aamco workmanship...aarrg

[myownr]

My daughter has a 2000 kia sophia which the transmission was rebuilt last october by ammaco. Originally the work was going to cost $1600, but they tell me they can cut me a break for $1200 cash since my father and brother both head up the maintenance dept for local school district buses and vehicles, to which they provide them with work. This weekend the car won't go in reverse so I trailer it up there. Today they call me and say last time I got a deal and they need another 400 to 500 to fix it and he needs at least 2 weeks...WTF...where was the 12 month warranty they speak of, was that my $400 discount. This has happened to another person my father recommended them to as well. Tomorrow I am going to ask for a written estimate and see if he truly knows what is F'd up or just wants to try and suck more $$ from me. Both my brother and father are disapponted 2 repairs have failed and they don't stand behind there warranty or word. I will be shopping the repairs if possible. Anyone want to repair a kia trans in return for the work from 2 school districts they are about to lose? What kind of character does a company have to have not to honor their warranty for work, and for a lousy $400 lose any more work from these 2 school districts....

[Dirtyd0g]

Heh, I worked at Erlanger for 4 years. The best part about not being there is I don't have to sit and watch people get scammed. I have seen some crazy stuff there. The guy that was running the office then and the builder left there to open Mr.Transmission in Sharonville. Erlanger does have a very good transmission builder. Joe Beck, he is a heck of a guy and knows how to build a transmission. Unfortunately he has to play the politics of doing what his boss tells him so he doesn't get to do everything his way. All in all I put in literally thousands of transmissions he built with problems being rare. The other guy you just count the days until it came back....
Warranty wise Aamco can afford the attorney's to fight you so you'll never win. They have a charge you for everything philosphy and install only the bare minimum. I have seen many people argue but you'll never win. Small shops usually take better care of you because they cannot afford the attorney's to fight you.
Alan

[myownr]

it wasn't erlanger....garry @ batavia

[Dirtyd0g]

Batavia Aamco? You mean beechmont or Milford? The guy that owns erlanger owns beechmont too. Milford is someone else. Not that it matters. Everyone thinks mechanics are out to rip you off when in fact it is usually the commision paid service writer or car salesman. I learned with a shady "salesman" you aren't always getting the job you pay for at those places. Like I said I have seen some terrible things. I got fired from Fleet Goodyear in Latonia for telling the service writer that if he pulled anything shady on a car I would tell them because the car was my neighbors. Right after I saw him rip an old lady off something terrible. How these people sleep at night is beyond me. The one thing I liked about working at Gil and Mikes was that they were dead honest. If they told you your transmission needed a new part it got a new part. Yeah they charge more but it is respectable. At least it was back then I haven't talked to them in years so I have no clue what they do now. I know only a couple of the same people are left.
Alan

[Mista Bone]

Alan, there is a reason we does this as basically a one man crew.

We have a bit of self decency.

Also why I trust Gene Jr. @ R&R on Madison, never met his dad though. A lot of insight from Gene helped me to be where I am and NOT in a shop or owning one.

[Gstang117]

Brownies IT has always been a good help to my family over the years

[Dirtyd0g]

Alan, there is a reason we does this as basically a one man crew.

We have a bit of self decency.

Also why I trust Gene Jr. @ R&R on Madison, never met his dad though. A lot of insight from Gene helped me to be where I am and NOT in a shop or owning one.

I am very familiar with Gene Jr. and his dad. His uncle Jerry runs one of the most reputable shops around and Jerry's son is a heck of a builder as well. He helps me out all the time on oddball stuff that I don't mess with. I have done repeated business with all of them through the years. Gene Sr. is a handful to deal with but is honest from what I can tell. Aamco seems to have the most dishonest service writers I have dealt with. I don't know who does the service writing for Gene Sr. now but Jerry and his Wife do their own last I knew. A service writier getting paid commision is just a bad deal for the customers and the mechanics.
Alan

[Galaxie]

Brownies IT has always been a good help to my family over the years

A friend of mine went there and signed a paper for a $475.00 inspection which consisted of removal and a quick tear down for inspection. A week later they call and say its almost done that they just need to put the trans back in and they want 1600 he calls me and I let him know that they cannot go over 20% without authorization and he gets pretty rough on them. They tell him that the convertor is bad and was 800 of the money and say will go the 1275 since we did not call you . It goes back and forth and they tell him they can take the parts out but then the car wont drive to which he drove it there . A few days later and they offer the whole job for a 1000 and he took it . I told him he was a fool and should have held out . He said the guy was saying I could loose my job over this I guess he should have thought about that before he started trying to fuck someone over .

[Dirtyd0g]

A friend of mine went there and signed a paper for a $475.00 inspection which consisted of removal and a quick tear down for inspection. A week later they call and say its almost done that they just need to put the trans back in and they want 1600 he calls me and I let him know that they cannot go over 20% without authorization and he gets pretty rough on them. They tell him that the convertor is bad and was 800 of the money and say will go the 1275 since we did not call you . It goes back and forth and they tell him they can take the parts out but then the car wont drive to which he drove it there . A few days later and they offer the whole job for a 1000 and he took it . I told him he was a fool and should have held out . He said the guy was saying I could loose my job over this I guess he should have thought about that before he started trying to fuck someone over .

I see it the other way around I think he screwed the shop over. Now someone else is going to pay for it. They went in debt over the job so the next guy will pay extra because the customer managed to scam the shop. Everyone thinks the shop is out to screw them, when the truth is everyone is out to screw the shop. If it keeps up like this there will be nothing left but aamco and pep boys because an honest person has no place in the business. $1600 for a job involving a $800 converter sounds dirt cheap to me.
Alan

[bestracing]

I thought everyone knew that AAMCO were Crooks. Charge you for a total rebuild kit and only use a partial (reuse the steels) to build your transmission to make more money. I remember many old news stories about them before there ever was an I-Team.


I see it the other way around I think he screwed the shop over. Now someone else is going to pay for it. They went in debt over the job so the next guy will pay extra because the customer managed to scam the shop. Everyone thinks the shop is out to screw them, when the truth is everyone is out to screw the shop. If it keeps up like this there will be nothing left but aamco and pep boys because an honest person has no place in the business. $1600 for a job involving a $800 converter sounds dirt cheap to me.
Alan

I think the arguement is that they should have called first as soon as the shop realized it was going to be more than the $575 which is ~20% over the quote. I know most people can't just lay down the extra cash over what they were first quoted.

Thats one of the many things I hate with Chain Service Shop's, They NEVER call and there is a person there just to do that job.

[Gstang117]

Yikes, never had anything like that happen to us before.

[Dirtyd0g]

Reusing steels is nothing, if they are good it is actually better to use parts that are properly worn in. The parts I argue are the hard parts. They charge you for brand new OEM hard parts, then go buy a rusted out junkyard core, take parts that are not much better than the ones they are replacing out of them and charge you full price.

I do agree on they should have called first but if the agreement was $475 to inspect they could have not fixed the trans left it out of the car and said ok give me $475 and come pick up your still broken car. BTW that is Aamco's biggest racket. Low quote, sign inspection fee agreement, triple price, charge rediculous inspection fee if you decide to take it still broken. Then don't be surprised if they dig through their barrel of junk parts to make sure you get absolute junk back.

Alan

[Mista Bone]

Don't forget the storage fees while you car with the tranny in the trunk is sitting on the lot. Leave it long enough and the shop will now own your car.

[Dirtyd0g]

Don't forget the storage fees while you car with the tranny in the trunk is sitting on the lot. Leave it long enough and the shop will now own your car.

Erlanger was predicatable if the car was there for more than 2 weeks it would be there until the title was settled. We got a lesser pay rate when working on those cars so we only worked on them when there was nothing good to do. Then they would become the cars that sat there for sale and we used for the shop lunch runner until it sold.
Alan

[Galaxie]

I see it the other way around I think he screwed the shop over. Now someone else is going to pay for it. They went in debt over the job so the next guy will pay extra because the customer managed to scam the shop. Everyone thinks the shop is out to screw them, when the truth is everyone is out to screw the shop. If it keeps up like this there will be nothing left but aamco and pep boys because an honest person has no place in the business. $1600 for a job involving a $800 converter sounds dirt cheap to me.
Alan

So it was ok for them to rebuild the trans without asking anyone first ? Have you ever priced a convertor at most maybe 250.00 then the 475.00 equals 725.00 they wanted 800.00 for the convertor plus the 475.00 he agreed upon . He was not trying to screw anyone he is probably one of the nicest guys I have ever met . The car is a shit box Saturn that drove but shifted funny on occasions and it had a code saying the gear ratio was incorrect and this is why he took it there . I own and operate my own shop and there is no reason for anything like that to happen . They tried to bully him into a complete rebuild but could never produce a reason why except the convertor was bad .I had told him that I have had this problem before but that was after the Ecm was changed and there is a difference from single cam to dual cam on the gear ratios in the trans .The service numbers are the same but the programing is different. His had never been fooled with . I am awaiting to hear from after he picks it up this week to see if it is fixed .

[Dirtyd0g]

So it was ok for them to rebuild the trans without asking anyone first ? Have you ever priced a convertor at most maybe 250.00 then the 475.00 equals 725.00 they wanted 800.00 for the convertor plus the 475.00 he agreed upon . He was not trying to screw anyone he is probably one of the nicest guys I have ever met . The car is a shit box Saturn that drove but shifted funny on occasions and it had a code saying the gear ratio was incorrect and this is why he took it there . I own and operate my own shop and there is no reason for anything like that to happen . They tried to bully him into a complete rebuild but could never produce a reason why except the convertor was bad .I had told him that I have had this problem before but that was after the Ecm was changed and there is a difference from single cam to dual cam on the gear ratios in the trans .The service numbers are the same but the programing is different. His had never been fooled with . I am awaiting to hear from after he picks it up this week to see if it is fixed .



I am a little confused by that. The only $800 converters are either serious race units or big diesel multiplate units. They did have the option to leave it apart so it really doesn't make sense. The converter could have been fixed I'm sure. What is the vehicle? A bad converter can contaminate the transmission, but usually quick transmission checks and cleaning can fix it up. Exactly what was bad about the converter anyway. The information just sounds 3rd hand and makes no sense.
Alan

[Sparky]

I just inherited one of those same problems with one of those shitbox Saturns. I replaced the whole tranny with a salvage unit with the same damn "reverse slam" problem the original had. Funny thing is, I was going to go to an AAMCO to see about a rebuild until I read this.

[Dirtyd0g]

The closest place I can suggest to you that would treat you right is Aatco in reading. Jack is a good honest guy.
Alan