Spradley Barr Ford - Robert Silcox, Overselling of service that has nothing to do with the problem Fort Collins Colorado

My vehicle had engine misfires when idling in gear. I first requested Spradley Barr to diagnose a problem on October 13th, 2008. After spending two days on diagnosis, the service advisor Brett Parker notified me of the parts that need to be replaced. I explicitly asked Brett if they are confident about their diagnosis and after receiving a confirmation gave a go-ahead on the replacement. The vehicle was returned to me on October 17th, 2008 and I was charged $1298.56 for the service.

Within the first ten minutes of driving the vehicle, I noticed that the problem was still present. I immediately returned to Spradley Barr and notified Brett. He stated that the mechanic was gone for the day. I was leaving the state the following day and Brett told me to check back when I return.

When I returned to Colorado in December, I took my vehicle in for re-diagnosis. This time, a different service advisor (Abdul) notified me that the problem requires a replacement of coils on cylinders 1, 4, 5 and 8, as well as replacement of injectors and o-rings (during the first "repair", I have explicitly asked Brett if they looked at my injectors and Brett told me they were fine). The estimated charge was $1859.99 but I was given half off because of a major "repair" that I had done with Spradley Barr recently.

I received a copy of Spradley Barr diagnosis and went to Nelsen's Auto Tech Center for a second opinion. When Nelsen's notified me that coils had to be replaced I gave them a go-ahead. The vehicle was returned to me shortly thereafter, with the problem completely fixed. Nelsen's diagnosis stated that coils were replaced on cylinders 2, 4, 6, 8. Notice that half of these are different than what was stated by Spradley Barr. The total charge by Nelsen's was $681.07, which is significantly smaller than the estimate by Spradley Barr.

Thus, Nelsen's did a better job with the repair of my vehicle and charged me less money.

Because the problem was completely fixed, Nelsen's diagnosis constitutes the ground truth of the root of the problem. This means that the two diagnoses performed by Spradley Barr's mechanic Ben were incorrect. I requested a refund of $1298.56 since Spradley Barr did nothing to fix the problem, predominantly due to the mechanic's incompetence. Abdul placed the request to the service manager Robert Silcox. Robert denied the request and Abdul relayed the reasons back to me. These were:

1. I came back two months after the first "repair"
2. I went to Nelsen's instead of allowing Spradley Barr to fix their mistake.

First, how are these at all relevant to the issue at hand? Second, as demonstrated by the two mis-diagnoses, the mechanic was incompetent before I left the state and he was just as incompetent when I returned, so I don't see how those two months make a difference. Third, I returned to Spradley Barr within 10 minutes of leaving the lot and was told by Brett to come back when I returned to the state. Finally, Spradley Barr offers a 12 month, 12,000 miles guarantee on their work. I am well within the bounds of both.

Regarding Robert's second reason, I DID return to Spradley Barr to allow them to fix their mistake. They mis-diagnosed the problem the second time and were planning on charging me more money than was necessary.

Robert then proceeded to ignore my requests to set-up a meeting in-person. When I have finally managed to meet with him, he continuously interrupted me mid-sentence and brushed my arguments off with "If you want to prove I did something wrong, prove it in court".

Artem
Johnstown, Colorado
U.S.A.