AAMCO Transmissions reviews and complaints 1
View all 222 complaintsAAMCO Transmissions - ripped off/scam
My engine light was on and my car was not shifting fast enough. Took it to this Aamco and was told they could give us an estimate.Got a call back that afternoon and Bill said he would charge us $300 for the estimate. I called him back and said never mind then don't do anything. So then he said he wouldn't charge us anything. Few days later he called and said it was going to be $[protected] to repair my engine and transmission. We were stunned because there wasn't anything wrong with the engine. The car is a 2000 Maxima Nissan. We did not have that kind of money but I needed my car so we called Bill back and said would you be willing to take our 1995 Z-28 Camaro as partial payment. He said he would take $1, 000.00 cash and our camaro. This was on a Weds.We were sopposed to take the money and car on that Sat.We did not. It sounded like something fishy was going on. On Sunday we called and Ken-new mgr. answered the phone. Informed us that Bill had been fired for scamming customers and driving their vehicles. And, that my transmission was in pieces all over the shop. He said he would look over the car and get back to us. He called us the following Tuesday and said the engine was fine but the transmission repair would be $2800.00.We asked about the Camaro swap for pmt. He spoke to the owner who said he wasn't a car dealer and no he would not do that. We were told their credit card machine wasn't working and we would have to bring in a cashiers check in the amount of $2800.00. We verified the amount again and he confirmed total pmt would be $2800.00. The car sat there for 3 weeks because I didn't have the money.I finally borrowed the money and when I called to inform them I was coming to pick up the car Ken said well it's $2800 plus taxes. I was livid and said no you quoted us more than once and in fact stated the cashier ck was to be in the exact amount of $2800.00. He said he would call the owner. He called us back and said okay the owner said he would lower the amount and make it so the taxes and the cost of repairs would equal $2800.00. A few minutes later Ken called and said they had lost the key to my car and would have to have a locksmith come down to get us a new one. By the time I picked up my car the key that I was given does not open the trunk to my car. My personal belongings were tossed out of the glove box and scattered all over my car. Including the registration and cd's. In addition there was damage to the right panel and back bumper to my car.There are oil spots all over the front passenger seats. I have continued to call the mgr. Ken for another proper key and have not had it replaced yet. This was the worst experience I have ever had with a company. There were other customers there who were also upset and complaining. This franchise should be shut down and I do not believe that my vehicle required the amount of work allegedly done and certainly not at the amount I was forced to pay in order to get my car back.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
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Hi, I'm the owner of the shop. I'm a little upset to see this complaint because I have been following the repairs to this vehicle for almost 3 months and actually was helpful through the whole process. I know of every single problem and vehicle in my shop at all times. Mr. Novick was stunned because there was noting ever wrong with the engine? I'll prove that it did later on in this response. We are a business not a BARTERING Business. Your just as much at fault for trying to barter with Bill my former manager. It's upsetting to see that if you had gotten your way and we had accepted the vehicle for collateral, then you wouldn't be as upset but we don't do that here. We do help certain customers that are in need so that we can help up the community. I can give you a list of customers that were more than appreciative for how we helped them up. I have helped a customer who was on disability and need her car fix because she just got a new job, without the job she was going to be on the verge of being homeless. I repaired the transmission and made monthly payment arrangements for her. She never made an attempt to make a payment. I'm fine with it but I was more glad that fixing her car probably helped her get back on her feet.
Mr. Novick said it seemed like something was fishy was going on. I originally approved it and thought to myself that offering was fishy? Who offers that and expects to get a $4500 repair done. I've been burned before from customers. Believe me Mr Novick, the deal you made with Bill originally was going to be a heck of a deal for you. $4500 worth of work done? Believe me once I found out that your $1000 down payment and vehicle wasn't even enough to cover the parts, I was livid with Bill. I was going to lose money helping you out? Am In the business of losing money, I don't think so.
When he called Ken on sunday, I don't know where you got scamming customers from? You might have added in to make your case sound a little stronger. If we were scamming customers I'm pretty sure we wouldn't still be open. You make it seem like all our customers are just as unhappy as you are because you didn't get what you wanted.
Of course your transmission is in pieces, that's were able to give you a estimate. Ken did not call you back and tell you your engine was fine. Tim my main transmission builder called you back, as I was standing in front of him called you back and said that if the repairs were way too expensive for you we could try to fix the engine portion of your vehicle just to get it running again and that you could wait to do the other stuff at a later time. YOU AGREED! I can list all of the issues that were going on with your engine if you would like and tell you what repairs we did do just to get your car in running shape.
To be honest Tim gave you one heck of a deal, $2800 plus tax. I know this because I was pretty upset with the fact that we were doing a transmission repair and doing some pretty major engine repairs for $2800 and after the deal was made it seemed like that $2800 was not going to be worth it because the engine was in worst shape than Tim had originally thought. I felt bad and wanted to help out so I kept the arrangement.
Yes, the credit card machine was not working at the time that Mr.Novick had to pick up his car. Is that not possible in this world? I would have taken a personal check but I've had some customers in the past that would do stop payments after they picked up their freshly repaired vehicles from the shop. It's become more of a trust issue with the economy =).
Mr.Novick was livid because he didn't get what he wanted, $2800 out the door? That means that he got his repairs transmission rebuilt and his major engine services repaired for $2500? I'm doing the math now and visually calculating the work we did to the vehicle. One heck of a deal! Almost $1500 for a 2000 Maxima transmission. Folks, please call your local dealership and see how much they charge. If thats the amount of prices we are charging, this could actually could help with advertising. $1500 for the transmission and about $1000 for the engine services. It took about a day to repair the engine. Now to prove that the engine services was more than needed. We were crossing our fingers from what Tim was going by with just doing enough to get the car fully operating. We installed the transmission, then did some of the engine services and crossed our fingers. It didn't work! I was a little upset with Tim because he was wrong, it needed more work but I didn't stay mad long because I KNOW HE TRIED TO HELP OUT A CUSTOMER AS MUCH AS HE COULD. We ended up having to buy more parts to repair Mr.Novicks engine. At this point I'm scratching my head wondering why I'm in business to do stuff for free.
Oh yeah and agreed to the $2800 out the door because, I just didn't want anymore negative things to happen, which was holding the vehicle for about a month or so, then having the customer work out a deal with my manager, then finding out the repairs we done for that price was basically giving it away, on top of that I had to pay sales tax for the customer. So I agreed. On top of that the keys were lost. We have a high volume of vehicles in our shop and for some reason someone had to just misplace the keys for this car. So I had to pay another $150 to make a new key, nice! On top of all this, the customer is saying he had the worst service ever? I'm a little offended.
I apologize for anything done to the inside of your vehicle, which I would think that they clean the vehicles before delivering it, because most times we do wash vehicles for customers who have left their car for over a month. We don't normally hold onto customer vehicles for over a month because we are fully functioning business and we really don't hold on to cars and wait for them to come up with money or wait for them to give approval to do repairs. This was an exception.
So Mr.Novick is arguing he doesn't think $2500 was a fair price to fix his transmission and engine, oh yeah and another $150 for the new key to be made. Also paying his sales tax. This upsets me because yes I agree with you, I should have charged you more for this and not do things on your terms. I had to put more work into the engine that that $2800 and after said and repaired, the quote Bill gave you was a little accurate, especially when we installed the transmission and took another 2 days to work on the engine that's, almost 16 hours in labor.
Of course I believe in customers are always right but sometimes our customers should take time to analyze the whole picture from the other point of view to see why sometimes the businesses don't want to agree to taking a down payment and vehicle for collateral until the customer can come up with the money to pay off the balance or why the business shouldn't have to pay the sales tax for the repairs.
I'm more than fair and will admit to guilt when I know of my wrong doing but this is not really fair in my eyes, when a customer doesn't get what he wants but in the end does, and is still upset. Most our customer after we do let them call the shots because we want to be part of the community, end up liking us =).
Thanks...Robert