Ernie's Auto Service

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2014/06/27) */
When the Complaint (Mr. [redacted]) made an appointment with our repair shop to have his air conditioning system looked at on his Chrysler, he told the receptionist upfront that he was told "it has a leak." Upon turning in his car for the...

inspection, the Complainant presented to [redacted] the paperwork he got from another dealership indicating that a leak was detected in the system in the evaporator core. The Complainant omitted this detail in his Revdex.com complaint. He felt the estimate he was given by the dealership was too high and that is why he was asking us to provide him with a second opinion. We obliged the Complainant to do the diagnostic test and provide him the results and recommendations only after we pre-qualified the Complainant to a charge of $45 for the diagnostic fee. We also explained that we would give him credit for the $45 diagnostic fee if he agreed to have the repair work done at our shop after the initial inspection. The Complainant agreed with the fee and left his car with us to perform the test.
Our test did discover a leak in the A/C system as previously detected. [redacted] compiled an estimate to replace the evaporator at $1,137.75. This is a labor intensive repair as the entire dash of the vehicle has to be removed to get to the evaporator. Even when the evaporator is exposed, the leak test must be performed again to verify this component is indeed defective, and to make sure that there are no secondary leaks elsewhere in the system. When the Complainant arrived to pick up his vehicle later that afternoon, [redacted] went over the estimate with him and gave him a copy of the estimate. It was then that the Complainant questioned [redacted] as to why it took so long to get his car in and out. [redacted] explained to him we have only one A/C recharge unit to use for testing and we had to wait until that unit was free and a technician available to perform the test. The complainant's wife paid the $45 fee in cash and made appointment to come in on June 10th to have the recommended repairs performed.
A few days later, The Complainant arrives at our shop with his copy of the estimate. He insinuates that the prices we are charging for our parts are too high. He said he has done some research and he can get the parts for less at other parts stores or he can use his "discount" to get the parts for less. When [redacted] explained to him that we do not install parts brought in from customers and that our price for the parts is final. The Complainant continued to argue with [redacted], insisting that we were overcharging him. [redacted] invited him to take his business someplace else if he felt that way.
On the day of his scheduled appointment, the Complainant did not arrive, nor did he call to cancel. Several days later, the Complainant is again back at our shop. This time he tried to intimate our receptionist by raising his voice to her in our waiting room complaining that he got his car's A/C fixed and all it needed was a recharge. He was demanding his $45 back. Since the complainant was being overbearing to the receptionist, [redacted] took him outside the shop to listen to him complain. The complainant again demanded his $45 back. [redacted] refused; he said that he, the complainant, agreed to the diagnostic test to get a 2nd opinion and that is what he got. Yes, we could have charged up the system but the Freon will eventually leak out all over again. We would not have performed such a procedure if we were confident that there was a leak in the system. Two shops, independent of each other, verified the car's condition. Just because the Complainant claims to have gotten yet a third shop to recharge his system and the A/C is working now, does not mean the other shops got it wrong. The A/C may be blowing cold now, but soon the Freon may leak out and the Complainant will be right back where he started from.
In closing, it was very apparent to me and my staff during our first encounter with the Complainant that he is indeed mistrusting and easily agitated. His distrust of repair shops was clearly apparent by the negative comments made to us about the previous repair shop. His expectations of how swiftly we should have taken his car into the shop for the inspection seemed peculiar at first. Then when he learned of our policy of not allowing customers to bring their own parts to be installed, the Complainant became unrealistic and demanding. Finally the belligerent behavior he displayed in at our shop when expecting his $45 back just because he says he got his Air conditioning fixed somewhere else revealed to us that the Complainant is simply not going to be happy about spending money on his car no matter what. The simple fact is cars need to be maintained and repairs are necessary. Our shop offers such repairs with highly qualified and trained technicians to do the job and we back up our work and our parts with a generous warranty. We have our integrity riding on that fact. We will not let our customers dictate to us when to fix their cars, how to fix their cars, or how much to charge for parts and labor.