Valu Discount Muffler & Brakes-Valu Muffler & Brakes Oil change-old gasket=blown engine-franchise owner could care less Kenmore New York

This post may be old , but I read the owners rebuttal, and it was the most brutal, untruthful retort that any unprofessional automotive business could make. First the oil filter double gasket is NOT a product of lack of maintenance. A double gasket is a product of the removed oil filter not being properly lubed before installation. BUT any person who's been trained by a semi moronic chimpanzee knows that after removal of old oil filters technicians MUST inspect old oil filter and oil filter base plates for old gaskets to avoid this type of issue.

Now I learned that at a whopping 15 years old from an 85 year old man. I would hope your "trained professional mechanics" would have basic knowledge of the most basic maintenance repairs. You see folks that is the difference between mechanics ' which is what this hack shop is full of' and trained automobile technicians ' which are commonly found at your local dealers'. You can put a dress on a pig, but at the end of the day it's still a pig.

Own up to your hired help dropping the ball and not properly going through normal oil change procedures, rather than tell us how they wanted x amount for an engine, because the bottom line is of you would have done your job properly, this incident would never have existed.

dont get the last comment ... the customer was made whole !!!??

"...this is what led to the old gasket melting itself to the engine and thus not comming off with the old filter resulting in a double gasket being formed..."

Okay. The tool companies make these neat dealies called gasket scrapers. I own 6 of them in different sizes. I guess you own ZERO, since that would have taken care of the issue.

You screwed up big time. You had the legal, ethical, and moral obligations to make the customer whole again. Stop making excuses.

i just noticed this unfair assesment of my business and what really happened with this customer and feel compelled to respond. first off we immediately told the customer that we would put this with our insurance co and that they could deal directly with them as they wanted grossly more money than what the car was worth and the store manager assured them every thing would be taken care of even though the car was not properly maintained (ie. neglecting to do the oil changes according to the manufacturer recommondations ..very long periods between oil changes this is what led to the old gasket melting itself to the engine and thus not comming off with the old filter resulting in a double gasket being formed and the oil leaking out of the motor.) and it was questionable that we we at fault and responsible for the situation. however we did take responsiblity from the very beginning.
we service approx 30,000 cars per year and this is the first time in the 20yrs of business that something like this has happened. so for the customer to say these things is extremely unfair. also not to mention the fact that they recieved 3,500 plus dollars for a vehicle that was worth only 1,000 is just plain wrong.

also ,vehicle manufacturers understand that a motor may stall or run out of gas so they have designed into every vehicle a fail safe system whereby the brakes will still work even though the motor has stopped running. so the safety issues refered to are absurd. has for harassing me for A 12 refund as the this pretty much tells you the kind of people I was dealing with and trying to make happy, we did nothing but go to bat for them, as the insurance co kept saying we werent even responsible . tom shea ps theres always another side to the story