Michael G. Velazquez, State Farm Insurance Agent

Good afternoon ***,Per our conversation, I have attached a copy of the repair order associated with this complaint and a written statement of the situation.If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at ###-###-####.Sincerely, [redacted] Tim's South Side Auto###-###-####Getzen StElkhorn, WI

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.The only response I will accept from this company, is a full refund of all the money. In the response that was prepared from Tim's Southside Auto, it was stated, that because of the type of engine that this vehicle has that they could not tell if the vehicle had internal damage without doing the repair. I have contacted multiple people on this matter and I have not found anyone who states that in order to tell if a vehicle has internal damage to the engine, after a timing belt snapped, you have to repair the timing belt to do so. Also, in the response, it states that once repair was finished they informed the customer of the internal damage. If *** *** and *** *** are the only names that they have associated with this vehicle, than *** or *** would gladly get involved and state if anyone informed them that the vehicle had internal damage. We dropped the car off not knowing what the issue was. Tim's Southside Auto was told to diagnosis the issue of the vehicle. We did not drop the car off and tell them that the timing belt was broke. We dropped the car off stating the car would not start a day after picking it up from Tim's Southside Auto for a different issue that they were supposed to fix on the car. Tim's Southside Auto, called us and stated that the timing belt needed to be replaced. They never should have told us to replace the timing belt, they should have informed us that the car suffered internal damage when the timing belt snapped as I was driving it. The whole response from Tim's Southside Auto is stating that they informed *** or *** *** about the internal damage. I know this is not true and *** and *** will gladly get involved and state who is telling the truth
Regards,
*** ***

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, we would like to know your view on the matter.]
Regards,
[redacted]

To Whom It
May Concern,We are writing this letter as a second response to complaint
#[redacted] filed with the Revdex.com on January 22, 2018.  The customer’s vehicle was brought to us on
two separate occasions.  The first repair
was completed on July 18, 2017.  We were
instructed by the customer to install a camshaft sensor and a crankshaft sensor
that the customer provided.  We also
replaced a tie rod end and a tie rod adjusting sleeve.  An alignment was also completed.  The requested repairs were made and Ms. [redacted]
picked up the vehicle and paid for the repairs. 
Three days later the vehicle was dropped off at our shop again.  Upon examining the vehicle, we saw that the
timing belt had broken.  This issue was a
completely different issue from the repair that had been made a few days
earlier.  The vehicle in question has an
interference engine, which means that a broken timing belt can cause internal
engine damage.  Unfortunately, there are
only two ways to check for this damage. 
One way is to re-time the engine, which involves replacing the timing
belt (and water pump if needed) and then checking the engine compression.  The other way is to remove the cylinder heads
to inspect for damage.  The cheaper of
the two options is to replace the timing belt. 
After examining the vehicle we contacted Ms. [redacted] and told her that the
timing belt had broken.  We gave her a
quote for replacing the timing belt.  She
said she would let us know what they decided to do.  We were not given permission to do any
repairs at that time.  The vehicle was then
left in our lot from that date in July until December.We allowed the vehicle to sit in our lot for all of those
months without any call from the customer who had said she would get back to us
about how to proceed.  At the time we had
a $5 per day storage fee which we charge at our discretion for vehicles left at
our facility for more than 48 hours.  We
did not charge the storage fee since it appeared to us that the customer may
have been having difficulty finding the funds for the repair.  In December we contacted Ms. [redacted] again.  At that point we told her that she would
either need to do the repair or pick up the vehicle.  We have limited space in our parking lot and
with the arrival of winter, we did not want to have to plow or shovel around
the vehicle.  Ms. [redacted] was unable to talk
at length with me when I contacted her, and she again told me she would get
back to me.  She called back a week or so
later and gave permission for us to do the repair by re-timing the engine.  She stopped in and made a partial payment to
cover the parts, which we then ordered.  We
completed the repairs as directed on December 29, 2017.  We re-timed the engine, which included replacing
the timing belt and the water pump which had seized.  As soon as the engine was re-timed, we
started it.  We could tell that the
broken timing belt had caused internal damage to the engine.  The engine was running rough and had internal
damage to at least two cylinders.  We
called Ms. [redacted] and explained that we had replaced the water pump and timing
belt, but that we could tell that there was internal damage because the engine
was running rough.  We told her that the
internal damage would either need to be repaired or the engine would need to be
replaced.  I believe I told her that the
cheapest recourse would be to replace the damaged engine with a used one.  We were not told to do any additional repairs
to the vehicle, so we did not.  Ms. [redacted] came
to pick up the vehicle and paid the remainder of the bill for the re-timing
when she picked it up.  A gentleman came
with her to collect the vehicle.  He did
not come into our facility.  I went
outside with Ms. [redacted] after she paid to start the vehicle and show her that it
was running rough.  I explained to the
gentleman who was apparently going to be the one to drive it, that the engine
seemed to want to stall at idle.   I told
him that he would need to use two feet to drive it to get the vehicle to
wherever he was taking it.  I did not explain
anything about the repairs that were done or the additional repairs that were
needed to this gentleman since I did not know who he was and was under the
impression that Ms. [redacted] was the owner of the vehicle.  I had already explained to her that the vehicle
needed additional repairs.  Ms. [redacted] did
not contact us again, and the vehicle was never brought back to our facility.In order to respond fully to the complaint that was filed
against us, we will address each part of the complaint separately.  First, the complaint was filed by [redacted].
[redacted].  We do not know who this person
is.  The only person that we have ever
been in contact with regarding the repairs to this vehicle is Ms. [redacted].  She is the person who signed the initial
repair order, gave permission for repairs, discussed with us the issues with
the vehicle, and paid for the repairs.  Based
on the complaint, we are now assuming that the gentleman who came with Ms. [redacted]
may have been the actual owner, Mr. [redacted]. 
If so, we do not understand why he did not ask us about the internal
damage that we had explained to Ms. [redacted] over the phone or question our
recommendation for additional repairs or replacement of the engine.  If he was the owner, why didn’t he say
something when I was explaining how he would need to drive the vehicle in order
to get it home?  It is unclear to us how
a third party can file a complaint, even if he is the owner, when he has never
so much as spoken to us about the problems the vehicle was having, the repairs
that were completed, or the repairs that were still needed.  If he is the actual owner of the vehicle, we
were never made aware of the fact.  All
of our invoices, repair orders, and customer information regarding this vehicle
is filed under Mr. and Ms. [redacted].  Mr. [redacted]
is not and never has been in our system. The initial complaint alleges that when Mr. [redacted] picked up
the vehicle, it was in worse condition than when he dropped it off.  This is impossible.  A vehicle with a broken timing belt is not
drivable, so Mr. [redacted] either had the vehicle towed to our facility by
someone else or towed it here himself. 
The vehicle was dropped off after hours, so we did not see how it got
here, but we know it was not drivable.  In
order to re-time the vehicle, we had to push the vehicle inside.  We agree that the vehicle was not in good
condition when it was picked up.  We
never claimed that it was.  That is why
we explained to Ms. [redacted] that there was internal engine damage caused by the
broken timing belt.  That is also why we told
her that she would either need to repair the engine or replace it.  The vehicle was not running right when it was
picked up because we had not been given permission to repair the engine damage
that was found after the re-timing.  It
was, however, in better condition than when it was dropped off since the
vehicle could at least be driven rather than towed off of our property.  He stated that “the check engine light started flashing
within five miles of driving it.”  We are
not surprised that the check engine light started flashing because as we told
Ms. [redacted] over the phone prior to pick-up, the engine needed additional repair
or replacement due to the internal damage. 
She picked up the vehicle without having us do any additional work on
the vehicle.   Mr. [redacted] alleges
that he was told to “drive the car like it is a manual because the car bogs
down when coming to a stop.”  From this
statement we are assuming that he must be the gentleman that came with Ms. [redacted]
at the time of pick-up.  He also said
that he did not have to drive it like this before he dropped it off.  The vehicle was not drivable when it was
dropped off.  Of course he didn’t have to
drive it like that before the timing belt broke, but before the timing belt
broke the engine wasn’t needing repair or replacement.  Once the timing belt broke, the vehicle
wasn’t drivable.  After the re-timing,
the vehicle was still not running right because of the internal engine damage
that was incurred when the timing belt broke. 
If Mr. [redacted] was the gentleman who helped to pick up the vehicle, why
didn’t he ask me why it was running the way it was?  I would have gladly explained it to him.  I do not know why he seems confused by the
engine running poorly.  I would have
thought that Ms. [redacted] would have shared our conversations with him if he is the
owner.  If her explanation wasn’t clear
to him or didn’t seem to coincide with what he was seeing at the time of
pick-up, why didn’t he ask?     Mr. [redacted] states that “the code that came back from the
check engine light, was a few cylinder misfires, so if this was not done
intentionally when they replaced the timing belt, than it shows that this place
does not check over there work and make sure they did the job correctly.”  Again, in the phone call after the re-timing,
Ms. [redacted] was told that the engine was damaged when the timing belt broke and that
it would need to be either repaired or replaced.  We never said that the vehicle was completely repaired.  Ms. [redacted] chose to pick up the
vehicle as it was rather than doing the additional engine repair or replacement.  The issue is not that the repair that we were
given permission to do was done incorrectly. 
The initial repair of the timing belt was done correctly.  The check engine light and any cylinder
misfires would have been fixed if Ms. [redacted] had left the vehicle and given
permission for the additional work that was needed.  It is not clear if Mr. [redacted] is accusing us
of tampering with the vehicle when he uses the word “intentionally.”  We are a company that prides ourselves on our
honesty and integrity.  We have never
been accused of any dishonesty and would NEVER damage a vehicle
intentionally.  We would caution Mr.
[redacted] to be careful in his accusations. 
We do not wish to involve our lawyer in a defamation of character or
libel suit, but will if necessary. Mr. [redacted] next states that “they gave me the car back with
a dead battery basically and you would think if spending $774.47 on a timing
belt, the least a company could do would be to charge a battery.  I have not been able to drive the car at all
because of this issue.”  The battery had
been dead after sitting unused on our property for five months.  We charged the battery for several hours in
order to start the vehicle after the re-timing. 
It was still working at the time of pick-up or the customer would not
have been able to leave the property.  The
battery may not hold a charge well after sitting for so long, but we did not
replace the battery since that would have been an additional expense for the
customer and we weren’t sure what the customer planned to do regarding the
additional repairs needed.  We are
confused as to why he would say that he can’t drive the car because of this
issue.  Of course he can’t.  Since the customer did not give permission to
repair the vehicle fully, it is not in good driving condition.The final allegation in the initial letter from Mr. [redacted]
states, “I do not feel comfortable dropping my car back off for them to fix
this issue because I believe this may have been done intentionally because of
political bumper stickers that are all over this car.”  Again, we would NEVER and have NEVER intentionally damaged a vehicle.  All of
our previous customers will corroborate this. 
The idea that we would treat this vehicle differently because of
political bumper stickers is truly ridiculous. 
We see political bumper stickers of all kinds in the course of our
work.  If the bumper stickers on this
vehicle had offended us, we would not have allowed the vehicle to sit on our
property for over five months.  We would
have been calling Ms. [redacted] constantly to have the vehicle removed or we would
have had the vehicle towed to an impound lot.  In Mr. [redacted]’ response to our initial statement on this
matter, he states that he has contacted multiple people and has found no one
who states that in order to tell if a vehicle has internal damage to the
engine, after a timing belt has snapped, you have to repair the timing belt to
do so.  We would like to know who his
sources are, because any certified auto technician will tell you that the only
way to tell if an interference engine has internal damage after a timing belt
breaks is to replace the belt and re-time the engine or remove the cylinder
heads and inspect for damage.  This is
not the case with a non-interference engine, but the vehicle in question has an
interference engine.  Mr. [redacted] alleges that we did not inform [redacted] or [redacted]
[redacted] that the engine had internal damage. 
We did not speak to Mr. [redacted], but Ms. [redacted] was informed of the issue
over the phone after the re-timing was complete.  We can not say what the exact words were that
were used to tell her that the engine was damaged since we did not record the
conversation, but she was informed.  We
would have no reason not to inform her. 
We certainly would not return a vehicle to a customer with the engine in
the condition that this engine was in and state that it was okay.  That is not the kind of business that we
run.  We do not know where the breakdown
in communication occurred in this situation. 
If Ms. [redacted] did not understand what was explained to her, why didn’t she
have Mr. [redacted] or Mr. [redacted] talk to me? 
More importantly, if Mr. [redacted] is the owner and was the gentleman who
helped to pick the vehicle up, why didn’t he talk to me about the vehicle?  When I was explaining to him about how he would
need to drive the vehicle to get it home, he had the perfect opportunity to ask
any questions he had.  He could tell at
the time of pick-up that the vehicle wasn’t running right.  It was obvious.  If he didn’t understand what Ms. [redacted] had
told him or thought we had done something wrong, why didn’t he ask?  We would have explained it to him, answered
any questions he had, and even shown him the timing belt and water pump that
were replaced.  He could have called or
stopped in to ask us any questions or express any concerns that he had even
after the vehicle was picked up.  I am
always willing to take the time to discuss the repairs that we have done or
explain what repairs are needed and why. 
I can not think of a single customer who will not vouch for this.        Mr. [redacted] further states “We dropped the car off not
knowing what the issue was.  Tim’s
Southside Auto was told to diagnosis the issue of the vehicle.”  We did exactly what we were told to do.  We told Ms. [redacted] back in July of 2017 that
the timing belt was broken.  We could not
tell her that there was internal damage at the time, because we could not
possibly know that without re-timing the engine.  I have been a certified auto technician for
20+ years.  In that time, I have repaired
several Chrysler vehicles with this same kind of engine that have had a broken
timing belt.  In all of those cases,
there was no internal engine damage.  I
always try to provide my customers with quality service at the most affordable
price.  Based on these past experiences,
re-timing the engine seemed to be the most cost-effective way to try to repair
this vehicle.  Unfortunately the
re-timing showed that there was additional damage.  We understand that Mr. [redacted] is upset that the vehicle
still needs additional repair after so much was already spent on the
re-timing.  We are unwilling to refund
the money that Ms. [redacted] paid because we are not responsible for the internal
damage to his engine.  It was caused by
the breaking of the timing belt.  We had
nothing to do with that.  We are,
however, willing to work with Mr. [redacted] if he decides to repair or replace
the engine.  We will apply part of the
cost of the re-timing toward the additional repairs.  We also have no plans at this time to charge
Mr. [redacted] any storage fees for the five months that the vehicle was left at
our facility.  We hope that this document
addresses Mr. [redacted]’ concerns.  Please
let us know if you have any additional questions.                                   ...⇄ Sincerely,                                   ...⇄ Tim’s
South Side Auto

Good afternoon [redacted],Per our conversation, I have attached a copy of the repair order associated with this complaint and a written statement of the situation.If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at ###-###-####.Sincerely,[redacted]Tim's South Side Auto###-###-####415 Getzen...

StElkhorn, WI 53121