Harlingen Garage

Review: The company charged me for an action that I did not give permission for. No price was listed or mentioned to me. The company then gives me a bill for these actions I did not asked to be performed.Desired Settlement: The company performed unauthorized tasks that they are charging for. I only ask the the price be adjusted so I can get my car out of there and take it to another garage to be worked out. I called to tell with owner. Basically told me I live in a Rich neighbor hood and I can deal with the unauthorized task price.

Business

Response:

[redacted] had his vehicle towed in after hours. When I called him in the morning and explained that we would need to attempt to charge his battery and test his charging and starting systems prior to properly diagnosing his "no start" concern. He was agreeable to that course of action, and informed me that if it was the alternator, as he suspected, to please let him know as he would provide the part (it was still under warrantee from a previous repair). His battery would not come to a full charge, no hold a partial charge. I called him with the estimate for a battery and installation(requires removal of inner fender well to access). He said he would call back. Within the hour AAA battery service was at my facility to replace his battery. He thought that service was free with his AAA membership. When the driver gave him the AAA estimate, he declined that service also. He called and informed me that he had found a facility in Somerville that could replace his battery for less. I said that was fine and informed him of the charges he had incurred. $18.50 to charge his battery, $70.00 to test the system and NJ sales tax of $6.20 for a total of $94.70. He said he would be having AAA come to tow it to the other garage. I informed him that I could take a credit card over the phone so he would not have to be here when AAA arrived. "That wont be necessary, Ill be there before you leave". The first AAA truck appeared a short time later and waited over 30 minutes for [redacted], who did not arrive. [redacted] finally arrived at 4:30 with another tow truck. He disputed his bill and offered to pay $50.00 as he did authorize the testing. He acknowledged that he was informed that there would be a diagnostic charge, but a set fee was not discussed. At this point we decided to sever all business ties with [redacted] and he left my facility without paying anything. This was now almost 5 pm. I see from the complaint that he filed this at 1:14 in the afternoon. If is obvious to me that [redacted] never had any intention of paying for his repair.