Fixmom, I don't know what to say (but I will anyway ). After reading your follow up post, besides taking the advice of where you might find a shop in your area, you seem to have fallen off the edge of a cliff as far as costs go. This is being said with all due respect for you and your husband.

Would you please take the time and tell us what you had done (or what D&M says) to the car? I know labor rates are high, but I do know a little bit about pricing, as do the others in this entire thread (including Rick).

I am a bit "surprised" at the total dollar number of $3300. Please explain. I can't speak for the others, but I won't take you to task for it. I'd just like to understand what $3300 bought for your car. I can say that probably if the numbers are out of line, there might be a new thread on D&M.

 

I second that bogus.

 

Exactly... I'm curious to know what you they gave you for $3300 I mean you can buy another car for that or many other things... But I suppose it's also really not our business either so I appollogize for my curiosity...

-=Rick

 

Ya got that right! Oldest trick in the book (well, 2nd oldest ).

 

With all due respect, something is starting to sound a bit fishy here. "A ton of other stuff" like windshield wipers?

1) What exactly did they replace?

2) Why is it that you never called Rick to take him up on his FREE offer?

and if the oil filter was marked with a date from 05, you mean to say you paid $14K for this car and you never had the car put on a lift to see the underside before buying it?

 

I almost bought my 1st corvette from these morons back in 1993.
I put money down on the car and asked for a few specific things to be fixed before I picked it up. I live around 120 miles from them so I called them b4 I went to pick it up and they told me it would be done by the time I showed up.
I show up and they didn't touch the damn car yet. My ride had to head home due to working 3rd shift and needing sleep. They told me if I hung around they'd work I it. I told em to pound sand.
I wouldn't buy used peanut brittle from them.

 

 

(this means I'm waiting for a response from the fixmom and I'm trying to be patient...but it's not easy...I hear ya, Mr. P.)

 

ok, Mom... what up??? talk to us!!!!

We need the details!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I think mom gave up ..... My vette with 356000 miles on it , blue book , aint worth 3000 dollars. That is quite high. Cant you buy a small block from GM for 1500.00?... hmmmm. Wheres MOMMA?????

 

I don't think you can get a shortblock LT1 from GM for 1500... but it ain't much more.

Like many folks, people will gravitate towards the "specialist" or "expert" because of the cashe that brings. My sister-in-law is much like that. She has difficultly beleiving a person can be trained in one thing, yet excel at others.

All I can say is this:

If you own ANY Corvette, or high performance sports car, really, you had better have:

a) the ability to service it yourself, or

b) deep pockets.

My 92 has only seen a garage for service a handful of times. The first, was for diff and tranny fluid change service. Three hours (they didn't have the lube, and my appt was screwed up) and $100 later, I was done. I never went back.

Then came the clutch fiasco... That ended up costing me about $2k by the time it was done. I ordered a SPEC Stage 1 and was using a GM F-body flywheel... those *** holes at SPEC sent the wrong pressure plate. And tried to blame me for it. I will never deal with them again. NEVER.

Oh, then my fav... the blown up clutch line... the damned hose ruptured. my driveway sucked to work on cars, so there was no jacking up there... I took it back to the same shop, who hung on to the car for a ****ing week (while they 'squeezed me in.' What part of "emergency" don't they understand?? I didn't plan this failure)... the part that burns me, I coulda gotten a new hose for $70.00, and DIY, but instead got nailed for $215.00... ugh. Broke my heart. They did it to **** me off, too. I know it. And it succeeded. Not only did I never go back there, I never recommended them to anyone else, either.

I do my own work. That's all there is to it. For the $3300 this shop is charging, I can by a **** load of tools.

And I bet $$ I know what is happening, too. Let's say that she needs a waterpump and optispark. The labour for the opti is 4 hours. But the waterpump has to come off anyway. The labour for doing a WP is 2 hours, they are adding the labour together as 2 separate events. She is getting double tapped. That's criminal.

So, mom, where are you? All we want to do is help you and your husband enjoy your Corvette to the best of it's potential. Not to cast judgement, just to help. Great offers have been extended here, excellent diagnostic advice, and even some legal remedies have been suggested.

Talk to us.

 

Perhaps Mom and hubby went and gunned down the dealership folks and now they're inthe big house without internet access.

That would explain the disappearing act.

 

With all due respect to qualified DIYers, there are some reputable service professionals out there with high standards, both technically and ethically. Its just not fair to peg an entire industry, auto repair, doctors, lawyers, whatever, based on the few. Not everyone is capable of servicing their own car. Not everyone wants to, even if they can. A large percentage of our workload, because we are performance based is mopping up after DIYers. Should we peg all of you as idiots because some of you get in over your heads and call us to bail you out? Sorry about the hijack, done preachin, off the soapbox. God forbid there's any typos!lLOL
PS I PMed fixmom and offered advice, assistance @ no charge. So much for all of us being crooked, eh?

 

I never said they were all crooks. And if it was implied, that was a mistake that wasn't meant to be.

My point was MY personal experiences and observations.

Sure, shops are in business to make money, yet there is an ethical responsibility to do it well, and to not harm the customer in the process. As I see it, the Corvette shop she bought the car from is highly unethical - changing plug wires to fix a code 36? Yea, right. They were evading the 50/50 warrantee - which thanks to consumer laws, hasn't been evaded at all. If a known problem continues to exist outside of warrantee, it is still covered.

My shop did a fair job with the clutch... but royally torqued me off when, as a repeat customer, was made to wait a week to do a 90 minute fix. That was immoral, if not unethical. It also told me to what extent they valued me as a customer. Not much, really. I pay, I pay on time, and I don't nag - but I do follow through - meaning, I call when I say I will call, not more, not less. I am a concerned consumer. If that makes me some kinda nerd, so be it. I refuse to get railroaded.

D&M, I am sure, did a good job fixing her car. I am sure it will be in fine running condition when done, too. My concern was simply the price. And even the best shops will go all googly-eyed when they see a new, inexperience customer come in the door. Toss in the cryptic nature of the new fangled estimate forms and bills, people can't even read them!! They're so damned confusing, even to me!

To be honest, I suspect my angst with service shops centers on the service writers, who are encouraged to upsell and push products on the customers. It's dubous at best. The techs are good, the sales holes ruin it. I will not go back to a service center where the writers try to upsell me. Never. It angers me, it insults my intellegence. And I won't stand for it. It is also sleezy.

My feeling about a good shop is that they do what you need done. That engenders a trust. An important trust between vender and customer. Once that has been established, when a real problem shows, the vender can say, "ma'am/sir, our techs were changing the oil when we found the CV boots were badly damaged and leaking grease. It wasn't like this last time, so we caught it soon enough to simply replace the boots." Do you know how much trust that type of statement engenders? wow. Huge. They weren't upselling them for new axles, no, just boots.

I used that example, cause it happened to a friend at my local honda dealer. They said, "I donno... lemme check it out," and they called me. I said, DO IT! The message was clear - the part was damaged. It needed replaced. But no upselling occured. That is a good service department.

How many stories have we heard of folks taking their car in for a cheapo alignment at the local Firestone, only to find out the ball joints were bad. My sister-in-law's father took his car in, only to be told just that... he went down, took the car, and said "The ball joints were new 4 months ago. I am never coming back here. God damned thieves!" I am sure everyone has heard such a story. I have read about just that scenerio in many a news report and on TV.

Hell, here in L.A., there was a big NBC 4 investigation on a chain (I don't remember which, so I won't guess) of auto repair shops. Each time they took the car in (preinspected by their hired tech, of course), they were upsold for additional services they didn't need. At the same time, hidden cameras PROVED none of the work was actually done!

How is that kinda story going to help the industry? It really does harm the collective, eh? And yes, it's wrong for folks to make that connection - one chain is bad, all shops are bad. But people do it.

What would help is knowledge. People don't know enough about their car to know what is right and what is wrong. Everyone should be required to take a basic auto maintenance course. If nothing else, it would create a population of much more educated consumers.

 

Bogus, I very much apperciate your clarification. I agree with you that the store they bought the car from doesnt seem like a stand up business. I also question the cost of the repairs by the other shop. As far as TV shows that target auto shops, what they dont bother to tell you is they may have had to try and "sting" a 1/2 doz shops before they found one to rip them off. Dont know for sure, but its possible. As far as the practices of alot of service centers, thats one of the reasons I am in business for myself. Just trying to make a differance one person at a time. I also appreciate your lack of sarcasm, or attitude, or "better than the rest" or "know it all" or any of the other crap thats so prevalent (hope I spelled that right) on the internet. Again sorry for the hijack, dont mean to make it about me.

 

no, no hi-jack. It's a legit continuation of this thread.

The sting by the news crew was too easy:

NBC 4 Oil Change Ripoff.

NBC 4 Followup to Oil Change ripoff

NBC 4 Auto Repair Fraud

Here lies the problem - too many shops are out for every last penny. Many, like the franchises, are forced to pay huge fees, so the system forces them into upselling. It's survival. And it reinforces what is wrong with the industry. To have a name costs big bucks, but means nothing.

 

 

Those videos make me sick.

 

I guess what bothers me the most is the focus on the auto industry. Not here on this forum, but in general, and in the media. I mean, theres crooked appliance repair people, carpenters, in every occupation. it just seems we get nailed all the effing time. I mean, look at the white collar crooks who take peoples retirements. How about paying 8 bucks for a beer at a ball game? OK I guess thats a little different. Moral of the story, some of us are pretty decent (that dont look right) guys. Best thing is personnal references. And yes, it seems that the bottom line for alot of businesses, auto or otherwise IS the bottom line. When more often it should be about customer service. We do pretty well treating people right. We could do better financially if we hammered people, but we wouldnt have the return rate that we have.

 

What's more sickening is how these jerks intentionally lie about their actions, and then simply cower away when confronted with the video tape.