Freeway Auto Wreckers

Review: I WAS REFERRED TO FREEWAY AUTO WRECKERS IN REGARDS OF A TRANSMISSION. PRICES WERE AFFORDABLE FOR ME AT THE PRESENT TIME. $1200 FOR A USED TRANSMISSION FOR 1994 BMW 540I. AFTER I PAYED FOR THE PARTS AND LABOR FEE WHICH WAS ADDED UP TO $1,272. NOT WHAT HE TOLD ME OVER THE PHONE AFTER WORK WAS DONE WHEN PICKING UP MY CAR. DROVE THE CAR FROM THE SHOP HOME CAR WAS SMOKING AND TRANSMISSION WAS LEAKING TRANSMISSION FLUID. TOOK THE CAR BACK 6 TIMES BECAUSE OF FAULTY TRANSMISSION. I ASK FOR A REFUND HE TOLD ME NO. .....FREEWAY AUTO WRECKERS ARE A RIP OFF......Desired Settlement: I JUST WANT MY MONEY BACK IF POSSIBLE IF NOT WOULD LIKE TO AWARE THE PUBLIC OF THIS MATTER AND NOT TO DO BUSINESS WITH FREEWAY AUTO WRECKERS....

Business

Response:

We are confident of the way we do business, and as Mr. [redacted] stated, he was referred to us, if a customer is referring other customer to do business with us, I would think it's because they were happy with the way we did business with them...

- Mr. [redacted] called and asked about a transmission price for his vehicle, a couple of months later, brought it in and specifically asked us for a used transmission and installation

- Mr. [redacted] was quoted $800 for a good used & tested transmission with 30 days warranty, $100 for transmission fluid & filter kit, $300 labor, to install in his vehicle. $900 in parts, $300 in labor [parts are obviously plus 8% CA SALES TAX and labor is not] which brought the total up to $1272 Mr. [redacted] has mentioned, when he came to pick up the car, he claimed he did not know it was going to be more than $1200 and only had $1200 cash and asked if we could help him, as we did, we have to give him a discount so the total would be $1200, we only charged him $1200 and got him back on the road and he was very appreciative of our assistance.

- 10 days later, Mr. [redacted] calls to complain of a transmission smoking...? which would sound strange to anybody with knowledge in the automotive industry, a transmission can not smoke... however while inspecting the vehicle for transmission problems, we did notice a leak in the engine antifreeze cooling system hoses which was what's causing the smoke and we asked him if he would like us to fix it, his respond was: "No, I work at home depot and I can make a custom hose fit instead of that blown coolant hose" and we advised him to not drive the vehicle as it will eventually overheat, and will cause damage to the transmission and as well as the engine.

- A week after this incident has passed by, Mr. [redacted] calls again complaining of transmission problems, asked him if he fixed the coolant system, his answer was yes, asked him to bring the vehicle over, he stops by, gets out of his vehicle, the vehicle is overheating and smoking, he hurries to the trunk of his vehicle to get the water gallon, pops the hood and fills up the radiator, we took a look, another radiator hose was blown, we did not perform any work on the vehicle and told Mr. smith he has to fix the coolant system or we will void his warranty per the contract in invoice and most importantly, COMMON SENSE!, Mr. [redacted] by all means did not want to fix his coolant system leaks the right way and said he will fix it himself because he was out of money, takes his car and leaves...

- A few days has passed by then Mr. [redacted] stops by again, claiming he has replaced all bad radiator hoses and ones he has custom made from regular home depot hoses [Not actual radiator hoses that can handle coolant high pressure and high temperatures], Mr. [redacted] arrives in our driveway, asks us to take a look why his transmission is slipping and now new issue he didn't mention in this complaint.... "Transmission is hard to shift..."

- We asked him to start the car, shift it from park to neutral to drive, we noticed his shifter was very hard to move and getting stuck, a new problem he was experiencing, after taking a look inside his vehicle, we noticed his shifter did not have a cover, and a handful of coins has fallen inside the shifter mechanism and are causing it to become really hard to move... basically not a transmission problem, shifter problem, and he was still very rude and not appreciate that we have always tried to help him with problems unrelated to what we did to his vehicle, and as we are taking a look at his vehicle, his "NEW" home made radiator hoses literally blew up and spilled all of his green antifreeze in my drive way [which we had to clean up for 2 hours so we don't get fined by the city of chula vista or the state of California stormwater] for hazardous material handling violations and stormwater violations that was caused by Mr. [redacted]'s vehicle antifreeze leaks.

- To help Mr. [redacted] out and protect our transmission from further damage caused by overheating, We have offered Mr. [redacted] to personally go to a local BMW dealership, buy the bad radiator hoses [which were around $45] and we offered to install them for free, 100% free of charge, when did not have to at all, this problem has nothing to do with us in the first place, Mr. [redacted] replied: "I can't do that, I do not have enough money to buy this stuff" and Mr. [redacted] again drove away with the coolant system leaking and smoking and overheating, by the time he got to his destination he already overheated the engine and now has a bad head gasket driving without antifreeze in his coolant system, which we have nothing to do with, his transmission is not the problem, his overheated engine is the problem now and that's why he is asking for a refund and not a warranty replacement which we would've gladly done for him if he had allowed us to do, we have explained to Mr. [redacted] that his transmission is in good shape, when the vehicle is getting hot, transmission fluid is also getting hot because it uses engine antifreeze/coolant system too cool the transmission as well, and therefore it will start slipping as well and if you keep driving it that way, it will void your warranty because you are intentionally damaging a good transmission, and yet we still offered him a free transmission replacement [parts and labor] but only after his car has no more overheating problems what so ever, which is impossible by now because it's not just the hoses anymore, he overheated it to the point where he blew up his head gaskets and damaged his engine, so he is asking for a refund for the repair we did and then he can easily get rid of the vehicle by selling it to a scrap yard or sell it as is without loosing as much money.

- He has called us and threatened to take us to court, thinking that might scare us and get us to give him a refund, but since we have not done anything wrong with this deal or any other deal ever made at our business, we are confident of winning the law suit and clear our name and so we asked Mr. [redacted] to do what he feels he was most comfortable with and what is best for him...

- He has had other people call us, that barely spoke proper English, and pretend to be lawyers that are going to take us to court if we don't give Mr. [redacted] a refund, when we asked of the name of their law firm, the answer was "aaah... aahhhh... well I am not a lawyer, but I go to law school and we still spoke with them and after explaining everything I just typed above, their answer was: " I understand now, thank you for explaining this to me, I was not aware of any of that, good bye"

- We have all been annoyed and bothered by Mr. [redacted]'s calls and unexpected visits, his rudeness, ignorance, and way of talking to us, and his way of trying to blame all of his vehicle's problems on us like if we have sold him the whole vehicle and not just a transmission, Most businesses would consider suing a client like Mr. [redacted] for slander because of his false complaints, this is not a corporate business or a million dollar company trying to make a living by ripping off people, this is a small father & son business, family owned, honest, well known, and successful, never had a complaint by a client, and I am personally confident that we never will, anybody reading the facts and has common sense would understand how Mr. [redacted] is trying to rip us off.

- Mr. [redacted]'s warranty was 30 days that expired on 06/13/13, Any other business would have not dealt with his problems after the warranty has expired, but under no obligation, we will offer Mr. [redacted] 90 days warranty instead of the 30 days he has agreed on at the time of purchase!!!, that will make it valid until 08/13/2013 under the following conditions only: warranty is for a transmission replacement only [we are not extending your warranty to give you a refund], and the replacement will only a strictly be done after Mr. has solved all of his overheating problems and brings us a proof from a local BMW dealership that an overheating diagnostics has been done on the vehicle and there is no overheating problems what so ever. How much better could we be with him? we will listen to any 3rd party suggestion in resolving this matter, contact us at [redacted]