Always think before you act!

raidersrule76

Well a few weeks back the ex decided to blow up the engine in her 05 Mazda 6, and being the nice guy I am I agreed to help her get it to a shop that I knew and have them do the work on it and try to save her some money. Well after locating a used motor I had it shipped to the shop and they got it put in. Good problem solved and It didn't cost as much as I thought it would. Next step in the story the shop calls me to say that they have good and bad news:eek: Ok whats the good news.... Well the motor runs great.:D Then ok whats the bad news.... The car won't move:mad: They say that when she overheated the car that it also burned up the tranny So I question this saying that we had never had trouble with the tranny not even a slip whatsoever. So they pull the pan off and say that there is a lot of metal in the fluid and it will not pump fluid at all:mad: So I ask how can this be that it was fine when I brought it to you and now nothing? They still were saying that it must be our fault. So they offer to try a new filter and fluid to see if that helps out the situation any and I agree at this point whats another 75 bucks or so. Well that dosen't take care of it either still nothing no forward gears or reverse. So I get pissed off tell them to push it outside and I would figure something out. Now she had already spent around 3000 on the motor and having it put in so I knew that she would freak out having to spend another 2000 or so on a tranny. I talk to a buddy of mine that does some work out of his garage and asked if he could put a tranny in for me. He agreed and I located a used one for a fair price 450 with not too many miles on it and went and picked it up and brought it over to him. After he got the old tranny out he called me and said that I might want to take a look at the old one before he threw it out cause something didn't look right. I went and picked up the old tranny and took it to another shop in town and had them look at it for me, they said that when the motor and tranny were put together that they broke the front pump:eek: yep thats why it wasn't pumping any fluid. So I go back to the first shop and explain what I had found out and asked if they would be willing to take care of this since it was there fault. At first the owner said that there was no way that it was their fault but he would check it out and get back to me. A few days went by and he called this morning to ask me to stop in and talk to him. I walked in the door and he walked up to me and said that he was sorry for any problems that it had caused me and also to bring in my reciepts and he would fully reimburse me for all costs with having to replace the tranny. I went and got my stuff and went back and 10 minutes I had a check for the tranny labor to put it in and also a couple hundred bucks that I had already given them to troubleshoot the old tranny. I am glad that they admitted to their mistake makes me realize that not everyone is out to make a buck these days. He also stated that he wished they had taken more time to investigate the problem and might have been able to get away with just putting in a new pump and everything would have been fine and not cost the $1400. So I actually had a good day for once!


Mark

halo71

Cool that it worked out for you! Reading the first part I was thinking it wasnt looking too good for ya.

audiobliss

Wow, that was very nice of the shop. Totally something they should have done, but seeing as how no one seems care about that these days, it comes across as being very nice.

Great to hear some places DO still care about integrity and doing the right thing!

Polkersince85

There a still a few good people out there. I think you found one of them.

tonyb

Somebody in that shop is honest, lucky for you. Here in Chicago, you would have received a polite middle finger, a slap on the back, and told to get lost and prove it.

Glad it worked out for ya.

GMiller

Can I suggest you put a note of such honesty on a local service-type bulletin, such as Angies list? That is just the type of endorsement I look for when requiring service or trade skills. The shop owner could benefit from this as well.

Jstas

I know what happened there. One of his monkeys hamfisted the install and broke the tranny. Slammed it together anyway and lied to the boss man about it. The boss man is gonna believe his guy but when you come back with hard, irrefutable evidence, the boss man wonders what's going on. Finds out the monkey screwed the pooch on that one, lied and possibly cost him a customer. So bossman makes it right and he's praying that you come back and that you don't tell everyone he's a shiester. 'Cause honestly, having worked for small mom and pop type shops, he isn't happy and the fact that somebody questioned his integrity likely means more to him than the loss of the money.

I'll bet he has at least one new mechanic next time you go.

It happened at a shop I was working at. I watched the guy botch an install on a $2700 drivetrain computer in a Mercedes. He fried the whole board with a half-assed, short-cut install and blamed it on the customer. There was nothing I could do to stop it when it happened but when I came in the next day and heard what was going on, I pulled the boss aside and told him what I saw. He wasn't happy but he apologized to the customer and said he would cover it. The customer was more happy that he was vindicated and split the difference because it was so expensive. He fired that mechanic while the Mercedes owner was standing at the service desk. A week later the Mercedes owner called up for an appointment for an oil change and tire rotation. My boss was grinning ear to ear after that.


Hold on to your mechanic, dude. He's gonna trust his guys and that can cause problems. But he realized the mistake, apologized and made it right. That is an honest man there.

snow

Good deal all around.



REGARDS SNOW

ben62670

audiobliss wrote: »

Wow, that was very nice of the shop. Totally something they should have done, but seeing as how no one seems care about that these days, it comes across as being very nice.

Great to hear some places DO still care about integrity and doing the right thing!

Amen

Ron-P

Very cool it all worked out.

Suggestion though, use paragraphs next time please.

hearingimpared

Great story, good mechanic. Kudos to you for helping your ex out.

gdb

Not to be too negative but, I wonder how much the first shops position would have changed if you hadn't consulted with the two other techs, who immediately recognized what had been done wrong.

raidersrule76

gdb wrote: »

Not to be too negative but, I wonder how much the first shops position would have changed if you hadn't consulted with the two other techs, who immediately recognized what had been done wrong.

true one never knows!

Mark

TNRabbit

You need to throw business that guy's way. I found a Chrysler dealer in Maryland (Fred Frederick) that has been run by the same guy for 50 years & they are as honest as the day is long. Worked on my fiance's PT Cruiser for 4 hours one day for no charge because they couldn't find what was wrong! Honest mechanics should be rewarded. We went back 2 weeks ago & had $2k worth of work done by them.

TECHNOKID

audiobliss wrote: »

Wow, that was very nice of the shop. Totally something they should have done, but seeing as how no one seems care about that these days, it comes across as being very nice.

Great to hear some places DO still care about integrity and doing the right thing!

tonyb wrote: »

Somebody in that shop is honest, lucky for you. Here in Chicago, you would have received a polite middle finger, a slap on the back, and told to get lost and prove it.

Glad it worked out for ya.

gdb wrote: »

Not to be too negative but, I wonder how much the first shops position would have changed if you hadn't consulted with the two other techs, who immediately recognized what had been done wrong.

Not too sure if any "WOW" is appropriate here... Jstas explains quite well what could have happened in that shop. However, suddenly tranny doesn't work after replacing the motor would lead the mechanic/mechanic shop supervisor to go back and check what could have happened before dumping this back on client. I too wonder how this shop would have reacted if it weren't of the 2 outside shops (3rd party) that proved/led to the failure of the first shop. I too agree that there are still good people out there but just a tought, was this shop somehow cornered into be "good people" for that specific problem? No one will ever really know...