Pete Kelley's Auto Service

This is a very good shop. James has been able to fix everything I have brought in quickly. I think he is one of the best mechanics in town. George is fair and honest with everyone.

Pete Kelley Auto replaced a transmission on my 2011 Chevrolet Equinox on 9/1/2015, the car is 4 years old with 71,400 miles, I was not aware it is still under factory warranty when I gave permission to fix it. I know it was my fault by not knowing to take it to the dealer. Pete Kelley Auto should have known (a car this young and under 100,000 miles should have been questioned), they have been in business 40+ years, a courtesy call to the manufacturer would have told them it was under factor warranty and should have told me to take it to the dealer. Instead they were dishonest. I had to pay $3977.11, this work could have been done for free.

Pete Kelley Auto replaced a transmission on my 2011 Chevrolet Equinox on 9/1/2015, the car is 4 years old with 71,400 miles, I was not aware it is still under factory warranty when I gave permission to fix it. I know it was my fault by not knowing to take it to the dealer. Pete Kelley Auto should have known (a car this young and under 100,000 miles should have been questioned), they have been in business 40+ years, a courtesy call to the manufacturer would have told them it was under factor warranty and should have told me to take it to the dealer. Instead they were dishonest. I had to pay $3977.11, this work could have been done for free.

Each and everytime I take my vehicles in the service, timeliness, solution, and cost are always terrific, I recommend everyone I know to bring their vehicles to the best mechanic in the valley.

Review: They installed my son's head gaskets incorrectly (obvious even to an untrained eye). Due to the head gasket being installed incorrectly, it blocked the water ports next to the piston wall, which caused water to be deprived and the cylinder wall to crack. Motor is shot. Cylinders were fine prior to them touching it. Motor only lasted 13,000 miles due to their incompetence.

The owner will not work with us on this obvious negligence. When we tried to explain it to him, he just spoke over us... he would not listen and behaved very defensively, like he knew he was wrong, but didn't want to do the right thing due to ego or self righteousness. Even his front desk worker admitted to us (out of ear shot of the owner) that it was an obvious error on the businesses part and that the owner should honor it. He said the person that worked on our truck was fired soon after due to many mistakes. The owner never even listened to us, just spoke over us and was very defensive. We tried to deal with this reasonably, but he refused a reasonable conversation. His only reply was "Too bad, been over 2 years." What sort of business replies that way when they made an obvious mistake? Part of that agreement was that they would do the work correctly, which they did not! His shop destroyed the truck MUCH worse than what it was before we brought it in to him, thus they are responsible for fixing it. We will not stop until things are set right. It is the principle of the matter.

We have never filed one of these before on any business. We are good people and only complain when we cannot find a solution ourselves ... if mistakes are made we have always been able to work things out... We are ethical people and we expect others that do business with us to be so as well. It was egregious and beyond anything I have ever experienced with any business.... I was certain that if the business owner was logical/ethical at all, he would have apologized and we would have moved on... I would be writing wonderful reviews on the internet about them, rather than having to pressure them into doing the right thing. I was in shock that this business owner was so defensive and managed the discussion so poorly... very bad customer service.Desired Settlement: We need the truck to run again. This could be them paying a reputable shop of our choice, or sending us a check to pay for the replacement (we are working on specific quotes from other shops just in case we need to get a lawyer involved)...

Business

Response:

There is no vehicle that will run properly for 28 months with a head gasket installed incorrectly. WE WILL NOT STAND BEHIND IT due to First: Our warranty is 12 months or 12,000 miles in this case it lasted 28 months and as the customer says 13,000 miles. Second: It was never diagnosed by a professional auto shop or a professional technician when asked who was working on it she said her son was he had some mechanical skill. Third: once a job that any shop does is tampered with by any persons or shop without approval it voids the warranty. Fourth: never in 28 months did we ever receive any calls stating the vehicle overheats or doesn't run correctly and when they did come in they never said it overheated only that the cylinder is now cracked Fifth: when they brought the head gasket that was installed it had rust stains as if the vehicle coolant system hadn't been serviced and I advised them that rust would cause a cylinder to crack they didn't want to believe it. Our employees never said anything negative about current or past employees. The technician that worked on the vehicle was never fired, he left for his own reasons. It is our belief that the information they did receive is from a past manager that was let go and wants to stir up problems. When the customer and her son came into the shop they where raising there voice to the point I had to ask not to yell or leave, I don't believe that gives me a big ego or anyone should be spoken to that way. We have other shops including the dealer willing to back us up and say that there is no way that a vehicle will not run properly for 28 months with head gaskets installed improperly!

This is a very good shop. James has been able to fix everything I have brought in quickly. I think he is one of the best mechanics in town. George is fair and honest with everyone.