;
  • Report:  #1220563

Complaint Review: indian river auto & transmission repair - Virginia beach Virginia

Reported By:
Alfreda - norfolk, Virginia, USA
Submitted:
Updated:

indian river auto & transmission repair
5225 indian river road Virginia beach, 23464 Virginia, USA
Phone:
17575024730
Web:
indianriverautorepair.com
Categories:
Tell us has your experience with this business or person been good? What's this?

To Whom It May Concern,

On 12-10-2014, I was looking up different companies for Diagnostic Check on the internet. The second one that popped up was Indian River Auto & Transmission Repair. What caught my attention was that it posted that they give free Diagnostic Checks and I also qualified for a 20% discount because I was a student in school. To me that was the best deal compared to all the ads.

So I called Indian River Auto & Transmission Repair and asked when they could check my car. The gentleman that I talked to was Tom. He said they were busy today it would have to be tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. I brought it in 12-11-2014. Tom gave me a paper to feel out called the Customer Intake Form (I still have a copy of the paper). It asked me what problems I noticed wrong with my car. I wrote oil leaking and knocking noise under the hood. I told Tom that I wanted a full Diagnostic Check for any problems.

After I dropped my car off, I had to call them to see if they found anything wrong with my car two days later. Tom said yes they found a lot of things wrong and the bill would be near $1700 not including the 20% off.  So I told him I would come over there so he can give me a break down of everything the car needed. Tom said o.k. 

On 12-12-2014, I was there within an hour. When I got there he started writing everything down that needed to be done plus the amount of time it would take down on the back of the Customer Intake Form. The total ended up coming to $1623.93 plus tax not including the 20% off. I asked him how much it would be if I got the parts myself Tom said “near $1000”. I said o.k. I will be getting my own parts. He seemed disturbed about that.

I requested that he give me a list of all the parts I would need. He wrote it on a little business card. I was supposed to get a Timing Chain Kit I asked him what that consisted of he wrote Guides, tensioner/gasket. I told Tom I wanted to make sure I got everything I needed. Also on the list was Gasket/valve cover, oil sending unit, shocks (rear) 2 and Belt (drive).

I brought all the parts from Advance Auto Parts and Auto Zone. On 12-13-2014 I took all the parts to Indian River Auto. I asked, did I get everything that was needed. Tom said “yes” and he claimed it would be ready in two days. I came up there 12-15-2014 and he said everything was not done, I needed another part. It was something with the guides. He called over to Auto Zone, a few doors down, to see if they had the part. They so I immediately went and purchased it from them and brought it back to Indian River Auto. I never received a call or anything from them about any missing part until I came up there.

I told him he did not write that down on the card and he told me I had everything. At the time I could not find the card he wrote on. I said o.k. and left. Tom said it would be ready by the end of the day. I received no call. On 12-16-2014 I called to see what was going on. Tom said he would call me back. I did not receive a call back until 12-17-2014. He said it would be done by 10:00 a.m. on 12-18-2014.

When I was dropped off there it was still not ready and I still had to wait for another two more hours for the car. Tom claimed “he threw in a free oil change for my inconvenience”. Plus he did not tell me that I would need any of those things when I purchased all the parts. I said o.k. the total on the receipt came to $962 without the student discount. The total he came up was $817 which did not include the 20% off. I asked him to call the owner since that is the only one that could change the prices. Tom said he would and I waited for almost an hour and a half, he never called at all. This on top of the two hours I had already been waiting for the car to be finish. So I went on and paid them.

Tom told me to come back for the two week checkup. I said o.k. When I left about 10 minutes later I called the shop and said I was still hearing the knocking noise under the hood. The very same noise I wrote on the Customer Intake Form. He said to give it a couple of days it would blow over it should stop soon because the car has not really been running. I responded alright but the noise still sounded the same. Then next the oil light came on I called Tom and told him about that. He said it was because they never reset the electrical unit for the dash board. I brought some oil and put it in. The light clicked off and I told him his people never put oil in it. Tom swore they did change the oil. 

The two week checkup was due on 01-05-2015; they said they were busy so I came on the 7th with a friend. They did not check the car. The thing the gentleman did was reset the electrical component. Tom said “it should be good now.” They did not fix or check the knocking noise or the oil. I called him and asked him to fax a breakdown of everything they had done to the car and invoice. Two weeks later around 01-19-2015 he faxed the invoice only. By this time I had called and told him that the engine light was coming on and off along with the oil light.

I kept calling to see when I could bring it in and to fax the total breakdown of everything they did to my car, which was written on the back of the Customer Intake Form. I never received it. He told me the problem was that I did not buy all the right parts for the Timing Chain Kit. Tom said he wrote Timing Chain Component Kit, which he did not. I found the cards he wrote on. I asked him why did he not call and tell me about it he said he thought I could not afford it. Then Tom said he would call me back.

The oil and engine light came on again I brought 2 quarts of oil and the engine light went off but the oil light stayed on. I kept calling telling Tom that they did not put oil in it and about the engine light.  He reminded me that they did that free of charge.

I stop driving my car for a while and went out of town. On 02-04-2015 I started driving car again and I noticed that the oil light was still on.  On 02-11-2015 while I was on my way to work both the engine and oil light came on. I checked the oil stick and it was bone dry, so I went and brought 5 quarts of oil to put in the car. I proceed to go to work, five minutes later the car starts jerking back and forward. This had never happened before; I continued to go to work and parked the car. When I got off work 1:30 a.m. the car would not started. 

That morning I called Indian River Auto& Transmission Repair. I asked for Tom, when he answered I asked him again could he fax everything that was done to my car step by step. He asked me what the problem was. I explained what happened with the car and it was not working anymore at the time. I told him that the car would make a noise and try to start but it would not turn over.  I noted that I felt like they were not trying to work with me and I was going to call The Better Business Bureau and report them to Service Pal. He said “instead of doing that, why don’t you; let us look at the car again. I will get it towed back here today”. I told him alright but “I will need you to call me and let me now the update on the car every now and again.” Tom said alright.

I waited a week they did not notify me so I called them around the 19th of Feb. Tom said the car would try to start but would not turn over. He told me that the car needed a starter. My mother took me up to the shop so he could explain to both of us what was wrong with car. He explained the same thing and called Auto Zone to see if they had one.  I went to pick it up and asked Tom for a copy of the invoice and copy of the Customer Intake Form when I dropped the starter off. I finally got all the paper work from him. Tom said everything would be done by Friday of that week.

I received no call. On February the 23rd I called him while I was on my way to work. Tom said the car still would not start and that the starter was not the problem.  I asked him why he did not contact me about the car; that always have to call them. He told me that they were very busy and even he was working on cars too. He also told me that it was not the starter it was the engine. The engine was sucking the oil in it but was not returning back to the correct place and that messed up the engine. He said he would see if one of his employees’ could fix it but later found out that they would have to send the engine to another company.

Tom called me 03-02-2015 and said I needed a whole new engine and it would be almost $2000 for just the engine. Then he said that he would call the owner and see what kind of deal he would work out for me. No one contacted me back. I went up there to get a couple of things out of the car and everyone was busy. I noticed the engine was still in the trunk.  I called them back 03-10-2015 or 03-11-2015, Tom asked me what I came up with. I told him I was waiting for him to call me back after he talked to the owner. He apologized and said let me call the owner and see what he says. I replied no, I would like you to ask the owner to call me back. He said alright.

On 03-13-15 the owner Travis called me back. I tried to explain to him how I felt that it was not my fault that the engine stopped working. Travis interrupted me and said that it was not their fault but he was will to work something out with me. I asked him would he let me finish what I was saying without you interrupting me. He said you can say whatever you want to say but I am going to say the same thing again. So I continued by telling him that I was having problems with Tom contacting me and was trying to tell him about the oil and the engine light been coming on since they worked on my car. He interrupted said that they never told him about my situation and them not called me back was hear say, he did not believe me.

I said “Sir you are not letting me finish what I am saying.” Travis told me to get to the point and started raising his voice to me. I told him he was being rude. I told him that I felt like it was their fault that they found nothing wrong with the car. I was complained about the oil problem and knocking noise under the hood. Tom tried to blame it on two other things before he said it was the engine. Travis said he did not believe me he was looking at the invoice and I’m not doing anything. Then he said “so what do you want to do we can work on it but nothing else.” Travis said he “never had a complaint from any other customers and everything was hear say”, he had not hear anything about my situation until yesterday.

I said “well can you get my car towed back to my house”. Travis told me that he was not in the business of doing work for free, and I would have to get it towed myself.  I called a company and got my car towed home.

I feel like Indian River Auto & Transmission caused the engine problem in my car or  the very least made it worst then it was. There is always a first time for a customer to complain not to be satisfied. I am not a satisfied customer of Indian River Auto & Transmission. They have showed poor customer service toward me. Not calling me about the missing part  should not have happen. Or not keeping me informed of the progress of my car. So I wonder, did or did not Travis know about the back log in “his” shop. Does his staff not inform him when they get back logged? I don’t believe I owe them for any repairs. They didn’t put the engine back in my car, it is still in the trunk of the car. It was not in the trunk when it was towed there. I am not used to this type of service/customer service. Usually, when a shop or business, tell me they are going to do a job it is done right. If there is a problem I can talk to management and get it resolved.

All I wanted to do was get my car repaired. Their ad sounded like the answer, now it seems that was not the case.

Respectfully yours,

Alfreda Miles

(((email redacted)))



Reports & Rebuttal
Respond to this report!
Also a victim?
Repair Your Reputation!
//