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Context: I called Motor Man on Tuesday, June 11 and spoke to Nick. I told him that I had been experiencing vibrations while driving and wanted to get that fixed. I told him that I would be going out of town for a week, and was wondering if I could drop the car off after hours on Saturday, June 15. He said yes, and asked me when I would be returning. I told him late evening on Friday, June 21. He confirmed that they would absolutely be able to look at it and have it ready for me to pick up on the following Monday (June 24).
Saturday, June 15: I dropped my car off at Motor Man after hours.
6 DAYS PASSED without a single call, text, or email from the shop.
Friday, June 21: I called to check in on the status of my repair. Nick apologized and told me that he had gotten the date wrong, that he didn’t think I was coming back until the FOLLOWING Friday (June 28), and that they hadn’t even looked at my car yet.
Later that evening, Nick texted me that he’d sent over the estimate, which was a little over $1600. He said that they inspected the vehicle and that the inner and outer tie rods needed to be replaced. “i can get the parts monday and get it done for you monday or tuesday depending what time i see them.” About 30 minutes later, I texted him with some questions about the repairs, and he called me shortly after that to discuss things. I asked, “are you pretty certain that replacing the tie rods will fix the vibrations?” He confidently said yes. I signed the repair authorization right after that conversation.
To clarify, I did not come in asking to have my tie rods replaced. I only authorized the tie rod repair BECAUSE HE ASSURED ME THAT IT WOULD FIX THE VIBRATION PROBLEM. If Nick had told me that there was a chance that it would not fix the issue, or that there were other possible causes, I would have looked into those first and would NOT have signed off on this repair.
Monday, June 24: I waited all day for an update on my vehicle, and didn’t receive a single call or message. I called at 4:12pm to check in. Nick told me that they weren’t able to take it where they needed to for alignment that day, and assured me that they would have it ready on Tuesday and that they would call me when it was ready. Then, he said that there were still vibrations happening after they changed the tie rods! He said that my rear passenger tire was about to split and that I would need to get it replaced. I made a tire replacement appointment for Tuesday evening, and planned my work schedule around getting the car on Tuesday and taking it straight to the tire replacement appointment.
Tuesday, June 25: again, radio silence all day. I called at 3:08pm to check in, and sure enough, Nick told me that the vehicle wouldn’t be ready until Wednesday. I told them that I had work on Wednesday evening and absolutely needed the vehicle back by 4pm, and they reluctantly told me that they’d have it ready by then and that they’d call me when it was ready. This is how they treat customers whose business they’ve already mishandled, by keeping them out of the loop and putting them on the back burner.
Wednesday, June 26: 2pm comes around and they still haven’t called me. I called them at 2:02pm, and they told me my vehicle was ready to pick up. I was annoyed that it was just sitting there and that they didn’t call me.
When I got to the shop, I told Nick that I was disappointed that they lied to me about having the vehicle ready by Tuesday, and that the repair they did didn’t actually fix the problem. He apologized, made a bunch of excuses, and said that he was going to give me a discount to “make it right.” It was a 7.2% discount. He also admitted that they did notice that the tire was about to split during the initial inspection (though they didn’t tell me about this until AFTER I had signed off on the $1600 repair)!
As I drove the car to work, THE VIBRATIONS WERE WORSE THAN THEY WERE WHEN I BROUGHT THE CAR IN.
I barely got the vehicle back in time to make it to work Wednesday night, and only because I had been reminding them that I needed it by then. I’m sure it would’ve sat there for days or weeks if I hadn’t called and said anything.
Thursday, June 27: I got my tires replaced and the vibrations ceased. If I had just gotten the tires replaced to begin with, I could’ve avoided getting scammed out of $1500 by a crooked mechanic, as well as the headache of having to deal with Motor Man’ unprofessionalism and unresponsiveness. Any good and honest shop would’ve noticed and suspected the splitting tire when they were doing the inspection, and would have recommended that I get the tires changed first before moving forward with the more costly repair. Motor Man did notice, and deliberately kept that information from me until after I had agreed to pay them for the expensive tie rod repair.
Do not trust these people with your business.