Complaint Review: AAMCO Transmissions - Gilbert Arizona

My husband brought our 2000 Mitsubishi Monterro Sport SUV to AAMCO Transmission of Gilbert, AZ for a routine transmission service (replacement of fluids, etc.) in preparation for our road trip the next day from Chandler, AZ to Southern, CA. This was to be with our family for Christmas.

Except for the ride back to our home in Chandler from AAMCO, the car was not driven after it was serviced until we left for our trip at approximately 3:30 p.m. the next day, Friday, December 23, 2005. We have made this drive many times in under 6 hours. Our hosts expected us around 9:30 p.m. as we planned to drive straight through.

Approximately 60 miles from home, our Neutral light came on and my husband felt what he thought was transmission slippage. Note that we have never had a problem with our transmission, nor was one identified by the AAMCO External Diagnostic Service on our invoice from the AAMCO shop from the day before.

We immediately pulled off the road and my husband inspected the car and looked underneath. He saw that a pinkish liquid was leaking out from the underside and that there was an alarming amount of backsplash on the rear of the vehicle. We immediately called the Aamco store and spoke with Tom, who identified himself as its Customer Service Manager.

By then, we had asked passers by from the area about where there might be a repair facility. As we told Tom, all told us that there was no repair facility anywhere nearby, and this was confirmed by AAA who I had phoned. We asked AAA to send us a tow truck but the one and only tow truck they could find on duty in that area, being a Friday evening and the night before Christmas Eve, would not tow us because we had our two puppies with us which we obviously could not leave.

We reported all this to Tom who offered no help after telling us that the shop was getting ready to close for the weekend. He merely said to keep him posted and that the shop number was going to forward to his cell phone. We made him aware that we stranded on the outskirts of the AZ desert with our puppies and a loaded car with no nearby repair facility, no available tow service, and family expecting us for Christmas.

We then called the national number for FIND-AAMCO listed on AAMCO's invoice. (The invoice states that this is who to call in case of breakdown while traveling out of town). The referrals only led to other closed shops.

Finally, AAA phoned me back with a single repair shop that was still open until 9 p.m. back in Phoenix. While this shop does not do internal transmission repairs, they stated that they had experienced mechanics who could inspect and possibly diagnose the cause and location of the leak. We had no choice but to drive the vehicle the few miles to this facility where it was determined by several mechanics that the car had been over-serviced (too much fluid added) causing the upper seals to leak, possible cooler lines to leak and the pressure switch to leak. They could not tell from this inspection if the over-servicing had caused internal damage to the transmission, however, they advised us against taking the vehicle on a road trip based on the possibility that it was transmission slippage that we experienced right before we pulled over.

Due to the vast amount of transmission fluid splatter to the exterior and underside of our car, and the fact that the dip stick still registered as over the full mark, after around 80 miles of driving from the point the car left your shop, the mechanics at this facility told us that they were able to say with certainty that the transmission had been over-filled with fluid by AAMCO. They further explained that one way this can happen is that the servicing technician fails to monitor the machine when it is inserting the fluids, and that the machines can also be faulty (as all machines can be).

We called Tom back but could only reach his voice mail. We left word of everything that transpired.

By then, it was around 9:30 p.m., some 5 hours after we had initially pulled off the road due to the Neutral light coming on. We should have been almost at our Southern CA destination by this point!

We felt totally stranded and abandoned by AAMCO at this point. We could not get a tow. The shop we were at could not make the repairs. The AAMCO shop in Gilbert that had done the servicing was closed for the weekend. The Customer Service Mgr. for AAMCO offered no immediate help. AAA could not find any other open repair facility in the area. Our SUV was filled with luggage, Christmas presents, two puppies and their kennel and supplies, and two adults. We were expected in California that evening. Our family Christmas celebration was taking place the next day, Christmas Eve.

Our only recourse was to leave our vehicle and to rent a comparably sized vehicle to get us to California. We called all the car rental companies we knew of. The only location open for all of them was at the Phoenix airport which, itself, was a nightmare to navigate through. Hertz and others were either sold out entirely being the start of Christmas weekend, or they did not have a car available of a size sufficient for us to transfer our luggage, Christmas gifts, puppies, kennel and pet supplies, etc.

Finally, Budget Rent-a-Car (also out of SUVs), offered us a comparably sized but very costly rental vehicle which they said was the only one they could provide that was large enough to hold us, the puppies, luggage, kennel and pet supplies, Christmas gifts, etc. Despite that this rental was far more than we could afford, we felt compelled to go ahead with it because there were no other alternative (remember, it was the start of Christmas weekend and most everything was reserved already). We thus headed the short distance from the shop to the airport. We phoned Tom and explained the situation and that we would expect reimbursement for this and related expenses.

Budget would also not permit our car to be left in their lot. We had to therefore drive our car through nightmarish holiday traffic at the airport and find parking, a major issue with the full airport. We could not take the shuttle back to budget because of our puppies. I am disabled so my husband was not going to leave me. We therefore had to cart ourselves and the puppies by Taxi back to Budget after parking by the airport terminal. (Imagine my husband having to push me in a wheelchair from the outdoor airport parking to the taxi area as I tried to hold onto two squirming puppies who were scared to death of all the XMAS crowds and traffic).

Then, the Taxi would only take us for a fare of $20 being that it was so short a distance and that the driver was going to have to pull out of the taxi wait line on such a busy night.

By now it was going on 11 p.m., some 6.5 hours after we first pulled off the road due to the warning light. Our puppies were restless and my husband and I were getting very tired.

I used points and cash to reserve a hotel room in Palm Springs, because my husband no longer felt rested enough to drive the whole way as planned. We finally reached the hotel at 4:30 a.m., some 12 hours after we first pulled off the road and 13 hours after we left home. (We should have been at that point in the drive after only 3.5 hours after leaving home).

90 minutes later, we were awakened by our cell phone. Tom, AAMCO's Customer Service Manager, had phoned at 6 a.m. California time (still only 7 a.m. AZ time) and left a message. While we appreciated the gesture, the 6 a.m. timing was not appreciatedparticularly under all the aforementioned circumstances!

He said in his message that he would speak with the shop's owner and that we would hear from him today, Monday, December 26, 2005.

When we did not hear from him, my husband initiated a call to AAMCO late this afternoon and again spoke with Tom. Tom said the owner did not call us because he was waiting for *us* to call but that he had now left for the day.

We wondered why he would not have initiated a call since Tom had our cell phone number and it was on the AAMCO invoice. Nonetheless, my husband asked Tom to have him call if he called in. Within the hour, the owner, John Lindsay, phoned my husband's cell phone. My husband felt that he was very sarcastic and that he showed no interest in reimbursing us for the actual cost of the expenses we incurred due to their "servicing" of our vehicle. He found him to be argumentative and combative.

In frustration, my husband passed the phone to me. Mr. Lindsay was hostile to me as well and talked over me refusing to let me speak. When I managed to finally squeeze in that I would take various actions in this matter if he chose not to show any interest in cooperating and discussing the matter civilly, he hung up on me.

I cannot believe that any reputable business would not want to offer total reimbursement for these unplanned expenses that could only have been partially avoided by our missing all of our family Christmas plans. In my opinion, from his conduct to date, Mr. Lindsay seems to feel that he can hide behind his limited warranty and seems to not care about the human factor and decency. I hope I am wrong and once he really understands what we had to go through that he will do what is right.

Until we get back and can get an unbiased opinion from another transmission repair facility as to possible internal transmission damage caused by AAMCO'S servicing, we will not know the final tally of what AAMCO has cost us. To date, we do know that the car rental, taxi, parking and hotel have totalled around $1,000. (For this, we could have taken a first class flight to CA had this been in our Christmas budget--which it wasn't).

As a business executive and former business owner, I have always operated on the principal of business decency. As my Grandaddy always said, a contract is only as good as the character of the people who sign it!

I am still hoping that Mr. Lindsay will show his character, decency and good faith by doing what is right in this matter. Otherwise, BUYER BEWARE! We took our car in for a routine service to "transmission experts" when it was running fine. Now we have expenses estimated at $1,000 and mounting and do not yet know if there will be additional costs to repair damage to our transmission or even to replace it due to this "servicing."

The Magnusson-Moss Warranty Act was put in place to insure that consumers get what they pay for. What this means, for example, is that if one buys a can opener the consumer should be able to count on the fact that it will open cans. Translated to this situation, if I go to a transmission specialist for a routine service with a car that operates fine and has never had any transmission problem, I should be able to count on the competence of the service technician and the equipment to function properly and my vehicle should come out of the servicing in better shape--not worse.

I trusted your shop Mr. Lindsay, so what will it be? "Bah Humbug" or your doing what is fair, right and decent?

Mimi (nickname)

Chandler, Arizona
U.S.A.

Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Aamco Transmissions