David Colbath Transmissions Car Transmission Fiasco rip-off Teas

On 1-12-00 I paid Colbath Transmissions $1282 to rebuild the transmission in my daughter's 1991 Chrysler LeBaron convertible and I was given a 1 year warranty for the job. The car continued to have some slippage problems and was returned to Colbath's on 3-14-00 to be checked.

Mr. Colbath admitted that a faulty bearing had been installed and was causing the problems, so they again repaired the transmission at no additional charge.

On 3-16-00 my daughter was notified that the work had been completed but unfortunately there had been an accident and her car had been towed to Metro collision. It seems that one of Mr. Colbath's employees did not see the car parked behind his 4x4 diesel truck and he backed over the hood of the car. Mr. Colbath's insurance adjuster from Farmers Insurance declared the car a total loss and agreed to pay $4,000, which included an allottment of $225 for the transmission repair that I'd paid $1282 for in January.

I contacted Mr. David Colbath the following week, since I had been out of town when this occurred, and very nicely expressed my concerns about this loss. I told him I felt he owed me some sort of a refund on the transmission job and that if it had been done correctly in the first place the car would not have been at his shop and this accident would never have occurred. After much discussion, he agreed to pay me $500 but said I could not pick up the check until the following week. I thanked him and expressed my appreciation.

When I called about picking up the check on 3-28-00, Mr. Colbath said he'd changed his mind and had been advised by his insurance company not to pay me any additional money. Not only was my daughter out of a car, but my husband and I have now had to assist her to purchase another one. I am also left to swallow over $1000 above what the insurance company paid for what was in essence a faulty transmission job.

UPDATE: A Farmer's Insurance supervisor contacted me on 3-31-00. He offered to pay me an additional $416 toward the transmission, which I have agreed to accept.