Cottman Transmissions ripoff lied about cost then kept my car now 8 months later get letter from MVD that its in storage with 4000 fees Phoenix Arizona

I went to this exact location in May of 2003. They told me "free diagnostics" as well. I started to get suspicious when the clown behind the counter told me the model # of the transmission I had in my truck - idiot was dead wrong (luckily I knew a few things about my vehicle that he thought I didn't). He started quoting facts & prices for an automatic transmission and didn't even look to see for himself that it had a 5-speed tranny. I'm sure he could charge more for automatic tranny service and also assumed his customer wouldn't catch the ruse.

Then his knucklehead mechanic comes in with the drain plug from my tranny & starts telling me the 8 metal shavings collected by the magnet in the plug are evidence of major internal problems - yeah, right. (I wondered if this was even the plug from MY vehicle). Supposedly they can't determine anything solid from their "free diagnosis" and want to keep my truck & charge me $350 for their "RCI" service (remove, check, & install) - basically they want to try to charge me $350 for diagnosis.

After a short discussion with them being very vague about costs, they start closing up shop for the day assuming I'm just going to leave my truck with them since it was up on a lift & knucklehead had already drained my tranny fluid. I said to the counter clown "Hey, are you going to let me borrow your car then?" He thought I was trying to be funny, so I told them very politely that I'd like them to put my truck back together and explained that I couldn't leave it with them since I had to be back at work at 6am.

The other thing that made me suspicious was the lobby being decorated with pictures of the shop owner & his car racing hobby - it's no wonder how he's financing his fun.

Anyway, I got the hell outta there and luckily found a reputable, honest mechanic. As I suspected, the problem had nothing to do with the internal workings of my transmission.

This particular Cottman location is run by a bunch of hacks that are simply trying to take advantage of people and RIP THEM OFF.

Need more information. Did you authorize the charges? Did you know they would lein the vehicle if you did not pay the bill?

If you did not authorize the charge, then they are responsible for your vehicle, not you.

they charge the retailers $675 per month to advertise coupons and other trash to get more suckers. You don't think that more than offsets this pitiful level of dissatisfaction?

from franchiselife.com AAMCO Cottman Mr.Tran Speedy avg
Year Established: 1963 1962 1963 1974 1965.5
First Franchise Unit: 1963 1964 1969 1974 1967.5
Franchisee Units: 715 325 92 28 290
Company Owned Units: 2 5 0 0 1.75
Total Number Of Units: 717 330 92 28 291.75
"Geog Distr: US,Can" 685.29 325.5 92 28 282
Operate With UFOC: Y Y - Y
Proj Units Next 12 Mo 35 50 6 12 25.75
Avg Cash Investment $k: 75 50 70 55 62.5
Total Investment $k: 200 162.5 137.5 88 147
Minimum Net Worth $k: 250 150 300 - 233.33
Average Franchise Fee $k: 30 27 25 19.5 25.375
Royalty %: 7 7.5 7 7 7.125
Advertising $/w: Varies 675 varies 25 350
Other Fees: - - - -
Size Of Corporate Staff: 190 60 12 4 66.5
Tng Prog: wks HQ, site 5 3.1 1 2.1 2.8
On-Going Support: - - - -