ComplaintsforCarter's Auto Service, Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  11/05/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  PLEASE HELP ME! I'M ON SOCIAL SECURITY!! Date of transaction was 10/25, I paid $258.74, they told me they would replace the part (there was no heat coming out of the passenger side front of my ***** ******** and it would only take about 2 hours. They did not fix my car, I have no heat, and the light on my panel is still blinking. I have tried 3X to resolve it with them and they refuse to do anything. As a matter of fact they told me they will just charge me more money. Here is what I was told by the mechanic/manager/owner He told me..."It's been blinking the whole time I've been working on it. When I plug it in to run the codes it comes up as not fixed. You can leave it here and I can throw another part in and charge you another $400 if that will make you feel better, but I don't know what to tell you." He then went on to tell me that my heater is supposed to blink and not work for over a min when I turn the car on... It's ************ up...." What kind of mechanic says that.... He wouldn't even come out to my car and see for himself what was happening, he just told me he wouldn't give me my money back and he wouldn't fix my car!! I just want my money back so I can get my car fixed, I'm on social security, I live in *****, I need heat in my car. I need to get it fixed. I went to ******** because it was AAA approved, but they were awful. I have also complained to AAA. PLEASE HELP ME!!!

  Business response

  11/06/2023

  After being in business for 27 years, god knows I have made plenty of mistakes. One fact that I am proud of is that I always admit when I am wrong and stand behind the problem and take corrective action in a professional and fair manner. That being said, in this situation you have a customer who has lied and manipulated the situation because, I suspect, they dont have the money to fix it. 
  They called for an estimate to install a heater door actuator. We gave the estimate and they made an appointment. When I got the car in the shop the part had been removed and was hanging by the wire harness. To verify the problem I reinstalled it, sure enough it was not working as designed, it made a clicking noise and would not change the temperature. We did have a problem getting the new part that day and gave the customer the option to bring the car back another day of leaving it overnight. 
  Upon installing the part it became apparent that the heater box had other internal problems. But I was able to get the system working again and it was blowing hot air and switched to cold when commanded. Code 
  I believed the system would fail again in the future and this was stated to the customer when we called and clearly spelled out on the invoice, and I explained it again when they were paying the bill. 
  They picked up the car and came back to say it wasnt working. I went out with them and everything was working correctly. They said shut the car off and try it again. I did this several times and it worked every time. It was not sarcasm in my voice, it was frustration trying to understand what I was supposed to do. The heater was working and I told them that it would probably fail again if the broken heater box wasnt repaired. 
  I got a call a few days later and the customer said the heater wasnt working. I said lets make an appointment, no he wanted their money back and wasnt going to come back to our shop. Thats not how I do business. Then on Saturday when the shop is closed she comes to the door and knocks on it because the door is locked. I happened to be there and answered. She said the heater wasnt working and I told her again that the heater box was broken and had to be repaired for a correct repair. She said the box wasn't broken and she wanted her money back. 
  One thing I have learned is you cant make everyone happy. There should be a customer review website so a business could warn other businesses about unreasonable customers. 
  

  Customer response

  11/07/2023

  Better Business Bureau:I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # ********. Please add your rejection comments below; if you do not provide any details, your complaint will be closed as Answered. 

  [You must provide details of why you are not satisfied with this resolution.  If you do not enter a reason for your rejection, your complaint will be closed as Answered.]
  
  Businesses and Customers should be civil, courteous and polite in their responses to complaints. It is important to remain professional and productive when participating in the BBB complaint process.
  
  FAQ
  
  Regards,

  ******

   

   We never lied to them about anything, I told him that my husband had taken it apart and tried looking at it. When we got to the shop I told him that the glove compartment was on the seat of the car, and we didn't put it back together because we thought it might save some time with labor. We had also told him that this was not the first time we had had this part replaced, or had this particular problem, that's how we knew what part was needed. He asked me how I knew it was the blend door actuator and I told him we had had the part fixed 2 years ago at a different auto shop, the only reason I didn't bring it back to that shop is because they weren't *** approved. I wanted the *** guarantee behind the work. He quoted me $230 to fix that particular part, not $259. Then he called me up and told me his internet was down and that he needed to keep it overnight, he did offer for me to pick it up and drop it off again the next day but there's no point in wasting the gas so I left it there overnight so in the morning they could work on it. The next day he called and told me to pick my car up and he also said he took my cabin air filter out and was going to replace it, except it's a non-replaceable air filter. Any mechanic worth his salt would know that it was a K&N air filter and that it's non-replaceable you just clean it put and put it back in thats why I got it. I never asked him to touch my cabin air filter. My husband and I looked at it it, it wasn't even dirty. Again he was just trying to get more money out of us, trying to replace an air filter that didn't need to be replaced. Also if if you believe his story, and my heater box needs to be replaced, why wouldn't he have talked to me about that when he called me to let me know the air filter needed to be replaced, or that there was a problem with the codes in my car, he never said one thing about any heater box or codes. Instead when I come to pick my car up my heater is still not working, the light still blinking on the panel, and he wants $259. I don't know how he considers that good business ethic. Then he has a sarcastic attitude with me and tells me if I want to leave it there he'll charge me more money. Now at this point there's no way I could possibly bring my car back there, I don't trust him. According to him I don't have enough money to pay the bill, if that were true I wouldn't have paid it that day......but I certainly don't want to pay twice to have the same part fixed.

  Business response

  11/07/2023

  So I installed the part that you asked me to replace. First I installed the part that was taken out of the vehicle to verify the part was indeed faulty. I charged $28.74 more than was quoted. I spent more time on it because the **** system would not calibrate that actuator door with the scanner. All the other actuators calibrated correctly. I removed the actuator again and tested the linkage in the heater box and could tell it was not moving correctly. I wrote this out clearly on the invoice you paid for, and is attached to this report. I also explained it when you paid the bill. When I went out with you to look at the vehicle it was working as designed. You kept asking me to shut the engine off and restart it, but every time I did it was still working normally. You keep saying it did not work when you picked up the car. That is not true it was working and all three of us saw it. I told you the system would most likely fail again because it would not calibrate correctly and I believed the linkage was damaged. Why else would the part fail again after being replaced only 2 years earlier. What did I do wrong? The part I installed was bad the new part in the car is still good the system needs more diagnosis and repairs. I never said anything about $400, I only said to remove the heater box is a lot of work and if this actuator gets you by for a while it would be cheaper than fixing the heater box. You want your money back, when I performed the work you requested, and had already diagnosed yourself. Only charged you $24.78 more than the original estimate. The new part in the vehicle will still be needed when the rest of the repairs are performed. Is my time as a business owner worth nothing and should I give new parts away for free. When your husband called and told me the heater wasn't working I said lets make an appointment and I'll look at it. "NO" he said "I want my money back". You said you gave my three times to make it right? When were those three times? You called on the phone and asked for your money back and came to the shop when I was closed and expected my to go out and look at your vehicle. You keep saying I was sarcastic, I explained everything clearly when you paid your bill. You came back in and said it wasn't working. I got frustrated when you kept telling to shut the car off to see if it would fail again. And when it would not you got aggravated when I was explaining the problem with the heater box and kept saying "I don't know I'm not a mechanic" and you would not except the information I was telling about the heater box. The system was working and we could not get it to fail so I said "what do you want me to do". I fail to see what I did wrong, your car is broken and needs more repairs than you or I could have foreseen before the actuator was replaced. 

  Customer response

  11/15/2023

  Better Business Bureau:I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # ********. Please add your rejection comments below; if you do not provide any details, your complaint will be closed as Answered. 

  [You must provide details of why you are not satisfied with this resolution.  If you do not enter a reason for your rejection, your complaint will be closed as Answered.]
  
  Businesses and Customers should be civil, courteous and polite in their responses to complaints. It is important to remain professional and productive when participating in the BBB complaint process.
  
  Clearly we are not going to see eye to eye on this matter, I guess you think that thats good business practice. I have a car thats not fixed, but you charged me for it. Im not sure how in good conscience you can let me drive around with no heat, knowing that you took my money. You couldve told me on the phone when you called me that you thought something was wrong with my heater box and giving me a chance to discuss it with my husband. At that point, we couldve had a chance to have the heater box fixed if you thought that was the problem, or just stopped the whole process and not gotten the actuator fixed and had a chance to either bring it somewhere else to get a second opinion. Thats not what you did, you took my money instead and put in a part that you knew wasnt going to work, you just wanted to get my money for that part and the labor that you put into it. You .admittedly knew it wasnt going to work, you knew that it had been fixed two years prior and had already broken. If you were that good of a mechanic you wouldve called me and told me that it wasnt gonna work, that it was my heater box, and that I shouldnt be putting a new actuator in that I should fix the heater box as well as the actuator. Never once in any of the text messages or phone calls that you sent me or called me on did you ever mention my heater box.The only time that you mention the heater box was after you put my actuator in and I was picking up my car. Then you decided to let me know about the heater box. Thats just bad business.

  
  Regards,

  ******

   

   

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