Heritage Auto Repair Deception, High pressure sales, Bait and switch. Meridian Idaho

I just read through that BS posted. People will see who you are and what you are about when they walk in, these reports will probably never get seen by the people that need to see them, the vulnerable folks that get trapped and pressured and screwed, the people that have no idea how a person can create their own reviews and spew lame excuses and lies to cover up the truth.  But the truth was posted and you know it.   I am sure you will snag enough business to scrape by and you will still stroll on the net to find complaints that were reported about you and your people and you will post on every one of them because you feel you have to hide it the best you can.  If I help even one person to not get jammed though it's worth it. 
  It's pretty funny that you have the time to go looking for this kind of thing and that you know the complaints are out there to respond to.  When a person runs a search on a company, local or not, they usually do not find any formal complaints. Much less a response to every single one trying to make teh complantant look like they are just some kind of fool that doesn't know what has happened to them. 

Dear reviewer. It was a pleasure to find your quite descriptive rant on this consumer website. I first read through your notes and thought, "I can't believe you are actually saying this." Part of me wanted to just ignore your comments as "sour grapes". The trouble with turning away is that proverbial dichotomy of “Do not answer a fool according to his folly or you will be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly or he will be right in his own eyes.”

In that spirit, I am offering a few details to bring some balance to your statements. First, your concern about being ripped off because of our monthly promotional sign is misguided. You neglected to mention that the sign says (every time) FREE OIL CHANGE TO THE FIRST “…NAME…” As a concession to the times we have more than one person rush in for their free oil change, we offer a ½ price oil change to any additional takers of our promotion. Yes, we do leave that sign up for the whole week. Always have, always will. Sorry if that offends, but it’s our sign.

Second, you obviously didn’t actually come in and check our prices or get an oil change. Our standard oil change price has ranged from $34.95 to $36.95 plus sales tax for years. If your vehicle requires 8 qts of Full Synthetic oil, then I could see it costing upwards of $60. We do not add for “extra charges, disposal fees, tax, anything like that”. (Your quote here. Tax we do charge, because it’s a state law. If you don’t like it, move.)

Third, let me offer this reality about vehicle inspections and recommended services. Idaho does not have a required state inspection.  We provide inspections as a free Added Value Customer Service. We believe that failing to provide a vehicle owner with an accurate assessment of their vehicle is not a good service. A well maintained vehicle should need nothing more than a routine oil change most of the time. The unfortunate truth however is that most vehicles need more than that. The national average is that most vehicles need between $800 -$1000 of maintenance and repair. Most of that remains unperformed. If we fail to identify the proper maintenance recommended on any given vehicle, we set that vehicle up for premature component failure. If we do not offer that maintenance, and the vehicle fails due to something that could have been prevented, are we providing that customer with good service?

Finally, and most pointedly, let me respond to your invalid statements about our reviews. To date we have 1,008 actual reviews from actual customers (above and beyond more than 50 online reviews). We have earned a 5 star rating. We have never paid for reviews, either for good ones, or for someone to remove bad ones. We subscribe to a service that requires us to accept the reviews as submitted – the good, the bad, and the ugly. If you take the time to read all our reviews, you will find that we have not earned 100% all the time. In fact, we have done a really poor job of taking care of a couple people. If you look at the average, however, we do a really good job. The one point you made is valid, “this just doesn't happen”. You are right. It doesn’t, and that’s a shame. Our Mission Statement says that our goal is “To change the way people view our industry by being the leader in integrity, honesty, and trust.” We are not JUST another "nice small town automotive repair shop." We are the leader in the industry. Our reviews reflect that.

We are just “a small shop at the end of a long dead end road”, but we take our mission seriously. We do more than fix cars. We serve people. You are not likely to find a big business that is able to get that many 5 star reviews because very few businesses are as committed to their customers as we are.