Cottman Transmission Beaverton Oregon Tried stiffing me for an additional $1,000 then won't give me my transmission back. Beaverton Oregon

First of all I would like to say that I am sorry David had a bad experience at our shop. As the Owner, it hurts me to hear that any of my customers were unhappy. We take pride in our reputation in the community and strive for excellent customer service. This is the only complaint I have received at this shop from Rip-Off Report so I hope I don't ramble too much in my rebuttal.

We are a AAA Approved Facility and a member in good standing with the Better Business Bureau. I have also received Cottman's Annual Customer Satisfaction Award multiple times. David came to us asking if we could rebuild his transmission for him with him supplying the parts. We don't usually do rebuilds this way because we need to know that the parts are from a reputable vendor because we put a nationwide warranty on our repairs. We agreed to do the repair because the vendor he was buying the parts from was a very reputable local supplier.

David told me he was hesitant to have a shop do the repairs since he usually did them himself. He was worried that the price I would charge him would change, so I promised him my labor fee for the rebuild would not exceed $1000 and that he was responsible for purchasing the parts. David said he felt better knowing that my fee was capped and gave me the transmission, a soft parts overhaul kit, converter, shift kit and speed sensors. I told him that we were a little backed up but that my transmission builder would disassemble the unit and let him know if there were additional parts required for the rebuild. My builder then put together a parts list for the customer to take to the local supplier. He even spent the extra time listing the unique part numbers that the local vendor used to make it easy for the customer to order the parts. Everything was going fine until he found out the cost of the additional needed parts from the vendor he was buying from.

David then decided his cost of parts from the vendor in addition to the labor fee we were charging was not worth it. At this point my builder had at least 4 hours of time into the disassembly, inspection, and list of parts. All we were asking for was 2 hours or $170 for the teardown and inspection which we feel was more than fair. The advertised free inspection that David referred to in his complaint is an external inspection which includes a road test, computer scan and an external lift inspection.

What David asked us to do required disassembly of the transmission and internal inspection of parts which is something nobody does for free. Our normal charge for removal, disassembly and inspection (RDI) is $450. If the transmission is out of the vehicle we usually charge $250. We charge the fee to cover the labor needed to get the customer the exact cost that we will charge the customer for both parts and labor for the repair. When David brought me the transmission for the rebuild I didn't mention the RDI fee because I already gave him a maximum cost that we would charge him for labor since we were not supplying the parts and would not charge him for them.

In retrospect I would have done it differently and charged him the $250 RDI fee upfront, but I honestly didn't know he was unaware of the cost of transmission parts. He told me he usually did his own automotive repair and that he raced cars competitively. Also he had already been to the vendor and bought the minimal parts needed for the rebuild so I assumed he was familiar with the costs. I will not make that mistake again.

The title of his complaint implying that we tried to stiff him for an additional $1000 and then would not give him his transmission back could not be farther from the truth. We did not ask for a dime more than the original labor estimate of no more than $1000 that David and I agreed to. The additional $1000 was for parts that were required to complete the repair to Cottman Transmission standards. It is important to note that we were not making a penny from the needed parts. We gave the list to David so that he could buy the parts on his own and save some money. All we asked for was $170 to cover some of the labor costs we incurred up to the point that David decided not to repair the transmission.

When Patrick, my Manager, told David the fee he became very irate and said he was coming down with some friends to take the transmission and he wasn't paying anything.

My Manager then called and told me that David was very upset about paying for the work we had done. Patrick let me know that he was going to waive the labor fee since David was not aware that he would owe anything he if changed his mind after the repair was started. We charged David nothing and returned his transmission and parts.

I was a little surprised that he wrote a letter to Rip-Off Report since he was never ripped off. We are one of the few honest shops around and it is disheartening to see our reputation tarnished over a $170 fee that was never even charged.

Dave, Do you bring your own eggs and bacon to the diner? Probably huh? Your a complete ASSH@#E. They shouldnt of givin the trans back for free. Do you work for free? After NOT charging you, you report them? I pity the next guy that gets to do your work. Cottman, be glad this guy isnt your customer.

I had the tranny on my 98 Blazer done a while back at this very shop.
They were nothing but professional there. After they inspected it, they were detailed in their explanation of what it was going to take to repair it right.
I did not reveal it at the time but I had been an auto center manager in a previous career. I did that for around ten years. Cottman met and exceeded my expectations regarding the estimate and work flow process flawlessly and I am a tough critic of automotive repair shops.

Regarding your situation, I'm a little surprised to hear that they let someone come in with a box of parts and letting it get as far as it did. I would have never done that at any of the shops I ran (20-35 bay shops at that!). That's the only thing they screwed up on.
The rest of the situation is on you my friend. Maybe back in the 70's when tranny's were less sophisticated could you get away with doing a rebuild with a box of parts from NAPA and room full of monkeys. These days, modern transmissions are made with efficiency in mind, are more complex and require a higher level of competency to properly diagnose and repair problems.

You as a customer need some education as far as modern day auto repair goes.
I can appreciate the fact that you wanted to save money but it sounds like you kind of shoe horned your way in there and put the guys at Cottman on the spot.

Do you really understand how many parts there are in a transmission and how old parts can affect the performance of new parts? Chances are, that if they somehow managed to put your tranny back together with your box of parts that you would be back in there within a month complaining about something.

How could you expect them to warranty their work in such a situation?

Like I said, I think they made a mistake by agreeing to even meet your ridiculous request. However, I think that the onus is on you for not knowing what's involved with a competent and complete transmission repair.
The reality of the matter is that if you can't afford to maintain the vehicle you bought you should be owning something less complicated, like a bicycle.
Good luck with that.