AAMCO Transmissions & Total Car Care

Reviews 3

BR

Brandon Montella

Hi, I am commenting on an experience that I had the other day with AAMCO at 125 Cambridge st in Charlestown. I took my jeep there because I was having an issue with the manual transmission. I went there because my usual mechanic couldnt look at it until the weekend and as a business owner I cannot go without my vehicle until the weekend. It was an issue that was on and off which led me to believe it could have been the clutch. I brought it to them as AAMCO is a transmission specialist and I figured they would be able to trouble shoot it with relative ease. I dropped the jeep and left and they called me later to tell me that they wanted to charge me $400 to take the transmission apart to explore what the issue was. If it was the clutch that would be an additional $300. Now, I am a mechanic myself I just dont have the tools to do the job. I understand that if they got into the job and then found the issue and I didnt elect to pay for the repair then they would charge me the price of $400. If they got into the job and found that the clutch was the issue,and they have already started the procedure I would pay for the difference or get the difference back from the repair as they would have already been in the process of their theory as to it being the clutch and no uneccessary work was done. Even if this is not how it works and the cost for a clutch replacement at your organization is a very pricey $700, I can get past that. What I cant get past is the fact that I picked up a nail somewhere on the way and asked them to plug it and I would pay for it when I came back to get my vehicle (repaired or not). When I came to get my vehicle as I elected not for the service I asked to pay for the plug and he charged me $20 for it. Reluctantly I handed him my business card as this is a service I can charge to my business account. The manager simply pushed my card back across the table and asked if I could pay him in cash so he could give it to the mechanic. I gave him the cash as at this point I wanted out of the business and away from him before I got real upset and started to speak my mind. I left the shop and my gears started to work just fine and the problem went away. My other mechanic after hearing the story told me to stop by real quick as he had a moment due to a cancellation. I brought it to him. He took it for a drive, checked to master cylinder which apparently led him to open a plate on my transmission (that did not need a disassemble unlike they tried to sell me) and found it to be an adjustable fix on the clutch and my vehicle is running fine now. It took him all of 15 minutes to figure out the problem which I was happy to pay for his troubles as the job was done with integrity and not to just take my hard earned dollar. Use this information for what you will but the I cannot sit by while they are allowed to take advantage of others in this fashion without at least making it known. I have honorably served my country as a United States Marine, I am a business owner myself and understand the underlying cost of operating a business, however this type of ethical and moral misconduct cannot be gone unnoticed.

RO

robert harris

I would like to first start off saying I rather Daves son, than Dave himself. This was one of my worst experiences ever. In short at the end of the process what was said to be fixed remains the same, so what did I pay for? A lot of lies and misconceptions in terms of pricing and what they will do for me. First told that they were familiar with my warranty company and guaranteed that the costs on my end would be low. Also told me of when I should receive my vehicle back which wasnt true at all, I had to wait an additional 2 days. Upon hearing that my costs would be low for a transmission issue I said yes to the terms without knowing the fine print, everything was done over the phone since I was at work (learned that I should always go in and figure everything out first). At the end of things they tried to pin all of the costs on the warranty company to make them seem like the bad ones but when in reality they tried to twist what was said, they could have accepted the parts and done the work to lessen the costs on my end. But for "warranty" reasons didnt go that direction and used parts that they found fit, making something which I may have paid $250-$300, to roughly $1800. Why do I need additional warranty for the parts, if my warranty company is buying parts which I could have gotten cheaper and still be covered by their warranty? My last additional comment is for Dave, who did give me unsatisfactory customer service, tried to keep me out of the loop of things happening in terms of the discussion between him and my warranty company, and is the guy who pinned my warranty company to make it seem like they were the ones to blame instead of using what the warranty was giving out to lower my costs. He seemed friendly and acted as if he was on my side, but dont be fooled. Hope you can learn something from my experience, dont have your car held up like I did and have to resort in paying $1050 for no repairs or $1800+ for repairs. Or just stay away from this place like I plan to in the future.

AN

Angelo Ciano

Dear mr montella, I appreciate your honesty and concern into reasons why you were unhappy during your recent visit. Lets visit some and see where the issue ls. You stated the clutch was "pricy." Well sir the Book time is 6.7 hours on a 4x4 manual transmission r&r and my labor rate is $105/hr plus parts. The price your were given was actually low and we did that because you were a veteran and gave you almost half off the normal labor price! And the breakdown you gave on how the price is given Is highly inaccurate and way off base. You had 2 complaints: one was for a slipping clutch and the other was for a grinding noise. We stated that once the transmission is removed if we need to open up the transmission up for internal repairs that would be an additional cost. Nothing more. Nothing less. Somewhere along the line there was confusion or miscommunication and for that Im sorry. Now As far as the tire plug situation goes, we explained to me montella that we do not repair tires and cannot do this service. However one of our technicians does have his own kit and offered very generously to do the repair using his own kit so mr montella didnt have to go to far and be inconvenienced. I explained this is not a shop tool and the technician would need to be compensated directly by mr montella. This was clearly understood so when mr montella gave us a credit card to pay for the tire service we could not take the payment because there was no paperwork to justify the cost. He was unhappy and upset so I did not charge him and had to pay the technician myself. On top of that mr montella felt the need to slander our business when someone went out of there way to help. I felt compelled to tell the truth and clear the air. We are a professional business and do our best to serive and satisfy every customer we can 100% but I think youll agree some people just simply cannot be pleased. Thank you for you consideration.

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