Five Star Import Repair

TO: WHOM IT MAY CONCERN,MRS. [redacted] BROUGHT HER VEHICLE TO OUR SHOP ON JUNE 3 2015 WITH COMPLAINING NO AIR CONDITION AND VERY LOUD SCREECHING NOISE AND SMOKES UNDER THE VEHICLE HOOD. WE FOUND HER A/C COMPRESSOR UNIT SEIZING OFF DUETO CLUTCH UNIT FAILING AND PARTIAL DARK REFRIGERANT...

TYPE OF CONTANTS TO A/C REFRIGERANT SYSTEM, I DID TOLD HER REPAIR MAY OVER COME THE VEHICLE VALUE AND CUSTOMER STILL TOLD NOTHING IS WRONG WITH THE VEHICLE.WHEN I GOT OK FOR REPLACING A/C COMPRESSOR, CONDENSER AND RECEIVE DRYER WITH DRIVE BELT AND I FOUND SEALANT PARTIAL FOAMING UP AT A/C SYSTEM, WHEN I CALLED [redacted] SHE DOES NOT KNOW OR HUSBAND SAID HE DID NOT KNOWEITHER. BUT WE DO KNOW FROM OUR EXPERIENCES PEOPLE HAVE BEEN ALTERING SYSTEM BY ADDING STOP LEAK TO SYSTEM. ANY HOW I DID FLUSH THE SYSTEM AND INSTALLED A/C COMPRESSOR, RECEIVER DRIER, CONDENSER WITH NEW BELT ANDSYSTEM WAS WORKING NORMAL. LOW SIDE AT 36 PSI AND HIGH SIDE AT 190 PSI WITH CENTER VENT TEMPERATURE AT 46 F DEGREES. I SHIPPED THE VEHICLE OUT ON JUNE 5 2015, WHEN I OPEN THE SHOP ON JUNE 8 SHE CALLED AND COMPLAINING THAT HER A/C WAS NOT COLD. WHEN I INSPECTED PROBLEM WAS NOT IN THE A/C SYSTEM, BUT IT WAS IN THE DELIVERY SYSTEM WHICH IS HER VENT DOOR ON INSIDE THE HEATER BOX IS CAUSING HOT AIR MIXING UP AND RASING AIR TEMPERATUREVALUE. HER VEHICLE HAS 278523 MILES AND VEHICLE IS OVER 13 YEARS OLD. CUSTOMER STILL THINK THAT HER VEHICLE IS NEW. I SPEND LOT OF MY TIME TO INVOLVE IN THE AREA THAT I AM NOT RELATED TO HELP HER OUT BY PINCHING BOTHHEATER HOSES WITH CLAMP SO THAT MINIMIZED THE HEAT THROUGH HEAT CORE AND IT WAS BLOW PRETTY COLD, AFTER OVER A WEEK IN THE MORNING OF JUNE 16 OR SO HER HUSBAND START USING FOUL LANGUAGE AND SORE OF THREATEN SPEECHI CALLED MY CUSTOMER WHO REFER THEM AND TRIED TO SOLVE THIS CASE BY DISCONNECT BOTH CLAMPS OFF THE HEATHER HOSE AND DISCONNECT COLD TO HOT TEMPERATURE KNOB CONNECTION SO THAT IT SIT AT COLD SIDE. HER BLOWER MOTORHAS BEEN REPLACED FROM SOME ONE PRIOR TO US WITH AFTERMARKET AND MAKING VERY LOUD NOISE. I REALLY DON'T KNOW OF HOW MUCH AIR VOLUME THAT BLOWER SUPPOSE MAKE. THIS ISSUE IS NOT RELATED ISSUE BECAUSE OF AIR DISTRIBUTIONPROBLEM NOT COMPRESSOR OR CONDENSING PROBLEM PIPE IS SO COLD THAT IT SWEATS BY JUST LOOKING AT IT. I GAVE THEM A CHOICE TO EITHER DISCONNECT HEATER HOSE AND BYPASS TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM BUT SHE IS NOT HAPPY WHAT SO EVER.PROLONG DISCONNECTING HEATER CORE MAY ALSO CAUSE A LEAK IN THE FUTURE WHEN YOU RECONNECT SO BEST WAY IS REMOVE THE DASH AND FIX AIR DISTRIBUTION BOX VENT, BUT I KNOW SHE IS NOT HAPPY AND NOT GONNA SPEND THAT KINDOF MONEY TO DO IT. MAY TIMES I EXPLAINED WHAT IS GOING ON AND SHE IS THE ONLY ONE STILL DOES NOT UNDERSTANDS THE THEORY OF OPERATION.SINCERLY YOURS,[redacted]FIVE STAR IMPORT LLC.

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

Regards,

[redacted] When I initially took my car to [redacted] I explained to himthat my AC had stopped working and when it went out a bit of smoke had comethrough the vents. Once that happened my AC didn’t blow anymore nor was thereany more smoke. When I took the car to [redacted] it had no noise the noiseactually started after the first time he worked on my vehicle. The second timeI picked my vehicle up I did noticed that my glove compartment was hangingopen. I made [redacted] aware of the situation but he denied ever touching it. Bythe third time of picking up my car he said he had gone through the glovecompartment and this time he did fix it. I’m not sure he wasn’t honest thefirst time about the glove compartment. My car is a 2002 obviously not a newvehicle I explained to [redacted] that I didn’t want to spend more than the carwas worth, never did I state it was new. I stated that I had no money to buy anew car that I would have to fix my car. On the occasion that [redacted] says my husbandused foul language this was the third time we took the car back. My husband wastrying to explain why he thought  the airflow was not working then [redacted] started trying to explain that the low andhigh psi.  My husband did not want to arguebecause he is an AC technician and thought it was not worth arguing with him. Everytime my husband tried to speak [redacted] would try to speak over him so yes myhusband was frustrated. [redacted] also took it upon himself to call my son-in-lawat his work to drive my car so he could feel the ac.  On that same day he called the person that referredme to him (my son-in-laws mother) without my permission. I found that highly unprofessionalI told him the only person that needs to be satisfied with his work is me. Ididn’t have an extra $1400 dollars to just throw away to end up with a vehiclein worse condition than when I took it to [redacted]. I don’t find it very fairthat he ends up with the full price and I end up with a car without AC and acar that heats up.  I feel it is fair for[redacted] to refund my money or pay someone else who is capable finishing the jobthat he had initially promised to do.

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN,I have already explain in the last response she does not understand from a/c compressor circuit to air distribution problem at vent system. a/c is working normaland even sweating at the low pressure pipe it's cooling very cold with normal operation. they were keep trying to find somebody to touch the vehicle and I evenput shrink wrap seals at charging port to void the warranty if its altered. I spend my own time to spend more time to look it up for them in air distribution issues due to they were referral customer from very good customer of mine. I trusted them all the way from beginning because they were related to my customer I gave them a option which may not worth fixing it due to vehicle value and she was keep saying that everything is ok on this vehicle. which is a false statement becausewhen I received the vehicle a/c compressor is seezing and burning drive belt due to a/c clutch failed (due to compressor lock up) and separating. when I recovered refrigerant there was a stop leak which added to the refrigerant system. most of time people due try to save money by buying charging cans at auto part storewith containing stop leak solution which cause a lot of damage to system. when I was helping her to understand how the a/c system works and she is been tryingto argue over this and keep saying her vehicle was perfect. I have been a technician for 32 years with 25 years dealership experience with 7 honda, acuras, nissan,ford, toyota, mercedes benz, jaguar, independant maintenance fleet, tires stores (firestone, good year etc.) I have been done installing new a/c systems at honda for all the models for 10 years(which adds up almost over 3000 units includes complete systems). with 7 years of running this company I probably sold numerousnumbers of a/c components every summers with problem vehicles. she has very negative attitude and does not understand the function of the a/c that is thereason why I called her son in law to try to explain the function of system. her glove box was dangling at the time when I was trying to help her out by looking atthe air distribution, her blower motor which replace by someone (aftermarket) prior to repair has very loud winding motor noise which feels very low on air pushvolume all of this is not related to work I have done in separated area. we all here to fix not to make new vehicle. vehicle has so many area to cover. lots of timecustomers who does not understand the operation they always pull things like "my car was perfect before you touch it" this vehicle was already having an issuebefore they brought it up to me. I am sure you understand the vehicle functions just like me by your experience. I have no further comments and this is mostnegative and frustrated person I ever experienced. thank you for understand.   Sincerely Yours, [redacted]

Review: On June Tuesday the 2nd of 2015 my daughter and I went to Five Star Auto Repair to take my car to have [redacted] inspect it.Within in 30min of looking over the engine area he came to the conclusion that it was the AC compressor, AC condenser, receiver drier, & serpentine drive belt.He never turned on the car which didn't concern me at the time because I was refereed to him by someone who trusted him.I left my car he said he'd have it done in a couple of days because he was going out of town for the weekend.I said "take your time please I don't want to bring it back".We left then on Friday he called to let me know he was done.My daughter drove me back to get the car I paid him $1424.69 on my way back to work the AC did not feel cold and.I called him Monday and let him know, he said bring it back I'll check it out, he called back that same day and said that the air was cold he did everything right.I went to get my car and at 6pm on my way home it still didn't feel cold so I flipped it to heat then AC to see if it would change anything it didn't, shortly after the car started over heating it had never done that.The next morning I called him back for the third time and let him know what happened.[redacted] said bring it back this time when I came to get it he showed me that he had squeezed 2 hoses on each side of the engine with vice grips.I asked why he said that it would help for stronger air flow and when I needed heat to remove the vice scripts.I let him know I was unhappy.He said to find clamps because he needed he's vice grips back and that the car was fine.He then let me know that the car needed more work.At this point my husband and I were really upset I don't feel like he diagnosed the problem right, had he kept the car to try and diagnose it properly I could have made the decision to pay or just leave it be.My husband then took it to pepboys and they said the would not touch the vehicle because they didn't want to be responsible for the "shoddy work" that was done.I haven't been driving my car.Desired Settlement: I feel like I have given him enough chances to fix the problem that I paid for and he hasn't.

Business

Response:

TO: WHOM IT MAY CONCERN,MRS. [redacted] BROUGHT HER VEHICLE TO OUR SHOP ON JUNE 3 2015 WITH COMPLAINING NO AIR CONDITION AND VERY LOUD SCREECHING NOISE AND SMOKES UNDER THE VEHICLE HOOD. WE FOUND HER A/C COMPRESSOR UNIT SEIZING OFF DUETO CLUTCH UNIT FAILING AND PARTIAL DARK REFRIGERANT TYPE OF CONTANTS TO A/C REFRIGERANT SYSTEM, I DID TOLD HER REPAIR MAY OVER COME THE VEHICLE VALUE AND CUSTOMER STILL TOLD NOTHING IS WRONG WITH THE VEHICLE.WHEN I GOT OK FOR REPLACING A/C COMPRESSOR, CONDENSER AND RECEIVE DRYER WITH DRIVE BELT AND I FOUND SEALANT PARTIAL FOAMING UP AT A/C SYSTEM, WHEN I CALLED [redacted] SHE DOES NOT KNOW OR HUSBAND SAID HE DID NOT KNOWEITHER. BUT WE DO KNOW FROM OUR EXPERIENCES PEOPLE HAVE BEEN ALTERING SYSTEM BY ADDING STOP LEAK TO SYSTEM. ANY HOW I DID FLUSH THE SYSTEM AND INSTALLED A/C COMPRESSOR, RECEIVER DRIER, CONDENSER WITH NEW BELT ANDSYSTEM WAS WORKING NORMAL. LOW SIDE AT 36 PSI AND HIGH SIDE AT 190 PSI WITH CENTER VENT TEMPERATURE AT 46 F DEGREES. I SHIPPED THE VEHICLE OUT ON JUNE 5 2015, WHEN I OPEN THE SHOP ON JUNE 8 SHE CALLED AND COMPLAINING THAT HER A/C WAS NOT COLD. WHEN I INSPECTED PROBLEM WAS NOT IN THE A/C SYSTEM, BUT IT WAS IN THE DELIVERY SYSTEM WHICH IS HER VENT DOOR ON INSIDE THE HEATER BOX IS CAUSING HOT AIR MIXING UP AND RASING AIR TEMPERATUREVALUE. HER VEHICLE HAS 278523 MILES AND VEHICLE IS OVER 13 YEARS OLD. CUSTOMER STILL THINK THAT HER VEHICLE IS NEW. I SPEND LOT OF MY TIME TO INVOLVE IN THE AREA THAT I AM NOT RELATED TO HELP HER OUT BY PINCHING BOTHHEATER HOSES WITH CLAMP SO THAT MINIMIZED THE HEAT THROUGH HEAT CORE AND IT WAS BLOW PRETTY COLD, AFTER OVER A WEEK IN THE MORNING OF JUNE 16 OR SO HER HUSBAND START USING FOUL LANGUAGE AND SORE OF THREATEN SPEECHI CALLED MY CUSTOMER WHO REFER THEM AND TRIED TO SOLVE THIS CASE BY DISCONNECT BOTH CLAMPS OFF THE HEATHER HOSE AND DISCONNECT COLD TO HOT TEMPERATURE KNOB CONNECTION SO THAT IT SIT AT COLD SIDE. HER BLOWER MOTORHAS BEEN REPLACED FROM SOME ONE PRIOR TO US WITH AFTERMARKET AND MAKING VERY LOUD NOISE. I REALLY DON'T KNOW OF HOW MUCH AIR VOLUME THAT BLOWER SUPPOSE MAKE. THIS ISSUE IS NOT RELATED ISSUE BECAUSE OF AIR DISTRIBUTIONPROBLEM NOT COMPRESSOR OR CONDENSING PROBLEM PIPE IS SO COLD THAT IT SWEATS BY JUST LOOKING AT IT. I GAVE THEM A CHOICE TO EITHER DISCONNECT HEATER HOSE AND BYPASS TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM BUT SHE IS NOT HAPPY WHAT SO EVER.PROLONG DISCONNECTING HEATER CORE MAY ALSO CAUSE A LEAK IN THE FUTURE WHEN YOU RECONNECT SO BEST WAY IS REMOVE THE DASH AND FIX AIR DISTRIBUTION BOX VENT, BUT I KNOW SHE IS NOT HAPPY AND NOT GONNA SPEND THAT KINDOF MONEY TO DO IT. MAY TIMES I EXPLAINED WHAT IS GOING ON AND SHE IS THE ONLY ONE STILL DOES NOT UNDERSTANDS THE THEORY OF OPERATION.SINCERLY YOURS,[redacted]FIVE STAR IMPORT LLC.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

Regards,

[redacted] When I initially took my car to [redacted] I explained to himthat my AC had stopped working and when it went out a bit of smoke had comethrough the vents. Once that happened my AC didn’t blow anymore nor was thereany more smoke. When I took the car to [redacted] it had no noise the noiseactually started after the first time he worked on my vehicle. The second timeI picked my vehicle up I did noticed that my glove compartment was hangingopen. I made [redacted] aware of the situation but he denied ever touching it. Bythe third time of picking up my car he said he had gone through the glovecompartment and this time he did fix it. I’m not sure he wasn’t honest thefirst time about the glove compartment. My car is a 2002 obviously not a newvehicle I explained to [redacted] that I didn’t want to spend more than the carwas worth, never did I state it was new. I stated that I had no money to buy anew car that I would have to fix my car. On the occasion that [redacted] says my husbandused foul language this was the third time we took the car back. My husband wastrying to explain why he thought the airflow was not working then [redacted] started trying to explain that the low andhigh psi. My husband did not want to arguebecause he is an AC technician and thought it was not worth arguing with him. Everytime my husband tried to speak [redacted] would try to speak over him so yes myhusband was frustrated. [redacted] also took it upon himself to call my son-in-lawat his work to drive my car so he could feel the ac. On that same day he called the person that referredme to him (my son-in-laws mother) without my permission. I found that highly unprofessionalI told him the only person that needs to be satisfied with his work is me. Ididn’t have an extra $1400 dollars to just throw away to end up with a vehiclein worse condition than when I took it to [redacted]. I don’t find it very fairthat he ends up with the full price and I end up with a car without AC and acar that heats up. I feel it is fair for[redacted] to refund my money or pay someone else who is capable finishing the jobthat he had initially promised to do.

Business

Response:

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN,I have already explain in the last response she does not understand from a/c compressor circuit to air distribution problem at vent system. a/c is working normaland even sweating at the low pressure pipe it's cooling very cold with normal operation. they were keep trying to find somebody to touch the vehicle and I evenput shrink wrap seals at charging port to void the warranty if its altered. I spend my own time to spend more time to look it up for them in air distribution issues due to they were referral customer from very good customer of mine. I trusted them all the way from beginning because they were related to my customer I gave them a option which may not worth fixing it due to vehicle value and she was keep saying that everything is ok on this vehicle. which is a false statement becausewhen I received the vehicle a/c compressor is seezing and burning drive belt due to a/c clutch failed (due to compressor lock up) and separating. when I recovered refrigerant there was a stop leak which added to the refrigerant system. most of time people due try to save money by buying charging cans at auto part storewith containing stop leak solution which cause a lot of damage to system. when I was helping her to understand how the a/c system works and she is been tryingto argue over this and keep saying her vehicle was perfect. I have been a technician for 32 years with 25 years dealership experience with 7 honda, acuras, nissan,ford, toyota, mercedes benz, jaguar, independant maintenance fleet, tires stores (firestone, good year etc.) I have been done installing new a/c systems at honda for all the models for 10 years(which adds up almost over 3000 units includes complete systems). with 7 years of running this company I probably sold numerousnumbers of a/c components every summers with problem vehicles. she has very negative attitude and does not understand the function of the a/c that is thereason why I called her son in law to try to explain the function of system. her glove box was dangling at the time when I was trying to help her out by looking atthe air distribution, her blower motor which replace by someone (aftermarket) prior to repair has very loud winding motor noise which feels very low on air pushvolume all of this is not related to work I have done in separated area. we all here to fix not to make new vehicle. vehicle has so many area to cover. lots of timecustomers who does not understand the operation they always pull things like "my car was perfect before you touch it" this vehicle was already having an issuebefore they brought it up to me. I am sure you understand the vehicle functions just like me by your experience. I have no further comments and this is mostnegative and frustrated person I ever experienced. thank you for understand. Sincerely Yours, [redacted]