at that point either. I ended up buying a 97 Dodge Ram. In the process of switching transmissions on the 97 Dodge my mechanic and I realized that the transmission casings were slightly different. We loaded up both transmissions and took them up to [redacted] and his builder to see if the transmissions were at all compatible. [redacted] and his builder told my mechanic that yes my transmission would work I just wouldn't have a speedometer and I would have to put in a GPS system for my speedometer because the transmissions difference was that the one that came on the 97 dodge I bought had the speedometer cable on the outside. The transmission I had from my 2000 dodge Ram had the speedometer on the inside. So when I finally got the transmission put in the 97 Dodge and got the truck in running order the transmission wasn't shifting right. I contacted [redacted] and let him know that I had gotten the transmission in but that I was still having issues with it. [redacted] told me to have it towed in and they would look at it. I had it towed to them in the end of August or the beginning of Sept. [redacted] called me a few days later and informed me that my transmission had suffered water damage and that was why it wasn't running correctly. At that point I gave up on getting my truck running and told [redacted] to stop any further work and give me a few days to have it towed from their shop. [redacted] asked me to give him a few more days to see if he could come up with a less costly solution. I agreed. He called me a few days later and told me he could get my transmission fixed for $1600.00. I told [redacted] I needed a few weeks to see if I could get the money together to pay for it. That few weeks turned into a few months before I could get enough money to pay for the work to be done. I finally got the money together and Cottmans got my truck back to me in Feb. 2015. Within a week of having my truck back the transmission was going out again. [redacted] put it back in the shop and told me some sensor had burnt out on it and that it was fixed and ready to go. I picked my truck up and drove to Independence to meet with my boss. Before I even left Independence the transmission was slipping again. I was furious. It was once again towed to Cottmans. This time [redacted] told me the sprag, which he explained was the main shaft that holds the gears, had snapped and that they were rebuilding my transmission completely to ensure that there wasn't any other unseen damages. I got my truck back finally at the beginning of March and it drove great. I loved it. I was beginning to notice a slight hesitation in shifting gears in the transmission but thought it was probably just me being obsessive compulsive about my truck again. On Friday May 1, 2015 as I was driving to work my transmission made a loud noise and then a bang and loud thump thump ensued. I pulled over and got out of my truck to find that my drive shaft had been ripped from its cradle at the rear end of the  truck. After having two different mechanics look at it after the new driveshaft broke within a week, the second mechanic and I noticed a large crack in the bellhousing of my transmission. The mechanic and I both agreed that something had to have bound up in the transmission causing it to twist the driveshaft out of its cradle. I am in the process of running the transmission numbers to see if the transmission Cottmans ended up putting in my truck is even a transmission that is made for my truck. I will let you know as soon as I get an answer on it.  
Regards,
[redacted]

On 3/13/2013 Ms. [redacted] came in with her 2000 Dodge Ram 1500 SLT with the transmission not shifting correctly. We rebuilt the transmission and delivered the vehicle back to Ms. [redacted]. As Ms. [redacted] stated, she came back in on 04/02/2014 with shifting issues. We repaired the vehicle and...

test drove the vehicle, it shifted fine so it was returned to Ms. [redacted]. Unfortunately the truck was involved in a wreck and deemed not repairable. In the interest of economy Ms. [redacted] purchased a 1997 replacement Dodge Ram with a known bad transmission and was going to interchange them but ran into problems with the bell-housings fitting correctly. She called us and asked us for assistance and we had her bring (tow) it in. When the 1997 Dodge arrived at our shop with the transmission(s) in the bed of the truck, we discovered the transmission that she brought in wasn't the same one we rebuilt. It appeared to be a salvage yard transmission that had water damage. We rebuilt the transmission fixing the damaged electrical parts and installed it in the 1997 truck. After a test drive it was fine so we delivered it to Ms. [redacted].  Ms. [redacted] came back for her 10 day check (standard Cottman procedure is a 10 day check for all transmission repairs) she stated "I'm so happy" meaning she was pleased with our work and that her truck was driving fine. Months later when she called to complain about the drive-shaft going out, we said we would look at it to see what the problem was but stated that we wouldn't be liable for the towing charges as that wasn't covered under the warranty. She elected not to bring her Dodge Ram in. The transmission is apparently shifting correctly as she didn't state that it wasn't. Why her drive-shaft has gone out could be several different reasons, we are assuming that the 'U' joint(s) have failed. Without seeing the vehicle it's hard to diagnose. At the time of her last repair at our shop the 18 year old truck had 257,576 miles so wear and tear could of been the reason her drive-shaft and or it's components failed. Ms. [redacted] never said the transmission she is currently using wasn't working properly, only the drive-shaft(s) went out in a week's time; and she didn't bring the truck back into us for diagnosis/repair. So her claim that we pay for another shop to repair the transmission has no validity. Also the shop that does the repairs carries the warranty, so if she would deem it necessary to take it to another shop for repairs, that shop carries the warranty as per standard industry practice.

As the customer stated on 10/25/14 we worked on her 2001 Dodge Stratus with 152,000 miles to repair an oil leak. We determined that the transmission external solenoid pack was leaking (not uncommon for the 41TE transmission that is in her car) and also replaced the transmission range sensor to...

alleviate a code that her car had. She came back a few weeks later and said the car was still leaking. We examined the car and determined that the transmission pan (which had to be removed to drain the transmission oil) still had a small leak. Our technician that did the fix used a factory approved RTV sealant which is the way Dodge seals the transmission pan when coming from the factory. However we determined that with the age and miles of the Stratus, a gasket type of seal would be a better fix. We did so and after a test drive, determined that the transmission pan leak was fixed. At that time we noticed that the rear transmission cover had a dent in it, was somewhat rusted and we advised the customer to come back in a couple of weeks so we could re-check our fix and see if the rear cover was leaking, or if she had any other leaks.  She called after the two weeks and said the car was still leaking and we advised (both my service manager and myself) to bring the car back in so we could find the source of the leak and fix it. She said she didn't feel comfortable bringing the car in as she had it here twice and it was still leaking. Over a approximately 30 minute phone conversation (and about 10 minutes with the service manager) with her I repeatedly asked her to bring her car back in and let us work on it to see what the source of the leak was and fix it. I assured her that we would stand by our warranty and would not charge her to fix it. She maintained that her mechanic told her that there was a leak by the solenoid area that we replaced and that she wanted him to fix it, and that he was going to charge her approximately $250 to fix it. I again told her that my shop wouldn't charge her to repair her leak(s) and we'd do everything we could to satisfy her. Initially she said she would bring it back in but then called back to say she was going to have another garage (her mechanic) fix it.  As far as the customers allegation that she made numerous phone calls we cannot recollect her calling many times . I'm surmising that she was seeing when we could schedule her car in for a re-inspection, and we told her that we'd be happy to check it out but her car would need to be dropped off and we'd give her a ride back home as we have in the past. I believe she had a busy schedule and couldn't do so at the time.  Towards  the end of our 30 minute conversation I asked the customer how big the leak was on her driveway or garage, was it the size of a dime, quarter, 50 cent piece or a bigger puddle.  She replied that it wasn't leaking on the ground, that there was NO LEAK that she noticed. I asked her how she knew that it was leaking and she replied that her mechanic told her that it was leaking when she was driving. I said that you still should see some residual oil on the ground that would indicate that there was a leak from something. She repeated that her mechanic told her that it was leaking but she saw NO SPOTS on the ground. I said maybe your mechanic is misinformed about the leak(s) and how severe it was.  At the end of our conversation the customer asked for her money back. I told her that we stand by our work but until we see the car again, determine the problem,  and have had an opportunity to work on it, and expend every effort to fix her car I wouldn't be able to refund her money. I did tell her to "do what you feel you have to do," as I felt I had exhausted every possibility to satisfy the customer.  While I respect her decision to not bring the car back to my shop and realize that customers have many choices in their vehicles maintenance & repairs needs,  my shop works hard to satisfy our customers in all areas of repairs & maintenance needs and I'm sorry we couldn't satisfy this customer.