Another AA Horror Story Options

[krazykonrad]

AA just ran well in excess of $1,000 over budget on my 914. I dont dispute the necessity of the work or the pricing of the work. However, they went way too far when I told them to what my budget was. The official company line is this was a "misunderstanding".
In all candor, Shon and Daniel in the shop were great to work with. Shon got put in the middle between George and I when George suddenly dropped the problem on his lap.
AA fooled me once on bad customer service. Now they fooled me twice. Shame on me for trusting them. Never again!
To keep a potential flame war off the site, PM me if you're interested in the story.
Konrad

[krazykonrad]

OK: I had a rocker arm stud break on me and eventually needed the half stuck in the head drilled out. George quoted me $400 to remove the engine, drill out the bolt, and re-assemble everything. I figured the total cost might be $5-600 by the time it was all done.
George then gave me a call to tell me that every thing was finished, but they had seen some problem areas that needed to be addressed. george said it would take some "tweaks" to get it in perfect running order and it should cast $2,000 to do everything. I thought he ment $2k inclusive of the engine work. But none-the-less I told him "do what you need to get it running, but $2k is way out of my price range."
Total bill- $3175.00 including tax. Things done include replace CV joints, replace wheel bearing, replace shifter bushings, replace muffler bracket, and a few others.
* The work needed to be done and the total price was fair for the work done. However, I had no intention of dropping more than $1500 total. I wasnt explicit about it but "go nowhere near $2k, I thought would cover things.
Never again!
Konrad

[gopack]

OK: I had a rocker arm stud break on me and eventually needed the half stuck in the head drilled out. George quoted me $400 to remove the engine, drill out the bolt, and re-assemble everything. I figured the total cost might be $5-600 by the time it was all done.
George then gave me a call to tell me that every thing was finished, Did you ask for a total of all work performed to date? but they had seen some problem areas that needed to be addressed. George said it would take some "tweaks" Did you ask for a list of all the work that the "tweaks entailed? to get it in perfect running order and it should cast $2,000 to do everything. I am sure George thought HE said “it will take another $2000 or so to get this ADDITIONAL work done". You know that it is what he was thinking. I thought he ment $2k inclusive of the engine work. here is the point where you need to ask the question: total or additional? it is your car, and money! But none-the-less I told him "do what you need to get it running, (repair shop heard this) but $2k is way out of my price range."(repair shop either hears that it is out of yout price range, but you will deal with it, or just hears a customer griping)
Total bill- $3175.00 including tax. Things done include replace CV joints, replace wheel bearing, replace shifter bushings, replace muffler bracket, and a few others.
* The work needed to be done and the total price was fair for the work done. However, I had no intention of dropping more than $1500 total. I wasn’t explicit about it but "go nowhere near $2k, I thought would cover things.
Never again!
Konrad

Bottom line: they made a good faith effort to gain authorization for the work, and you gave that authorization with out a full understanding of what you were authorizing.

Same thing happened to me. I had a BMW M3 I was selling. My wife took it to a store and some chick backed into the car, leaving a small dent on the front quarter that needed to be fixed. When I went to the body shop to get and estimate, I was asked did the insurance company give an estimate. I said "yes but I don't have it with me. He went ahead and generated another one.
And then when I found out that they would have to blend the paint into the hood, I asked to get the hood re-sprayed to take care of some paint chips. So he came back and said $750, and gave me the secret coded estimate sheet. So I said wow that is cheap! (seriously I did!). Go for it.

When I go to pick up the car, it turns out I owe $800. I question them and they say that they didn't estimate the insurance portion of the work because the insurance company estimate applied, and that this estimate was for ONLY additional work. I thought that it was a sucky way to do business, but that is the way it works.

Bottom line, I was the one that didn't fully understand what I was asking for, and I am the one that authorized the repair at the quoted price. I bitched and got a small discount on the work and chalked it up to a lesson learned. Be a dummy; ask the question over and over again until you UNDERSTAND FULLY, and then and only then sign! too many people (like me in this case) don't want to seem dumb, and just kind of gloss over the details and say go ahead. I was mad at the time, but mostly at my self for not asking questions and knowing that anything insurance related isn’t done in a logical manner. I think i may have even posted a rant here at the time (old pre-split site) The thing to remember here is that the shop deals with things liek this ALL the time and each time you are required to learn their way of doing things, and shorthand and secret code words. This is your responsibility , because it is your MONEY!

If you ask nice, maybe George will be willing to give a "sorry for the miscommunication problem" discount, but you aren't OWED one.