Howard's Auto Repair

(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Unfortunately, this person is continuing to be dishonest
I had my car towed to this shop after speaking to someone on the phone about a coolant leakThe car was not hot, it was towed to this shop after sitting all dayIt was around 3pm and he told me didn't have time and would look at it in the morningHe called me in the morning, he told me an open-ended cost of around $for labor and an unknown amount for partsI told him I declined that service and I would come pick my car up and at that point he tells me there's a minimum fee for time he has put into itI understand charging for your time but if you can't tell me in advance that driving my car into your shop will cost me $45, you should not be charging thatI would have gladly given you money for your time but for someone to spend minutes looking at my car and to tell me to pay him $is ridiculousThis minimum fee only came up after I declined to be taken down a rabbit hole of fee's, which guaranteed with this persons clearly low integrity, would have been hundreds of dollars more
Also, there is nothing "clearly stated" anywhere in this mess of a shopIf there's a new sign now great, the next person might have an option seeing it and realizing what they are getting into, but nowhere in that place is anything clearly stated that a minimum $45+tax fee will be chargedAfter all this happened and I was paying him, I asked him if the $fee was included in the $and he said noI would have had to pay $for less than an hour laborOutrageous! He wouldn't even tell me what the part was that was damaged
I had a friend replace it in under an hour and the part cost practically nothingI would advise anyone considering bringing their car into this place to look elsewhere
I also never said I was short of fundsI simply told him I'm selling the car as I have a new car and this car is not worth investing anymore into

Contact Phone: ***
Contact Email: ***@hawaiiantel.net
Aloha Kate, in response to your letter reCase#*** this is our recollection.The customer called 7/10/and asked if we could change a radiator hose, which he had been informed by someone, never identified, was the
cause of a water leak from his subaruWe told him sure bring it over,he showed up several hours later close to the end of our work day,upon opening the hood it was obvious that the leak was not, in fact, a radiator hose but hidden under the air cleaner somewhere, the cust was shown this, informed that it was not a radiator hose and would take considerably more time and expense to both find and correct the problem, also requiring that the vehicle be left overnight as it was too hot to work on at that time, all of which he agreed to.The next morning after removing the air cleaner box and some pcv and vacuum plumbing and moving some wiring to access the area and find the source of the leak he was called and informed that the job,including the time already invested,would cost$plus the parts, he said he needed to think it over and would call back.Calling back a couple hours later he declined the repair, at which time he was informed, again,that turning down the repair meant he was still going to be charged for the time involved in finding the leak even though nothing else would be accomplished,he replied no problem, I understand, however, when picking the vehicle up he said he was short of money and us charging him was f$ him over, asked, politely, to explain why his being short of funds had anything to do with us being paid a minimal fee to work on his car, after the problem had been shown to him and discussed on the phone he failed to come up with anything rational, used some more insults and inappropriate language and handed over a credit card,signed the receipt and left in a hurry,after a few parting words also involving inappropriate language and a comment about his desire to sell the car without putting any more money into it,a clue about the real issue? It should also be noted that all our charges are clearly posted, thanks for your time, Howards auto repair