Norman-David Lincoln Mercury Suzuki Isuzu Overcharges for mis-diagnosed automobile service Westbrook Maine

This service garage does unnecessary repairs and overcharges the customer also.

This past January 2009 we brought in a Suzuki Forenza sedan (that was purchased new from them) that had a very erratic idle when first started in the morning. Although the car was just past the warranty period, it only had 26,000 miles on it.

We paid the $49 diagnostic fee and they said it was the alternator causing the problem. The cost was $695 to replace this ONE part. We paid the $750 total and they replaced this part. Immediately afterward the very same problem (erratic idle) was still happening. We brought it back three times within a week and they charged us another $49 for a diagnostic fee and 'recalibrated' the engine management computer.

Again, the next morning it was doing the SAME THING - erratic idle during a cold start. We brought it back a Fourth time and left it there until they could fix it. They found that a wiring harness was disconnected and was shorting something out in the idle circuit. They quickly fixed this and the problem went away for good.

We then asked for a refund on the $695 alternator since that was clearly not the problem. They refused and admitted no fault yet gave no explanation why. Remember, this car only had 26,000 miles on it and the battery was being charged perfectly (14.1 volts output) with the original alternator at the time of the problem. But we trusted them and went along with their diagnosis. They were wrong. We had to pay them the entire amount to get the keys to our car back.

I hand wrote and mailed a very nice polite letter with all our contact information and invoice references to the service director to explain our dissatisfaction with their overcharging and inability to identify a problem correctly. I requested a reasonable PARTIAL refund of the $800+ we paid them to correct a wiring harness that had wiggled loose.

Nearly a month has elapsed and this dealership has yet to reply in any manner. It has become clear that they are more interested in gouging trusting customers for as much money as possible than they are in keeping and attracting customers. I'm sharing this experience so that anyone in the Greater Portland / Windham area can be forewarned of their service practices. I will quickly and happily provide an update to this issue if Norman-David will admit to a fault that cost us approximately $500 more than necessary to fix a problem on a relatively new car that we purchased from them. Thank you.

Tom
Falmouth, Maine
U.S.A.