AAMCO Transmission. Waukegan, IL. Manger: Mike
Brought my car to this place in spring after my deployment. Car wasn't finished until late summer. They were quick to take the car in. Being that they are AAMCO, they advertise total car care.
My car was throwing transmission codes which created a check engine light. They brought in the car. It took days just to access the situation. First, the plan was to rebuild the trans, which makes sense because of the codes that were coming up.
It took them over a month just to get to the car, have all the parts needed to do the job and actually start in on the transmission. I also had them do some minor suspension work (struts/rack & pinion) which they ended up hiring out to do, regardless of the fact they are total car coverage shop?
In the process of the rack anf pinion being replaced. I stopped by the shop. They were closed. I happened to see an aftermarket (not OEM ford) rack and pinion had been delivered. He told me on the phone that nothing less than the "ford oem" one was going into this car.
They notice there are still codes which they dismiss as being part of an aftermarket tune/modification I have on my car. Which again, is believable and was explained to me prior to the job anyways.
They finish the transmission and everything else like more than a month later (about 2 months total). I pick up the car. It has:
-something wrong with alignment/suspension even after having him do it already.
-shifter handle not even on right
-exhaust leak, exhaust is hanging wrong
-i observe a box (non-OEM brand) sitting next to my car with an old oily rack and pinion in it that i can identify as the same part as what my car uses. could the rack and pinion on my car NOT be the Ford OEM one i was under the impression I received on my car?
Next day I bring the car to my local tuner (different shop). He establishes the car is still not shifting out of 2nd or 3rd gear. (like before the trans was rebuilt.) And that he wasn't going to tune it because there was still something else wrong with it. This demonstrates that it does not need a tune, but that there is still something mechanically wrong with the car.
I bring the car back to AAMCO. The manager and his team go through the car again. The car is found to be good as far as they are concerned (the transmission and other parts such as electrical items that might affect my situation.)
AAMCO actually goes out of their way to get my car checked out by a local "car electronics" shop. They dont teach us anything new other than the codes we already knew it had. The electronic shop further establishes there is nothing wrong electronically between the computer and transmission.
AAMCO then sends my car to local Ford dealer. What the dealer does is equivalent to only "erasing" the computer or something of that sort. NO other tests were done to actually check out the car. I stopped by this local Ford dealer around that time (where the car had been sitting for over a week). One of the techs said it was dropped off but that their AAMCO contact never confirmed the work to be done so it had been sitting. Also, one of the Techs at Gurnee Ford of Gurnee, IL further expressed how they were going to get paid to do nothing BUT erasing/re flashing the computer. NO further diagnostics were being paid to be done, unlike what Mike at AAMCO had told me. (by having Gurnee Ford do what AAMCO was paying them to do, was in no way establishing if the computer was still good or not). Even the tech there was telling me this the day I went there to get something else at the dealership.
Reflashing/erasing the computer to supposedly check to see if it worked, did not solve the problem, the codes still persisted. As I had imagined would happen.
The car went back to AAMCO. I go back to get the car and it has weird scratches in the paint. The manager, Mike's stance at the time was that he was going to pay to have it fixed. And that he knew someone that could do it.
He sends the car off to somewhere to get the car detailed or something. It didn't get rid of the scratches.
The exhaust got adjusted by a local muffler shop at some point when the car was back with them. They couldn't get my exhaust back on right at AAMCO, again regardless of them being a total car care shop. (???)
The car gets sent to Victor Ford, another local Ford dealership. They end up putting a new computer in the car. They established that flashing/erasing the computer as AAMCO had paid Gurnee Ford to do, wouldnt have solved anything but put a new computer in, in order to see if it would fix the problem (of course this visit to the dealership was on my dime now). It fixed the problem with the transmission codes.
Why then, was i charged computer diagnostic checks as part of the regular check up of the car, they AAMCO wouldnt find this problem to begin with? They were so quick to put a rebuilt transmission into the car but never considered the computer even though they are a "total car care" shop.
So, I ended up getting a $3000+ transmission which I later find out probably wasnt even necessary and end up paying a dealership $1500+ for a new computer that would have solved the problem in the first place.
I later go to the shop again to address the exhaust leak that the car STILL had, also found rusty dirty old shocks in my trunk on my expensive trunk mat. Upon arriving I noticed he had put up signs saying that the shop isnt liable for damage done to cars there. (remember, my car had those scratches) Now Mike changes his tune from paying for the paint damage to, me needing to take it up with my insurance.
I send car to local muffler shop. I get an assessment of the exhaust leak. Now Mike at AAMCO changes his tune, saying he wont cover the exhaust leak. Loosely claiming it was my aftermarket exhaust parts or that I had changed something since he had last worked on the car. He (or his "chief") won't cover the bill on the exhaust. They cant even put the exhaust in right after installing the trans. I established this after picking it up and he still backs out of covering the cost.
At this time I also ask for a list of parts (detailed with brand names, specs, ect.) I needed a more detailed list than what was on the AAMCO receipt.
I talk to him again after the work is done and he expresses that he wants to try to cover the cost of the exhaust leak work. I drop off the receipt. I ask about the list of parts installed on my car. The manager was gone and the tech that did the work expressed that this was the first he had ever heard about it. (this angered me because after spending over $4000 you'd think the manager would've converyed the request by now.)
The Manager, Mike takes time off for medical reasons.
I call again about the list. The guy he had filling in didn't know anything. Mike hadnt given him any pass down.
I call again the next week. Mike is still out. The fill in manager hadn't done anything to further generate this list. I got exceedingly angry even though it wasn't this guys fault because I was so fed up with all the excessive delays in getting anything done at AAMCO of Waukegan.
The fill in manager agreed to get a new list together. That the old one had been lost. (if the list had been generated in the first place, then why wasn't i contacted?)
-All the work took gruelingly, excessively long to complete. Given their were extenuating circumstances but my car did a whole lot of sitting over the 2+ months. When I would call for updates I kept getting told of what they were planning to do, but would call days later only to find what they wanted to was still just a plan - not any further along.
-I bought a transmission that I probably didnt even need. Which I was warned of ahead of time because it could've been a computer/electrical problem. Nonetheless un nerving because I paid for a "complete check up" including a computer diagnostic before the work was done and still had to pay someone else to solve the problem and pay them for work.
-damage done to my paint which they changed their stance on and wont cover unless i file an insurance report.
-exhaust leak they created, which i had to pay someone else to fix and still don't know if they will refund what i had to pay the other shop.
-car was excessively dirty which makes me question what they were doing with it.
when i would receive the car from them and fill the tank. I would get it back to them again, only to find the tank nearly empty again.
-i may be running a non OEM part, which they installed in my car putting me under the impression that it is the OEM ford part. (not aftermarket/rebuilt)