Car X Auto Service takes advantage of my lack of knowledge about cars, they tried to take me for OVER $700.00 WORTH OF WORK THAT I DID NOT EVEN NEED!!!!!!! Saint Louis Missouri

I own a 1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse. I have had it for a couple years, and my sister owned it for a couple of years before that. The car is in fairly good condition. It has absolutely NO major problems. Since my sister and I have owned it we haven't had to do much of anything to it. We've done things like all new tires, new battery (battery was done recently), new brakes, and of course oil changes, mostly regular maintenance type of stuff. The one thing neither of us ever did was a tune up.

About three weeks ago my car started driving rough. I noticed a lack of power. When I was at a stop light the car would do what I would describe as a kind of backfire, with out the loud noise. The RPM's, which idled right at or above 1000 would jump, dropping slightly and the car would make a kind of thump or dunk noise. (the issues I was having are VERY hard to explain, hopefully it makes sense) It seemed like the car was going to die. It would do this consistently. Also, when I would start to hit the gas from a complete stop, the car didn't want to go. I would hit the gas pedal, and it would do this "uh, uh, uh" thing and finally kick in. Going up hills was a nightmare.

My fiance and I have a normal mechanic that we go to, but unfortunately they were VERY busy. I only have a couple days off a week and I need my car to get to work. They wanted me to leave it for 4 or 5 days before they could even look at it. Since I didn't have that kind of time I decided to go somewhere else. That's where Car X comes in.

I called the Car X on South Kingshighway, they said bring it in we'll look at it today. I took my car up there on a Tuesday morning. I went in and the guy at the counter, named Amir, asks me what kind of car I have, and what's wrong, all that stuff. I told him it's trying to die at the stop lights, and about the poor acceleration, everything I explained above, to the best of my ability. As, I said earlier it was VERY hard to explain.

So on my work report to the mechanics all he write in the problem with car section is "tries to die." That's it. He also asked if my check engine light had come on. It had not. He said sometimes it won't. Then he proceeds to tell me, he's owned eclipses of the same year, and other mitsubishis, and it's got to be the idle air control motor.

He says they always go out at the mileage my car is at, which is about 134,000. He tells me they'll call me after they look at it. He also says they're also going to do a 40 point inspection, and look the car over. I asked him, "how much does that cost?" He says, "nothing." I mention this because they ended up charging me for looking at my car and doing the diagnostics.

The next morning which was Wednesday, Paul the store manager calls me. He says they looked at my car and in this order he says, "we hooked up the computer and your car is giving off a code saying you need a new idle air control motor." I said, "that's why it's doing what it's been doing?" He said "Yes." Then he says I also need a fuel induction service, he says it's very clogged up. Keep in mind I have never heard of any of these things before.

I am taking my car to a mechanic, because I DON"T know what's wrong with it. I am trusting them to tell me why it's doing ONLY what I am complaining of, and ONLY what I need to do to fix that ONE particular problem! The last thing he says is that I need a tune up. I ask him how much all of that costs? The total is around $700.00. I asked him if I could do the idle air control motor, and the fuel induction service, and wait a week or two on the tune up?

I said, "if I do those first two things, and wait on the tune up, will that still fix the problem I'm having with my car?" Paul said, "Yes it will, but you do really need the tune up." I told him ok go ahead and do the other stuff, and I'll come back in a week and get the tune up. He told me my total would be $512.00 and they will call me when it's ready.

I picked up my car that evening. Paul was at the front desk and cashed me out. I paid him, and asked him if it was fixed? He said yes, although I do really need to get that tune up. He said, until I get the tune up it may shake a bit at the stop lights, and sometimes when I gas it, I may feel a hesitation. I felt nervous, and like that was totally wrong, but I left and drove home.

The first stop light I came to after leaving Car X, my car started doing the same thing as before. I decided to drive it home and give it a chance. There was NO improvement. I just paid $512.00 for nothing, and believe me I DO NOT have that kind of money at all. As a matter of fact, that was all the money I had. When I got home I called the Car X store, and Paul answered. I told him who I was, and that my car was not any better.

First of all, he disagreed with me. He said, I told you you needed the tune up. I said, you also told me that I could wait on the tune up, and if I did the other things the problem would be fixed. He said, I need a combination of all those things to fix my car. I told him that it seems to me that all I need is the tune up. He said, that my car was giving off the code for the idle air control.

I didn't disagree, but as I said before, I didn't ask him to tell me every little thing that was wrong with my car. I told him the problem, and I wanted ONLY that problem fixed. We went round and round, finally I thanked him for his lack of help, and told him I would call someone else because apparently we were not getting anywhere.

About ten minutes later, Paul calls me back. He apologized for being so rude to me. He says that he wants to give good customer service, and doesn't want anyone to feel like they're getting ripped off. He says he knows times are tough right now. He says he has a solution. If I came to them to get the tune up, he would give me a discount. He said he would not charge me for labor, and would knock off a little more to bring the total to about $100.00. Needing my car fixed I agreed. Although I still felt very uncomfortable. At this point it was obvious that they were trying to rip me off.

The next day my fiance and I decided we would call the customer service hotline listed on the invoice. We ended up speaking with Scott who works as a manager at the main store in Overland MO. He was very nice and professional. he understood where I was coming from. After explaining the whole story to him, he admitted that they has made a mistake. He said it was human error. They obviously didn't check my car properly, and he said that he thinks that they thought they knew what the problem was, and they didn't really bother to check everything else.

I think that I caught them in their scam. I believe their intention was to have me do all three things at once, that would've fixed my car and I would've thought they were great. By me waiting on the tune up, they did these other things and I was able to realize, when my car was the same after they "fixed" it, that they were doing the i.a.c. and fuel induction to pad up the bill. The i.a.c. is a VERY expensive part, (well, only if you're buying it through them.

I found the part all over the place for $40.00, they charged me $239.00 for the part only, that didn't even include labor) and easy to install, and the fuel induction is an unneccesary service and i believe is used by mechanics on a regular basis to add a couple hundred extra dollars to your bill. If only I would've known ALL this stuff before I took my car to these scamming mechanics.

Anyways, Scott said they would put my OLD idle air control motor back in, and refund me $361.00. Conveniently they still had my i.a.c. They couldn't refund my money for the fuel induction service, because they did perform the service. What a joke! I felt like atleast I am getting my money back so I can really find out what is wrong with my car.

A couple of days later I took my car back up to Car X. They said I could drop it off, and it wouldn't take long. Of course once again as if they hadn't screwed me over enough, they didn't end up getting to my car that day, so I had to pick it up the next morning. When I picked it up, Paul took me outside to talk to me. (he didn't want any of the other customers to hear about everything they put me through) Paul says, I put the old part back on, and I went ahead and cleaned your plugs to show you that you do need a tune up.

I never doubted that I needed a tune up. My problem was that I did NOT need at that time a new idle air control motor, or a fuel induction service for that matter. He says, "your car is going to run like a dream now that I cleaned your plugs and wires, but that doesn't mean you don't need to get the tune up." I thought that was funny, considering he put my OLD idle air control motor back in just before that. So, as I left for the second time my car was running beautifully. All he had done is clean my plugs and wires. he didn't even do a tune up, and he put an old part that supposedly according to him needed replacing back in the car. Unbelievable.

Later that day, I took the car to someone I DO trust to get a tune up. I was treated nicely, charged a MORE than fair price and my car is FIXED!!!!! All I needed was a tune up, not a big job at all. I guess that's the point, the tune up wasn't an expensive enough job for Car X. They were greedy and took advantage of me not knowing anything about cars, which I thought is why you would take your car to get fixed in the first place. If you don't know what's causing the problem, unfortunately you have to trust that these people are going to honestly tell you what to do to fix it.

In closing I would like to say that Paul at the South County Car X location was VERY rude, his customer service skills are lacking. I would NEVER recommend that anyone go to ANY Car X location no matter how small of a job you need done. I wouldn't let them change my oil!!!!! I feel like I was lucky because as I said before, if I would've trusted what they originally told me, and fixed all three things at the same time, my car would've worked, and I would've thought they did a great job.

Most importantly I would've been out $700.00, when the job I really needed only ended up costing me less than $100.00. I hope this story helps someone. You can never be too careful when it comes to fixing your car. From now on I will only go where i trust, and if need be, I will get a second opinion before I make any hasty decisions. STAY AWAY FROM CAR X!!!!!!!!!!

Angela
Saint Louis, Missouri
U.S.A.