Plumb - It, Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/09/14) */
*** - was told that the A/C lines broke along with a charge pipe and several vacuum lines during the removal of his old engineThis would have been an additional charge to repairThis vehicle had km on it and years old,
often parts will break or be rusted onIn addition, major time constraints were put on our shop by ***, who was made well aware of the uncompleted work and told to not pick up the vehicleHe was also told the turbo might not make it home, we didn't know if the turbo worked or not or any other items that might need repair as the car wasn't running properly when it came inThe brace was attached on other parts of the vehicle and at no time was the customer in danger of it falling off
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2016/09/21) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
***
There are several parts of sentences In Brown's response that are true
- My car Is years old and has 396K+ miles on It(***?)
- The car wasn't running properly(Obviously the only reason I would be there.)
- They don't know the previous condition.( Again, Is this a reason to do things wrong? They can see their own workAlso, I have vehicles, so It Is unlikely that I would drive one that wasn't working to *** to get It fixed)
- There was a time constraint(It was agreed uponIf I am told times that It will be ready by Wednesday and then I drive hours to pick It up, does that make my time frame unreasonable?)
- As I was given the car at closing time on Wednesday, I did have a conversation a mechanic about the whining noise In the turbo and was told I had a better than 50% chance of making It home
- The brace was attached on other parts of the vehicle(Yes, It was on there, but not one of the bolts of the exhaust system attachment were tightened, so It could easily have fallen offI know this because my mechanic pointed It out to me and he would have no reason to make that upHe showed It to other workers In his shop before he called me.)
I totally disagree with all of these other comments
- I was never told about the air conditioner left unconnectedBrown's may have been surprised as well since they offered me hours free service to reconnect ItHardly worth the drive over though
- I was not Informed about the broken charge pipe or vacuum lines, or given an opportunity to pay for new onesOn Tuesday the 26th, *** told me they were waiting for new hosesThat would have been a good time to bring up anything else that was neededIt looks like they just put on broken parts with no regard to their probable malfunction
- I definitely was not told not to pick up the vehicleWhy would I drive from ** to get It If I had been told not to pick It up? If I had been told not to take It when I left, wouldn't this have been noted somewhere? On the receipt? the service order? a disclaimer with my signature on It?
I sent these details to Brown's but In case you have not read the, here Is my account:
I like my carI've taken good care of It and driven many miles with pleasureSo It Is not a surprise that I drive It everywhere
On July 19th, I drove to *** to visit familyThe car worked fine on the way over but later that night It started making noisesIn the morning of July 20th I took It to Brown'sThey said there was no compression In the third cylinder, found a used *** engine with 150,000K on It to replace mine, and gave me a written estimateThey said It was a ** maintained engine, which means the timing belt should have been new at 125,000K , so relatively unusedWithout viewing the engine, they assumed a new timing belt and water pump would need to be orderedPerhaps this Is standard procedure for an old replacement motor
We agreed It It would be ready In a weekI rented a car and drove home to **
My phone records will show I called Brown's on Monday the 25th, when I was told the engine had arrived at amI called Tuesday and checked with ***, who said the car needed hoses, and that he would call me Wednesday at 7:I called him at 8:15, and was told the hoses would be In by 9am and the car should be ready by noon If there were no problemsSince the engine arrived on Monday that allowed days to do the jobThe estimate shows hours labor to remove and replace an engineI didn't get the car until late Wednesday afternoon, so It would seem there was adequate time to get the job done properly, and enough communication that I could have been told otherwise
My brother and I arrived at pmAt 4:the mechanic said he had taken It for test drive, there was now a whistle In the turbo and a possibility that the fluid levels might need topping upHe gave me some containers of fluid to take with meI asked another mechanic If I had a 50/chance of making It home, and he said "oh, better than that .."
Ten minutes from the dealer, the fluid lights came on and I drove back to Brown'sthe mechanics had left for the day and a salesperson put fluid In the car for meAn hour and a half later, the turbo died and I continued home with minimal power
The next day I took the car to my regular mechanicHe ordered a turbo and on August 3rd started the jobPart way Into It, he stopped and called me to come have a look because there were so many problems with Brown's repair and he didn't want to be blamed for them
Here are the things he found:
- the bypass tube from the exhaust to the turbo was not pushed together properly, so an adequate connection wasn't madeSoot was blowing back contaminating the turbo
- The hose from the air filter to the engine was rotted, with big holes on either end
- The tube connecting the cooler to the turbo had a palm sized weld over It and a big hole as wellThe liquid weld patch was not done over tape, and too large to be effective otherwise
- The exhaust system bolts were finger tightened only
- The air conditioner was tied off with fasteners
I know my turbo worked when I took It there and It failed after they worked on the carIf I don't know this Is the fault of the mechanic directly, or the result of the Improper technique and bad parts, or If that always happens when an engine Is replacedIt wasn't mentioned when the estimate was given, although the timing belt and the water pump were
I called and emailed Brown's as a dissatisfied customerTheir answer Is a denial of any responsibility
I checked with my brother, who was with me on Wednesday, to see If he had heard any of the statements Brown Indicates were said to meHe confirms he heard nothing about not taking the car, or any problem other than the turbo noise
*** ** ***
The additional work cost $***, so Including Brown's charge of $***, It cost me $*** to have a bad job done and then fixed

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 6, 2016/03/10) */
AT this time - myself and my team at Brown's Volkswagen feel as though we have gone above and beyond. The starter is now properly installed after a few unexpected days delay, during which time a free car rental was provided - unfortunately, it...

was the first [redacted] that we had to have a remote starter installed and required further parts and information from an outside source to complete the job. We don't feel any further action is required.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 8, 2016/03/10) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Unfortunately, I still don't feel that the dealership went "above and beyond"; throughout the entire process[redacted]
I had left a couple statements out that I think I will share at this point. [redacted]
On Friday, my husband spoke to [redacted] who said, not to worry they called a dealership out of province and they could figure it out; a starter would be put into the vehicle on Saturday and I would have my car by Monday. On Monday I called into the service desk to confirm what time I should bring back the rental, to which the service team had no idea what I was talking about, and that the car hadn't left the brown's lot. I was finally able to speak to [redacted] who was less than satisfactory in her customer service. She said that they needed to order parts and didn't know when they would arrive, hopefully later that day or the next day. [redacted]).
[redacted]
At the end of the day, they feel that they went above and beyond by giving me a loaner vehicle? [redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 6, 2015/09/22) */
This vehicle was purchased 18 months ago and 50,000 km have been driven on the car in that time. We only have record of the customer returning to the dealership once in that time. At which time we replaced a part for them at no cost. Recently,...

we did reinstall the GPS that is required to be in their car for credit purposes - just to insure that this wasn't affecting the starting of the vehicle, all at no cost to the customer. At this time there is nothing more we can do for this customer.