Start Mart/ Pro Car Care Now Stripped bolt on alternator took 5 hours one day and 7 hours the next & still not fixed Portland Oregon

Issue was resolved by company by a full refund via company check. Dated July 1, 2008

Okay first off my fiance is getting mad because i might have gotten some times wrong. I guess the first day he was out of there at 430pm not 5pm, still. Yesterday the second day he was there until 730 not 6pm. Today we are still having problems with the alternator and he took the car to united battery and les schwab, our battery is fine. It is completely the alternator. Here is the report I sent to BBB, the attorney general and a letter of documentation to the company.

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To whom it may concern,

This is a journal entry documenting my last couple of days in dealing with your company. Please tell me how I am supposed to react and feel if you were in my shoes and this has happened to you. Please note I have reported your company to the Better Business Bureau.


So I took my car Wednesday June 18th, 2008 to Start Mart/ Pro Car Care Now - on 124th and Stark to get the alternator replaced.

First, Justin my fianc took my car in there Wednesday afternoon at 1pm to have the alternator replaced. They did not look at the car until 430pm after dilly dallying around blah blah. I was deciding whether or not to buy the alternator at cost from our work mechanic since I work at a reputable auto dealership and have Justin put it in (which is what he wanted to do in the first place) or take it to my work mechanic to have it done. I had it done at this place since it would only be a $15 price difference and my mechanic couldn't schedule me in for 2 days and Start Mart said they could get it in right away. So, Justin had that done after waiting for 4 hours. Then the very next day, something is happening like it is going out again. He takes it back to this location at 10am yesterday June 19th, 2008. They tell him they can get it in by 1pm the latest, so he waits. He has called me several times during this time while I am at work and there was one point I was on the phone with him and heard one of the employees laugh at him and ask if he was mad yet! Justin is still there until 7-730ish pm when the store closes at 6pm!!! ALSO, They kept trying to tell him it was the battery draining the alternator the whole time, and that was the problem and that I needed a new battery, but the battery is only 4 years old with a 7 year warranty from Les Schwab, so yeah, no. Then many times they would opt out to repairing my car and start helping someone else. There was another time I was on the phone with him while he was waiting his turn and he tells me a young woman comes in to have her alternator replaced and the guy pulls her car in the garage when Justin has been waiting for who knows how long at that point. They told Justin I would have to leave my car there over night which was not an option as we only have one car. At that point the guy is taunting Justin about how unbelievable it is that we only have one car that we can't leave it there. Another conversation I heard while we were on the phone together. I then call from work and talk to an employee, I asked for a supervisor and they said, What can I do for you? So I am asking for an explanation and wanting to know what the heck is going on and that leaving the car there is not an option and telling him it's ridiculous it has taken 13 hours and he in return tells me, 'we have had a lot of trouble here today.' Without any kind of explanation, asks for Justins phone number and hangs up on me!

TURNS OUT, the employee states to Justin, The guy who rebuilt MY OWN alternator, mind you, not a NEW REBUILT one like we were originally told; stripped the bolt out. God only knows why it took until almost 8pm to fix. Which at this point, Justin has helped the employee with the belt just so he could get the heck out of there. In which, everybody else left with one employee there to finish the job. They did not tell Justin they were using my old alternator which made me mad in itself and *jimmy rigged* (is what Justin called it) the stripped piece to make it fit/stay on. 13 hours later and it is finished, but now there is a whining noise coming from the hood, which Justin says most likely is the *jimmy rigged* fixing they had to do to get the car running again from their mistake. Today June 20, 2008, the same initial problem we had when taking it in there the first place is happening. I call the company this morning at 10:30 am June 20th, 2008, explaining this and that I am going to send my fianc there with the car and I would like to make an appointment so I have transportation home from work and so Justin does not have to stay there all day again and not have to figure out a ride again for myself and he tells me they dont make appointments and that it probably is a secondary problem with my car making the alternator go out and they may have to order a part and keep the car until Monday. There is no secondary problem. The problem is the faulty job they did on my alternator. I had NO problems with my car except for the alternator before I took it to this company so any more existing problems are in result to their mess-up.



In conclusion, I would like a full refund and an apology so I can take my car somewhere else to be looked at and repaired. Also I truly hope your company and employees involved in this situation learn from this experience and I hope that this does not happen to any of your future customers.


Best Regards,
Cameo C. Lindstrom
6/20/2008 11:20:54 AM

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...and did not get finished with the problem until 7pm and the store closed at 6 and I had to help put the belt back on. I'm reporting to BBB.