New England Truck Stop Inc

New England Truck Stop: Poor Communication and Unauthorized Work to Raise the Bill for an 02 Honda CivicOn August Sunday 17th 2014 my 2002 Honda Civic was having trouble shifting Gears on I-90 Westbound a few miles from the I-84 interchange. I pulled over to the side of the road recognized that the engine was smoking. I exited the vehicle and called Triple A. Soon a tow truck from Sturbridge Service Center showed up and towed me to New England Truck Stop.I knew the car was old and had over 200,000 miles on it so I informed the mechanic on site that I was not looking to spend a lot of money to fix it. They said that they couldn't look at the car that day because they were closing soon.I found a ride back to Connecticut where I lived and started the process of looking for new cars. Luckily I found another Honda Civic for sale from a third party and decided to buy it. However, before I could drive my new car I needed to find out what was going on with my old car from New England Truck Stop so that I could start the process of switching the insurance and the registration.I called the truck stop every single day between the 17th to the 23rd to figure out what was going on. Each time I was told that the person that was working on my car was not available and that they would call me back tomorrow. I left them my contact information to call me back but never received any correspondence. I became increasingly frustrated with the lack of response. Each representative that I spoke to provided me with little to no information on the status of my car. I eventually told them that I just wanted to get my license plates back and have the car towed off their property. Being able to drive my new car was contingent on getting my old car so on the 24th I called again. After once again being told the person working on my car was not there I informed them that I would be coming to pick up the car. At this point no work was done on the car to the best of my knowledge. Miraculously, for the first time in a week I finally received some information on the car. They told me that they had spent on hour of service trying to find out what was wrong with the car but were unable to find the problem. They said that before I could pick it up I needed to pay a $99 dollar bill for this serviceAt this point I already had been without a car for the entire week because of their poor communication. Despite my desperate attempts I had not heard a single update on the status of my car. Only after I had threatened to come and pick it up did they decide to throw this bill at me. They told me that if I signed the car over to New England Truck stop they would waive all fees associated with this car. I was so unsatisfied with their poor level of customer service that I did not want to conduct any further business with them. I decided I'd rather donate the car instead and pay their fee.On the 24th I drove from Connecticut to Sturbridge to get the license plates and pay my bill. When I showed up to they informed me that not only did I owe the $99 diagnostic fee but also a $14.97 fee for an oil change. At no point in this whole process did I authorize any work to be done on the car. Then before they handed me the bill of they tacked on another four charges for $8.95 each for brake cleaner. They told me that there was an oil leak that needed to get cleaned off my breaks. This was the first time I heard about this at all. It felt clear that I was being ripped off but I did not want to deal with the shop any more. I decided to pay this ridiculous arbitrary fee that was tacked on for services that I never asked for. I just wanted to be done with them. I paid the Work Order XXXXXX which was unsigned for a grand total of $152.94 with a debit card. I arranged my car to be donated to Kars for Kids.Due to the embarrassingly poor level of customer service at New England Truck stop I do not feel like I should have owed them anything. At the very least I should have absolutely not been charged $53.94 for services that were not authorized, communicated or explained.Desired Settlement$50.77 For Unauthorized Repair$99 for Poor Communication, Bad Customer Service and Suspect Business practices.