Westbrook Transmission Deception, poor quality work, Ripoff Westbrook Maine

I had my classic car serviced at Westbrook Transmission back in 2004. The price was a little steep, but with 40 years under their belts and free towing anywhere the car breaks down due to transmission problems was attractive.

While rebuilding my transmission (it took 3 weeks for them to finally get it on a lift)they mentioned they do body work as well and offered to install new trunk floors in my car. I already had the pans, so agreed to let them do the job.

First problem. These guys cut the wires going to my reverse lamps while installing the pan. They also decided to just cut up my 3x4 foot full pan and use maybe a 2 foot square piece leaving lots of rot in the car. To hide this, they slathered the whole mess with a rubber agent to hide the 'work' they did. This deal alone will cost me thousands to correct and has cost me several hundred already.

Second problem. Since it is a transmission shop, we must agree they are pros at transmissions and not body work, yes? Pick the car up and before that first tank of gas was burned through the transmission went. I estimate it was within 40 miles after rebuild. Seeing what they did to my trunk I had two totally independant mechanics look at the car and both agreed the transmission shop attempted to reuse old worn out components (in this case the pump) to save money on the rebuild. Westbrook made good on their towing and picked it up.

My One Year warranty was still in effect, so I figured worse case I would need to pay some minor fees. It took 5 weeks to get my car on the lift. When they finally did, they had me come down and tried to charge me for a full rebuild.

They made stupid claims like my 318 190HP engine was too powerful and killed the transmission. As soon as I threatened to call the police to impound the car until I could go to court, the desk guy tried to make me wait to talk to the owner (whom was now avoiding me). They blocked my car in with a flatbed truck and made me wait 3 hours in their dirty little waiting room.

I have actual video footage of much of these conversations that day. When I finally spoke to Joe, I told him I paid the money to get the job done right and he let me down. He showed me the pump and admitted that was the problem, but said it wasn't in the full rebuild.

I told him explicitly I wanted everything changed but the shell of the tranny, and I paid almost double what his competitors charged to get it. At the end of the day I got the car for $200. My $100 deductible, $50 fluids and some other charges.

Transmission started leaking like crazy within a month. Had a mechanic do it as it was cheaper than paying the $100 deductible and I didn't want to deal with them again.

Last and final problem. Transmission died a month ago. Sent it to a Chrysler Certified mechanic as he is half the price of Westbrook Transmission. The Clutch pack went as it was not replaced. Many components were not replaced. Out of warranty and maybe 3K miles on it. Never abused and faithfully maintained.

JS
Southern, Maine
U.S.A.