Neaton's Tire Service of DE, Inc.

Review: On June 2nd, 2014 Admiral Tire & Auto of Dover received my car because it had no brake pressure after having the calipers replaced. After a brake inspection, which is normal, they didn't know what was wrong so they said "we are going to start with the master cylinder" my wife said ok. I found out the price later that day, they wanted almost 700 just so buy the part and replace it, so I did some calling around and found that the most expensive the master cylinder cost it $132 and the guide for replacement cost was $315 so they couldn't charge us more than that for labor. I called Admiral back and they said the part cost $340, I disagreed with them and "[redacted]" ended up telling me that "it's the only way he can make money." They went ahead with the work, and promised my wife over the phone that it would fix it, it did not fix it. So since that didn't fix it they wanted to try the brake booster, my wife bought it from the Ford dealership to save us some money. They installed it and yet again told my wife it the only thing it could be and promised she would get the car back by 3pm on Thursday 5 June, 2014. It didn't fix it and she did not get the car back that day. Also, on the phone that day when I called from overseas at about 0930 east coast time "[redacted]" was extremely unhelpful and would not give me any info on what exactly the problem was, and for some reason felt the need to tell me that I am taking him away from working on the car by calling and they only had 2 mechanics that day. My wife called later on because they initially said it would be a 2 hour job, so since they didn't call her she called them. They told her she would get the car back by 3pm. She called around 3 and either "[redacted]" or [redacted] told her that we are costing them money and they are turning people away to fix our car and we need to stop calling. We ended up getting the car taken to [redacted], where the problem was found in 30 minutes. Admiral charged us $565 for nothing; they never fixed it or knew what was wrong.Desired Settlement: We would like our $565 back from them. Ford fixed the problem with minimal work and said the other place should have found the problem if they followed the diagnostic procedures, like they did. I am a deployed service member and we feel as though they took advantage of my wife because she doesnt know anything about vehicle work. I do not believe we should have to pay for work done when they couldnt fit it, [redacted] said that a buisness should only charge for work that fixes the problem.

Business

Response:

I am responding to the customer’s complaint regarding service at our location in Dover. We are grateful that the Revdex.com is available so that a customer and our business can find common ground and mutually settle a considered dispute. [redacted]’s vehicle was brought to our location on Monday 6/2/14 with a brake problem of having no brake pressure on the brake pedal. The customer had the vehicle repaired prior by another person or shop who by our evaluation, contributed to the brake issue. Our company first had to follow up on the previous person’s repair work and correct their problems that may have contributed to the problem of “no brake pressure.” We believe that we straightened out the previous problems that were created by the person doing work on the vehicle before. We then recommended a brake booster, to which the customer purchased their own brake booster for us to install. This part was ordered in from the local Ford dealership by the customer and took approximately a day to receive. We had the vehicle for four working days and one of those days was waiting on a part to come in that was provided by the customer. (We believe that this was a major reason the brakes did not work properly and we did install this part, thus we charged them appropriately). In the three days working, we had to wait for approvals from the customer as well as take the time to correct previous work done before by somewhere else and await parts. During that time we spent no less than ten hours of labor time to replace parts (customer or our company supplied), repair previous work and spend time on diagnostics. We did attempt to try a master cylinder to help solve repairing the problem. We considered this charge to the customer as time and materials and as part of the diagnostic time spent attending to their vehicle’s concerns and needs. We did charge the customer for the time to install their brake booster provided and gave a military discount for all the work performed. [redacted] had expressed that she was in need of leaving town as soon as possible and was very concerned regarding the time in which the repairs were taking. We agreed that this problem of their brakes that they had brought us was taking too long, but we had to correct previous work and figure out what the previous person working on had created. “Book time” was not the issue, but time to sort out what was previously done and the problems created by somewhere else were extensive. We spoke to [redacted], and approximately 2 or more people representing the Turner’s regarding this vehicle over the course of those 4 business days multiple times. [redacted], we believe, could not wait any longer for us to fix the vehicle, (although we believe we were close to having the vehicle fixed) and so on Friday 6/6/14, a friend of the Turner’s came in the morning, paid the existing bill and had the vehicle towed. We are happy to hear that their vehicle has been repaired to their satisfaction by the local dealer. We also believe had we not straightened out the vehicle of the previous brake problems and replaced the brake booster for the customer; the dealer would not have had such an easy time diagnosing and repairing their vehicle. This complaint to the Revdex.com is unfortunate to hear. As a means of working this issue out with [redacted], we would kindly ask that both he and his wife, upon his arrival from deployment, make themselves available so that we can reasonably come to some mutual settlement that is respectful to both parties. This letter from the Revdex.com is the first time that we have heard that the customer is disputing the amount paid by their friend to have their vehicle towed from our facility. We look forward to settling this issue properly.

Sent on: 6/18/2014 3:45:43 PM