AAMCO Of South Austin SCAM - Performs Unecessary Repairs Austin Texas

They took me for a ride! I'm trying to get my money back, and this will eventually wind up in court. Watch out for AAMCO! Here's what happend to me:


2002 Black Z71 Suburban:

Reoccurring problems intermittently occurred including:
- Lights on dash blinking on as if the engine had been turned off
- Boggy engine, "stuck in 3rd gear"
- June 2005, truck would not run in "Drive", we had to manually shift from 1st to 2nd gear, would not always go into 3rd gear (manually or other)
- Immediately taken in for service

Service:
- Took vehicle to my regulare Service Dealer and he said it appears to be a transmission problem. So I called AAMCO.
- The vehicle was towed to the AAMCO on S. Lamar. (The tow truck driver or AAMCO lost the key pad for my alarm!)
- AAMCO said it would need to drop the pan and do a physical inspection. It would cost $480
- Joel called back and said metal shavings were in the pan and said that the transmission needed to be rebuilt for ~$2400.00. This was done on June 11, 2005
- Final invoice on paid on June 11, 2005 for $2389.98

Reoccurring problems continued:
- Sunday June 12th the same problem continued and manual shifting was necessary, plus the "Service Engine Soon" light came on.
- I traveled the following 2 weeks on business and did not drive the vehicle except for to and from the airport.

June 25th took it to the local Service Dealer for them to diagnose the problem again the diagnostic codes read as follows:
P0740B TCC Enable Solenoid Circuit
P0758A 2-3 Shift Solenoid Circuit
P0785B 3-2 Shift Solenoid Circuit Failure
P01860B TCC PWM Solenoid Circuit
The service writer told us "You now have more problems than when we started".

I also sought guidance from a knowledgeable mechanical engineer who had extensive training on automotive systems and hydraulics. His opinion is the problem in its original description sounded like an electrical problem, not a transmission problem and advised us to go to the dealer for a 3rd evaluation. We also found no recalls or TSBs in Mitchell OnDemand.

At this point I had absolutely no faith in the AAMCO guy and felt like I had been taken for a ride. - I did not take the vehicle back to him because I had lost trust in him.

June 27, 2005 - I took the suburban to the OE dealer on my way out of town.
- He did 3 different diagnostics on the transmission and found there were no transmission problems.
- The shifting problems were caused by a shorted ignition module.
- He replaced it for $397.24
- He also said the 2 nuts on the transmission cross-member bolts were not re-installed on the transmission

I returned to Austin on June 30, 2005 from a business trip and picked up the suburban

July 1, 2005 I called Joel at AAMCO and explained to him the sequence of events listed above. I suggested he mis-diagnosed the problem and said I'd be willing to work with him on a refund. He said "I don't work that way" and told me I was being unreasonable and was basing my feelings on a lot of other people's opinions and conjecture. He continued to try to get me off the phone and said he'd call me back. He did call back once, to get the vehicle description, but he has not called back since.

I've filed a Credit Card Dispute, Notified the BBB, and I'm going to call the Texas AG office and I guess this will eventually wind up in Court if I can't get a refund from Joel.

Tony
Austin, Texas
U.S.A.