AAMCO TRANSMISSIONS OF EL CAJON Ripoff SNEAKY, DID WORK NOT AUTHORIZED, INCOMPETENT EL CAJON California

On June 19, 2006, I contacted AAMCO after seeing ad in yellow pages because the dealership I took my car to told me I needed my transmission rebuilt and they said Mitsubishi does not have rebuilt transmissions. Ed at AAMCO talked me into letting him have my car towed from the dealer to AAMCO. I agreed. He called me on 6/20/06 to tell me that I did need my transmission rebuilt and he quoted me a price, he also said I needed the main seal replaced and suggested I have my clutch replaced. I told him at that time I would take the care back to my regular mechanic for the clutch as it had only been 4 months since I had it replaced. I asked if they could have the work done by Friday as I had to go out of town on business the following week. He said they could if they had the parts overnighted as they needed to come from Massachusetts. I agreed to pay the extra cost for the overnight delivery so that my car would be done by Friday.

After I slept on it, I called him back and told him to go ahead with the clutch repair to avoid further loss of time with my car in the shop and asked if he could still get it done by Friday, Ed assured me he could.

On Friday, approx 4 p.m. I called Ed to check the status of my car as I had not heard anything from him. He said they were putting it back together but could I give them until Saturday as they didn't want to rush to get it back together. I agreed to pick it up on Saturday, June 24th, by noon. When I got to AAMCO Ed was not there but Roger, the owner, was. He said there was a problem and he had left a message on my cell phone. I told him that he must not clear his messages because I had called and left a message on their answering machine at 6 that morning telling him to call my home phone if he needed to reach me. Anyway, he said that the clutch plate was the wrong size and his parts guy was not open on Saturdays. (Boy, you think when someone has been working on cars for a while they would have enough sense to match up the old clutch plate to the new one to make sure its going to fit). Anyway, I explained to the owner, Roger, that I was going to be out of town all the following week at a training and would not be back until late the following Friday and could not pick up my car until Saturday. He said that was ok. I had to rent a car to get to my out of town training for the week.

On Tnursday, I got a voicemail from Ed wondering when I would be picking up my car as it was ready. I called him back and reminded him of our conversation on Saturday. On Friday, I got another voicemail from Ed wondering when I would be in to pisk up my car. I called him back again and reminded him again that I would be in on Saturday. He said he would write it down.

When I went in to pick up my car, I told Ed I was still a little upset that I paid extra to have the parts overnighted so my car would be ready last Saturday and ended up having to rent a car anyway. He agreed to take $50 off the bill. I noticed on the invoice it said something about a complimentary oil change and and oil "plub" but I didn't think nothing of it because I did not ask to have my oil changed nor did the tell me about a free oil change plus I just had my oil changed on 6/18/06 with Syntec Blend oil.

Later that day, I noticed some new scratches on my rear driver's side door. I have scratches on my car from before and was a little upset but decided to let it go. On the following Monday, when I was driving to a worksite, I heard something rubbing against my tire. I stopped and saw that my driver's side fender liner had been unsnapped and the tire had rubbed a hole through it. I was a little ticked off as I had just installed those about 4 months ago. On the following Saturday, my son told me I had a puddle under my car. It was too late to take it to AAMCO that day so I waited until Monday and drove over to AAMCO on my way to work. Ed, the owner, said they would get to it that afternoon. I informed him of the scratches and the fender liner. I called Enterprise to get a rental car since he couldn't look at my car until the afternoon.

At approx 2:30 that afternoon, I get a call from Ed saying my car is ready. I asked him what was the problem and he said his technician did not tighten the oil pan plug enough when he changed the oil. I asked him if they had put synthetic blend oil in my car when they changed it. He said I did not tell the sales rep that I used synthetic blend oil. I told him that I did not tell them to change my oil nor was I told they were going to change it and that I had just had it done the day before I brought my car in to them. At this point I just wanted my car back before they did something else to it so I told him I would be in to pick it up that afternoon.

As the day wore on I got more angry over the whole situation. I wondered why in the 4 to 5 days they had the car sitting in their lot they did not notice oil leaking from it. By the time I took it in it was more than a quart low. When I got there I put my rental car contract on the counter and he asked "What's this?" I said my rental car, you need to reimburse me for this. He said the warranty does not cover it. I told him that I wouldn't have had to rent this car if his technician had done the job right. He said he wasn't paying for it and I told him that's alright because I know the BBB and BAR.

I filed complaints with both agencies. BBB sent him the complaint and he responded by saying Ed forgot to tell me about the oil change, his mistake, and the clutch plate being the wrong size was the first time that has ever happened with this parts guy. He also said the scratches were already there and the fender liners were old and cracked. (funny, the one on the passenger side looks in perfect condition, figure that one out.) As for the oil plug, he said he had to change it because it was stripped. I had just had the oil changed at Sears and they never mentioned anything about it and if it was stripped they would have replaced it. He also said I didn't sound concerned about them changing my oil with the wrong type of oil.

Bottom line, Roger does not believe in good customer service or taking the responsibility for his employee's mistakes.

Juanita
SPRING VALLEY, California
U.S.A.

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