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Upstate Imports Auto Repair

9073 Oswego Rd, Baldwinsville, New York, United States, 13027-8217

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Upstate Imports Auto Repair Reviews (%countItem)

Last September, 2019, I purchased a 1989 *** convertible. I had seen advertisements for Upstate Imports, which claimed they were European Car Specialists. Their main office is in Baldwinsville New York where I had the work performed. One of the issues diagnosed and later repaired was excessive play in the steering wheel. That repair cost 597.30. Then there was an alignment for 275.00 which needed to be done twice as the first try failed and the vehicle did not roll straight down the road. The second alignment was done under warranty with no extra charges attached. The total work done on the vehicle amounted to 3941.69.
Recently I have noticed a slight looseness in the steering. This vehicle is a 12 cylinder car which is very powerful and has very sensitive steering. Being the fact I did not use it much during the winter, it has been used sparingly with not many miles accumulated. I e-mailed Jeff Thomas the owner, and asked for the vehicle to be seen and possible tweaked if it was necessary. As it was under warranty, I thought there would be no issue. To my surprise there was. In short, and after many e-mails he refused to look at the vehicle and suggested I go to other shops like ***, ***, ***, etc. and have them evaluate the issue at my own expense. If they found an issue, Upstate would deal with it at that time. Those aforementioned shops do not do that type of work on this type of vehicle. Yes, they might change the oil and sell me tires but that's about it. This vehicle is too complicated for them to work on, which is why I paid Jeff Thomas to repair my vehicle, as he claimed his shop is a European Car Specialist. He also insists I pay him 67.50 to reinspect the work he did if he finds nothing wrong. This fee is not listed under warranty. His warranty states: "Warranty on parts and labor is one year or 12,000 miles whichever comes first. Warranty work has to be performed in our shop& cannot exceed the original cost of repair." The odometer according to his bill was 51,000 miles before work was performed, and the odometer now reads 53,390 miles.
Many e-mails have passed between us and Jeff has become more sarcastic in his tone and verbiage regarding looking at the vehicle and doing the right thing which would be to stand behind his work for the money I paid him.

Upstate Imports Auto Repair Response • Jun 10, 2020

Attached is a copy of the email transcript between *** and Matt (service manager) explaining to *** that we can only warranty the part if the part that we installed is the problem.

Just because *** thinks it is the problem does not mean that it is the problem, *** was told in the email transcript that we can look at it and if we determine that our part is not at fault that he will owe us billable labor time of $67.50, but if it is our part that failed, he will not be charged at all. Nobody at this shop works for free, so our service is billable if not warrantied.

*** was given 3 different places that can check his alignment for free, an alignment check includes checking the components that we installed as well as all steering and suspension components, any shop that does alignments is capable of checking a 30 year old *** as there are no special tools required or any special knowledge needed to do a simple check on the steering and suspension components.

*** has tried to get his entire bill of $3900 back by trying to do a charge back with his credit card company, the company declined the charge back based on our evidence, *** is no longer allowed back to either of our shop locations because of this.

*** was also told he needs ball joint and control arm bushings, he declined those repairs.

The steering rack bushings we installed will not and can not cause the issue that *** is complaining about and this is why we recommended him to multiple shops to start a new relationship with and have them determine the cause of his steering issues.

If *** finds a 3rd party shop to determine that the steering rack bushings we installed then we will warranty the part, all of this was explained in the emails back and forth with ***.

*** told us another shop installed control arm bushing and they declined any fault, if their bushings didn't fail, why would ours? No mention of ball joints getting replace like we recommended, maybe that is the problem, maybe the bushing in the rear of the car are at fault, we also recommended replacing those to which declined those repairs as well.

*** is just assuming the steering rack bushings are at fault and wants them warrantied without any proof or evidence.

Customer Response • Jun 12, 2020

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.
I understand that no one works for free. I sent you a copy of his warranty which does not mention anything about any billable fee. I am well into the warranty period both in miles and time. I have yet to find in my 72 years a company that charges for checking work they did, especially being a safety issue. The only way to find out if their work is correct is to observe the work they did and after spending almost 4 thousand dollars, I would think Jeff would be confident and stand behind his work. Nothing needs to be disassembled…a test drive and a look at the work he charged me for, the steering rack mount and steering bushing washer. The labor alone was 500.00 thus at 125.00 per hour, that job took 4 hours to complete. The three places given to me to check the alignment do not work on this model vehicle as it has 12 cylinders and I was told they do not have the specifications. My question would be why Jeff is sending me to another shop when he aligned the vehicle twice? I would need to pay the other shops for their time, as no one works for free according to Jeff, and I have already paid him for the repair and any warranty would need to be done in-house. A waste of more of my time and money.I am one who trusts and gave Jeff a favorable rating immediately after the job was done. I made a mistake as I found many issues that needed to be addressed after the repairs were completed. I made a mistake in rendering that positive review but tried and could not remove it. Yes I tried to have a chargeback on my *** card until Jeff’s work was properly done. Jeff is incorrect that I tried to chargeback the entire amount of the repair. I have enclosed a copy of the chargeback from *** for 2,943.30, not the 3,941.69 he suggests. Please review the letter that speaks to that event.In regards to the bushings, yes they were done to my satisfaction my everyday mechanic and have been rechecked. My question is, if Jeff deemed the bushings needed replacing and were an integral part of the front end alignment, how did he perform an alignment with defective bushings? It would not render correct specifications if everything in the front end which depended on *** specifications were not there to align the vehicle properly which they obviously were not. I question how in his description of service he claims the bushing needed replacing, although I was not offered, and paying what I was paying and being the bushings were in that area of repair, he would not align the vehicle if major parts were not replaced first. This would not give an accurate reading in an alignment, thus limiting safety and road worthiness. As mentioned, the first alignment was way off and I needed and Jeff did a second alignment for which I was not billed his 67.50 charge thus he must’ve and did find negative issues not to charge me.I could go on about how unpleasant an experience this was and how I was charged for work not completed this the chargeback to ***, but in reality, I ask the following…A road test by Jeff and Jeff checking the Steering Rack Mount and Steering Rack Bushing Washer he installed…that’s it. I am not asking for any monetary restitution.

Regards

Upstate Imports Auto Repair Response • Jun 15, 2020

Just like in the emails, we are talking in circles, wasting more time and I will state again, we will warranty the steering rack bushings if that is the failed component, if it is not the failed component you will pay a labor fee of $67.50 for time spent, very easy concept.

The second alignment we told you that there was nothing wrong with the alignment and that you need to take the car elsewhere for an alignment if you were not happy with it and that bushings in the rear of the car need replacement, the entire suspension and steering components were tight for an alignment and did not fail the test for performing an alignment, so there were no safety concerns.

A v12 engine does not change alignment specs at all, all alignment machines old and current have the factory specifications to perform alignments on the *** and no special tools or knowledge are needed to perform an alignment or to check the steering or suspension, again this was all in the emails, we are just using a different form of communication now.

Since suspension repairs were made at another repair facility any form of warranty is excluded as whomever that replaced the control arm bushing should have performed an alignment and when they checked their repairs that you made them do for free, they should have been able to determine if there were any other issues with the suspension/steering components.

Customer Response • Jun 16, 2020

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.
I decline Jeff’s continual denial of his warranty work. Now he is claiming if I took it to another shop, his warranty is void when he suggested going to another shop to begin with. Like the other complaint printed about his shop, I would like my complaint printed and allow others to make their own decision about doing business with his firm. This is my personal opinion and I believe I am entitled to it. The other person who wrote a complaint that was printed gave no specific information yet it was printed.Please advise and thank you in advance

TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE.....TERRIBLE MECHANICAL SERVICE...FEEL FREE TO CONTACT ME AT ***@GMAIL.COM FOR FULL DOCUMENTED DETAILS.

Upstate Imports Auto Repair Response • Jul 08, 2020

I am not sure why I am now seeing this review, we normally respond when we get an email from Revdex.com. So I will respond now.
The only that we are aware of why this poor review was made is because we performed a lot of repairs that were needed right after the customer purchased this vehicle that needed a lot of attention, the customer was made away of all the pricing prior to any and all repairs. The customer paid for the repairs and was very happy with the repairs but realized he had buyers remorse due to how much money it cost to get the car in road worthy condition.
The next spring when the customer was trying to get his car out of storage, the car would not start, he immediately blamed us, the car was towed to us where we found a large rodent nest next to the distributor and that the rodent chewed on the electrical wires that triggered the spark for the spark plugs. The customer stated that the place he stored his car does not have rodents (we certainly did not give his car a free rodent to sabotage his car), we showed him the pictures of the nest as well as the chewed wires. We charged the customer for the repairs and tow bill considering we did not chew on the wires while the car was in storage.
It is disappointing that he left a 1 star review based on the fact that the place he stored his car has rodents.

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Address: 9073 Oswego Rd, Baldwinsville, New York, United States, 13027-8217

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