Question Of The Day: What Was Your Biggest… Repair Ripoff?

Steven Lang
by Steven Lang

The engine just didn’t seem right… at least that’s what they said.

“Ma’am. I think you’re going to need a full tune-up. It’s going to be $487.38.”

“But this Volvo 240 just had the work done 10,000 miles ago?”

“It’s due ma’am. Sorry.”

(Sigh!)

The lady didn’t have that type of money. So she did the one thing that a lot of folks here in Georgia do when they are out of cash and have no credit.

A title loan. $500 in cash. 12.5% interest a month, and a lien on the Volvo.

The tune-up gets done and…. “It won’t start up ma’am. You need to also get a battery, and maybe an alternator.”

At this point the lady is beyond flummoxed. She calls me, since I sold the vehicle to her nearly two years ago (she was a referral from another family member) and I, in turn, refer her to a nearby garage.

Hood pops open. The problem is found in less than a minute.

The problem? A loose negative battery cable, a $100 tow fee, and $487.38 of pointless repairs with inferior parts.

Virtually every auto enthusiast and apathetic car owner has been ripped off at some point in their life. When did it happen to you? Or yours?

Did you feel like Falling Down?


Steven Lang
Steven Lang

More by Steven Lang

Comments
Join the conversation
4 of 89 comments
  • Grumpy46 Grumpy46 on Jun 21, 2012

    One good and one bad story out of 45 years of cars and (mostly) doing my own wrenching. But recently I was getting the oil changed in my Impala. The tech showed me a streak of coolant on the hood liner and said my water pump was leaking. 150,000 on the clock, I figure it's time. Drop the car at Knapp Chevrolet in downtown Houston on Monday morning and tell the service writer to change the water pump, thermostat and all the hoses. Told him to just do it, don't bother calling me for approval because I was in meetings and might not be able to call him back promptly. He called me anyway in a couple of hours and told me there was nothing wrong with the water pump, it was just a small leak at the hose connection to the pump. He had the free pass to charge me for the full job and didn't do it. That's why I keep going back to Knapp. 1988 - wife and I are on vacation in upper NY state when the lock up sprag goes out of the torque converter on our '84 Cressida. Call the local Toyota dealer, very busy and won't be able to get to it for two or three days. Have the car towed to the closest AAMCO shop. Tell the manager the torque converter is out and needs replaced. Nothing else. They call me the next day, they have the tranny apart if I want to see it. I go over, the mechanic is a Harley wrench with his wallet on a chain, yadayada. Yep, the torque is bad, needs replaced. Tranny is in parts on the bench. When I asked them why they pulled the tranny apart they tell me it's because you can't know what other damage the failed torque converter might have done. The fact that the hydraulic pump quits when the torque fails doesn't seem to register with them. But they're happy to tell me that it's all OK, no problems. Order new torque, shows up, wrong input shaft spline. Order another one, shows up, wrong flexplate pattern, order another one (by this time I think the supplier has had time to rebuild my original one) and the third try finally fits. Put the car back together, I go pick it up, ask about the warranty on the work. They tell me there is no warranty on the transmission work because they didn't do anything. I raise hell, to no avail. My wife has to get back to New Orleans for school, so blow it off. Freaking transmission never did work right after that. Eventually, after fighting with AAMCO a couple of years I have the guys at my regular Toyota dealership put in a rebuilt A43. Drove that car 272,000 miles with zero other problems. Except for AAMCO messing up the tranny that was a perfect car. Wish I still had it sometimes.

  • YellowDuck YellowDuck on Jun 21, 2012

    About 2 weeks ago, I took our 2008 Wrangler Unlimited in to the Chysler dealer for the sagging fender liner recall (I think they just put a few more clips in). I also asked them to diagnose a front end resonant wobble - surely just balancing of the wheels. Sometimes I think these recalls are just a way to get vehicles in to the service department so they can up-sell you. Got a call from the service desk, with a bunch of recommendations for fluid changes - both axles, transmission, transfer case. The truck only has 70,000 km on it, but I didn't have the maintenance schedule in front of me so I didn't know if all of this was really "due". I remembered from my TJ that the transfer case can be a bear, but the axles are easy, so I okayed the transmission and transfer case fluid changes. Turns out none of it was actually due. Total bill with taxes for that stuff plus the wheel re-balancing: $655 At least I was smart enough to say no to the engine "flushing". "What is that?" "We flush out the entire engine - it gets rid of all of the deposits." "What's it cost?" "$250" "Is that on Chrysler's maintenance schedule?" "No, but we really recommend it." "I bet you do. No thanks".

  • Juror58 Juror58 on Jun 21, 2012

    I've been lurking for a while but decided to register to comment on this, as this is one of my big peeves. Both of the below happened a few years ago, but still pi$$ me off to this day, so much so that I will never buy a car from either of these dealers. First, the Honda dealer, on a Civic Wagon. It was in for a timing belt. As a precaution I had them replace the water pump..."and replace the belts while you're at it." When examining the bill, I questioned a line item: Labor, replace belts - 1/2 hr. I asked about the charge, when they had to put the belts back on following the timing belt replacement. "Because we put on new belts." "What difference does it make whether they're new belts or old? I already paid for their installation as part of the timing belt job." "When we put on new belts, we charge for labor." "Was a similar deduction taken from the other job?" "No." After complaining to the dealership owner, and getting screamed at (literally) in front of everyone in the showroom, he finally yelled to the cashier, "G-- d--- it, give him his f------ half hour back." He lost s customer for less than $20. The other time was for a 15k service on my new Mazda pickup. During the initial look-see (before they did anything else) they discovered a leaking head gasket, which would be replaced under warranty. When I picked up the truck I was surprised to see the full $375 charge for the 15K servicing. When I mentioned at least 3/4 of the items on the service list were done as part of reassembling the engine following the head gasket replacement, the Service Manager looked me in the eye, and said with a perfectly straight face, "Yea, but we did 'em again." And the charge for the oil change? "We did that as part of the head gasket job, but Mazda doesn't pay for that under the warranty." Well, I may have been born at night, but it wasn't last night. Even still, I only managed to get one hour labor knocked off and a few chits for future oil changes. (Any guess as to how many I used?) And then there was with the Sears Automotive Dept. Right after I bought 4 new tires from them the car began pulling to the right. I took it to my mechanic for an alignment, who told me the RF tire was defective. Now Sears should have exchanged the tire for a new one, and returned the defective one for a credit. Instead, they pumped up the defective tire to 45 psi so the car wouldn't pull. When called on it the dept. manager swore it would be fine. It took the store manager to get the tire replaced.That was the last time I ever went to Sears Automotive.

  • Ekaftan Ekaftan on Jun 24, 2012

    Every member of my family and all my friends have been instructed by me to NEVER, EVER open the hood at a gas station is offered a free 'fluids check' and never accept a repair estimate without calling me first. 9 times out of 10 they are about to being ripped off and/or the repair is not worth it. Example: my father was quoted once US$1500 to fix a small oil leak. I told him not to do it and to keep topping up as the leak was nowhere near big (a couple of drips a day) and not in a critical part of the engine. Car was sold with the same small leak 2 years later and total expense was US$100-US$200 in extra oil to top up.

Next