Our 1992 mercury Grand Marquis was making a strange noise when you stepped off the gas for a moment and then reapplied. Like running over a gravel patch.
So we took it to the highly recommended Waynes AAmco.
First..the technician on the road test completely ignored my husband and revved the engine over and over again and wouldn't try to reenact the actions that caused the strange noise... despite this the noise occurred again but the technician denied ever hearing it.
So off to the computer where they got the error message manual lever position sensor... happily they (we think) replaced the sensor for a charge of FIVE hundred dollars.
We then discovered that this large business only accepted cash or credit cards... no debit at all. Strange but okay..had to wait a day to get to the bank and get cash.
Arrived back at AAmco..paid cash and was told by Chris the customer services guy that everything was great. We asked over and over again .."There is absolutely nothing wrong with the transmission? " "Absolutely not" Chris said..in fact Chris went on to say " we can't recommend anything else..your car is fine! "
Strange comment follows... if the Check Engine light comes back on call us..okay?
So off we drive, within 20 minutes..check engine light comes on and once again that noise is back.
So back we go... Wayne himself gets in the car..yup..there's that noise..how surprising!
And now the sell begins.
Chris generously offers to refund the labour cost of the sensor that wasn't the problem..how gracious. He says "I want you to have your money back" "let us keep the car and we will do a further investigation... I guess that means they will actually open the hood this time and look at the transmission..wrong again! Wayne reassures me he is on the problem!
Next day goes by..no phone call..we go to AAmco to meet Chris. Chris has checked the computer again... the computer shows no errors in the transmission... the very same computer that gave no errors but a sensor out of line that made Chris announce that our transmission was just great and working just fine... this time it's different.
Despite the fact that AAmco sent us home the first time happily announcing our transmission was fine based on the computer this time they don't trust the computer.
Now our transmission needs all the soft parts replaced..$440 for labour, another $500 to rebuild the transmission another $400 to replace the "soft" parts and wait for it $60 to replace the fluid... total cost $1500... and he graciously said he would give me CREDIT for the previous labour... how ingenious that yesterdays refund has now turned into a credit. I ask and he cries.."I never said that"
It was only a refund if they got to rebuild the transmission otherwise it was a dumb mistake that I have to pay for..despite the fact that the sensor had absolutely nothing to do with the problem we came in for. Chris says "It was a problem that needed to be fixed"..ofcourse it wasn't our problem that we came in for but hey who cares about that?
Chris begins the big sales pitch by telling me he will guarantee the work for three years... wow..it's a 1992 with over 250k's on it... that's optimistic.
I tell him to skip it and tell me why he thinks the car needs the soft parts. Technician experience he says, the same technician that wouldn't listen and denied hearing anything has know decided that his "experience" tells him we need $1500 worth of car repairs. I ask about the computer and am told the computer only diagnoses "electrical" problems and that this is a "mechanical" problem but he then goes on to say that in fact the computer can diagnosis mechanical problems like gear ratio errors or "locking up?
So I ask again if the computer said any of that and once again I am told the computer says no errors in the transmission.
So I ask for the computer print out..well surprise there isn't one... no one printed it out. Or did they actually do any more than the first one? Who knows? So back the car goes again to be tested and once again... no errors are found. Chris tells me they took the pan off and found nothing but wear..no shavings.
I finally decide that the whole thing has become way too weaselly for me.
I feel like the technician made no effort to check out the car at all. They got an error for a sensor and completely disregarded the complaints of the customer. They made no effort to apologize and instead I got agreements that the technician had problems with listening to customers before and it was an "internal" problem they were working on. They didn't fix what we complained about, they ignored us and they lied that the transmission was just fine and sent us home.
Worse they held the carrot of a refund and then pretended that it was only conditional on them finding more work. Bait and switch at it's best.
They had no answer for me when I asked what if they could find nothing wrong wouldn't I get my refund then?
I feel like they decided to announce the "soft parts" thing because they knew I wanted my money back and that was their hook to get me to spend even more money. I felt like I was in the middle of a really nasty scam and ofcourse Wayne was nowhere to be found.
I pulled my car out of there because it all felt wrong to me. Even if the transmission did need repair the technician I felt was definitely not someone I wanted near my car and I also felt Chris would find something else wrong..the dreaded hard parts he kept hinting at and I would end up with an astronomical bill.
We left and had someone else look at the transmission... he said they lied... the pan on the transmission had never been removed, thankfully it was clean.
I have no idea why they did this to us but I can honstly say I will never go back there and never recommend them.
Moia
locust hill, Ontario
Canada
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