Business ProfileforRoy's Automotive Center, Inc.

I waited for than a week for an appointment on 2/20/23 appointment at 8 a.m. The vehicle was not seen by the staff on that day, shop closes, not so much as a courtesy phone call. The following day, I'm told the vehicle was being looked at for diagnosis at 8:23 am and as soon as they knew something, they'd call me. At 3 pm I receive a call saying the work will cost about $1,000. I conclude that to be too expensive and I'd rather the work NOT be performed, I'll take the vehicle back home. The vehicle is in excess of 30 years old. t would i told my bill was $140. Keep in mind this is the exact condition of my car as when I surrendered it the previous day; nothing had changed mechanically, The invoice read a diagnostic cause of $120, a $4.80 environmental fee, $7.20 for parts (what parts?!) and sales tax of $8.91. But service people have you by the proverbial testicles: Pay your invoice or you don't get your vehicle. Hence, you have no option but to pay. Worse, when I verbalize my dissatisfaction, the manager calls me and accuses me of being disrespectful to one of his employees and hangs up on me, I contend this to be a minor adjustment to my vehicle's mechanism or replacement of a filter, etc, Instead, i'm told it actually needs an ignition control module and a vehicle speed sensor. We'll see,

I will break up my response to address each of Mr. *******’s complaints Waited for a week for an appointment: We are a busy shop with a growing customer base. We do the best we can to notify customers of our current workload so they will be without their vehicle for the shortest time possible. Vehicle not being checked until the day after drop off: The customer was aware of our workload at the time of drop off and stated that he was fine if he didn’t hear back from us until the following day. We began diagnostic of the customer’s vehicle issue the next morning. The intermittent stalling issue required multiple test drives to determine the cause of the problem. We spent several hours driving the vehicle and testing multiple components. Complaint about diagnostic fee and shop supply fee: We notify all customers of our diagnostic fee when scheduling appointments over the phone. This is a common practice for most automotive shops. Diagnostic fees are to cover the labor time spent evaluating the vehicle and testing components to properly determine the issue the customer is experiencing. In this case, the diagnostic fee was significantly less than the amount Mr. ******* would have been charged if we broke our diagnostic time into labor hours on the invoice. We also apply shop supply fee to any work performed to cover the expense of shop rags and other materials used in the evaluation and/or repairs of vehicles. Environmental fees are also applied to cover proper cleaning and disposal of rags, fluids, and other materials. Our invoice clearly states that Mr. ******* was charged $7.20 for shop supplies. This is considered a materials/parts charge on the subtotal break down at the bottom of our invoice. A $4.80 environmental fee was also applied to his invoice. After spending the necessary time evaluating Mr. *******’s vehicle, we called him with a quote for repairs that included the diagnostic time and the cost for repairs to correct the issue. Mr. ******* declined the repairs, so the invoice only shows the charges associated with our diagnostic time, shop supply fee, and environmental fee. Response to Mr. *******’s dissatisfaction: Mr. ******* expressed displeasure at having to pay for the labor spend diagnosing his vehicle and used colorful language in the discussion with both the service manager and shop owner over the phone. The shop owner never hung up on the customer but did end the phone call after agreeing to pick up Mr. ******* and bring him back to the shop to pay the appropriate charges and get his vehicle. Mr. ******* continued to express his frustration on the drive to collect his vehicle. Dispute over the mechanical issue with his vehicle: While in transit to the shop, Mr. ******* asked if a fuel filter could cause the problem he was experiencing as he had never replaced it on the routine maintenance schedule. The shop owner agreed that the fuel filter was in need of replacement due to mileage and wear, but also reinforced that the fuel filter was not causing the stalling issue. The diagnostic revealed a more significant recommended repair to correct the issue. Our intent is to provide excellent service to every customer. It is unfortunate that we were unable to address Mr. *******'s concerns and keep him satisfied.

Rarely is one more vulnerable than when the primary mode of transportation is held hostage which is why all such dealings on my part are historically recorded on my cell phone. On review, a diagnostic fee is never mentioned.