RSI Automotive Danleigh Inc Ripped Off My 19 Year Old Kid by Not Doing what We Asked and Charging for Unneeded Repairs! Marinette Wisconsin

My 19 year old son's car broke down almost thirty miles from home.  Based on the symptoms, I knew it was the alternator, but my son bought a battery just to check and see if somehow his 4 month old battery had gone bad. No such luck, so I picked up a used alternator the next day and made a few calls.

We have a very good mechanic (Nadler Automotive in Lena, WI) who I wish I'd paid the $150 or so to have the car towed to, but we are not made of money, and neither is my son, so we had it towed to a nearby mechanic who said they would install the used alternator for $97.50 plus tax. The lady who answered the phone said, "We don't usually do that sort of thing, but we can do it this time." Now that I know more about the company, I suspect that they don't allow customers to bring in their own parts because they want to mark them up as much as possible.

Two days later, I called to see if it was done, and she informed me that the alternator had not been the problem. She stated that the battery cable and another cable had needed replacing, as well as a connector. The receipt says "Checked no power to vehicle. Found bad connector to battery and fuse box. Repaired connector at battery and fuse box. Repaired and replaced damaged bettery cable bolt. Checked out starting/ charging system and battery - all ok."

Interestingly, the total came to exactly what they'd estimated for the alternator installation, even though these three things are very quick, simple repairs.

My son picked up his car on Friday afternoon and drove it home without incident. The next day, he went to a friend's house about 15 miles away and on the way home, his car broke down in exactly the same way it had before we took it to RSI. 

We rescued him, and I called RSI on Monday morning. The owner of the company, Dan, answered and explained to me that he had been out all week, but assured me that he would look into the situation and return my call shortly. When I hadn't heard from him five hours later, I called. 

Dan told me that they had fixed what was wrong with my son's car, and that since it was an old car, it was probably a new problem. I asked, "With EXACTLY the SAME symptoms?" I explained that I had recognised that the problem was the alternator in the first place, and did not understand why his mechanics hadn't. He said, "The car was towed in here, and your son drove it away. That means we fixed it." 

Anyone who has ever had an alternator go bad knows that you can buy yourself a little time (very little) with a brand new battery, and if the battery cable was bad and they replaced it, it allowed the juice to get through that wasn't able to before, but that's NOT the same as FIXING the problem that we brought it in for! Even this Midwestern housewife knows that! :-)

My mechanic called me an hour ago and told me that it is, indeed, the alternator that is bad. We spent $55.50 to have the car towed to him from our home. 

I called Dan back and told him that the problem we'd brought the car to them for IS the problem, and he insisted that the alternator had gone bad between Friday and Saturday. "It's the electrical system; an alternator can go bad any time." he insisted, asking, "How many miles does that car have on it?"

I pointed out that the SYMPTOMS were EXACTLY the same as what we brought it in for, and told him that I will be reporting him to every outlet I can find, because he ripped off my kid. Other people might go into RSI and fall for the trick of, "Well, we repaired this for the same price, and that's the problem. Oh, well, will you look at that? Another problem the very next day? That'll be double."

My son had to ride a bike to work for a week and stay with a friend so he'd be close enough to do so, and now he's out $167.50 including towing, PLUS the cost of actually replacing the alternator.

Stay away from RSI Automotive!