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So in the end I really was going to let this go and call it a lesson learned. The very end of what happened with this made me believe I needed to share what happened so everyone had the heads up.
The first part of this is a huge bummer. When I pulled my car out of storage this spring there was something wrong. My air conditioning blower motor stopped working. When I turned it on it just made a grumbling growling noise and didn’t work. I also noticed inside the car it smelled a little bit like a zoo. All it took was a quick Google search to figure out what happened. Mice made a nest in my blower motor. I read a lot about it, watched a couple video’s, priced out a new blower motor and then called my normal mechanic. He knew exactly what was going on but really wanted no part of it. Work for me has been busy so I had no time for attempting it myself. I figured I would get a couple quotes and have someone do it. Blower motor about $100 retail. Easy to swap. Pull off the plate by the windshield wipers and vacuum it out real nice. Fairly easy job just dirty.
I called 2 places. DM Corvette dmcorvette.com and Corvette Mike. Both places were told what happened with the Mice. We asked for a quote to replace the blower motor and remove the front plate by the wipers and vacuum out the debris. Corvette Mike send an estimate of $325 to do the work and D&M Corvette gave me $433. Corvette Mike had a 2 week wait and D&M was able to pick the car up that day. I wanted this out of my car as quick as humanly possible so I went with the instant gratification. This was on a Thursday D&M started.
Monday morning we get an email from Thomas from D&M. It has pictures and the charges for the work. From the pictures you can see the dash is already pulled. They made no attempt to contact me to revise my estimate at all. A half a dozen times while researching this problem I saw discussion about how people get ripped off because dealers pull the dash and charge them over 1K when the dash does not need to be pulled. If they would have called me with a revised estimate I would have said no.
Then the picture of the “supposed” leak and the quote to fix it. My car sits on this perfectly clean blue floor. Prior to taking it to D&M and for the last few days it has been back there has not been a drop of anything under my car. Adding to this mystery my check engine light has been on since last fall. I am throwing 2 codes. One is from the shift skip mod and the other is either from my vararam or might even be an issue. I expected them to ask me about the check engine light and if all went well was going to get their opinion. Not once through this whole thing did they even bring up the check engine light. Luckily the water pump was not worked on and did not complicate this situation even more.
I immediately responded to the email from Thomas and said do not fix it I am not approving above the original quote. Thomas responded back to me attaching the $1k+ bill back and saying “Hello Ted. Car just has to get finale wash and vacuum tomorrow morning, Review attached and call me when time allows later today or tomorrow .”
When I called Thomas back he admitted not giving me an updated quote. Kept pushing for me to at least meet him in the middle. I told him I was not willing to pay anything over the original estimate and I would be an angry customer if they made me. After continuing to argue for a bit Thomas said he would check with management and get back to me. After checking they removed the dash labor and put the charges back to where they estimated. At this point I felt they tried to rip me off but I was going to just let it go. A guy at work has been wanting to drive my Z06 so I brought him with to pick it up. He drove the car back to the office. It sat in the lot the whole day at my office until I went to drive it home. When I opened the door I realized they put the old blower motor full of dead mice and debris on the floor in front of the passenger seat. In the sun you can imagine how my car smelled. I immediately removed it from the car and threw it in the office dumpster. I drove home with the windows open in disbelief and that is when I decided to write about what happened.
I hope this helps someone not go through the same thing I just did.
I needed clutch work, I checked them out and Corvette Mike and did not use either. I really don't have a place to recommend but I do like Bill Kay but they really charge a lot. I say do it your self if you know how and it sounds like you do. I have started to do a little myself and it have saved a little cash and I now know what was really done. Avoid D & M I do
In retrospect my cousin said I should have seen the red flag when they had no work and were willing to pick up the car and start immediately! I was blinded by the overwhelming need to get that out of my car though
One of my coworkers and friends with a C3 swears by them and I checked them out after that he knew I was having clutch problems at the time. Another friend with a C4 used them, did not like them, his story was similar to your story. Now he uses Firestone in Lemont and I use them for certain things too, like maintanence I try not to let then do repairs.
only guys i know that like D&M is the ones who feel the have to pay top dollar to get there car fixed because they feel its on the same level of a Ferrari, 5 hours to remove the dash is insane for some one who works on corvettes daily! i installed a HUD in my 01z never had the dash out before and with cutting the hole and fitting every thing it was about 2 hours
they know a lot of guys that drive these cars have money but no knowledge of how to do the repairs, i had them look over my last z06 when i bought it they gave me a quote for $10,800 to replace the exhaust, clutch, HVAC unit & drivers mirror glass i got every thing done for less then $4k ($6500 was parts cost of new exhaust)
This is D & M Corvette in Downers Grove, IL and they have been know to do this to customers for many years.
They did the same to a friend of mine back in 1978 with her 57 Corvette. She brought it in for a tune up. they said you need a new carb and a tune up, she said ok. With that they rebuilt her motor and gave her a bill for over $5000
06-09-2016, 01:25 PM
D&M Corvette SHADY
