OK. My truck is old. 1989 with 117k on it but it seldom lets me down. It developed a problem at an idle and under acceleration when it would stumble and wanted to stop running. Since I had it repaired here once already with a similar problem ( turned out to be a vacuum problem) about 2 years ago I took it back to them. I was called the same day and advised that they needed another hour, in addition to the hour already charged, to nail down the problem. So that was 2 hours at $130 an hour for diagnosis. I authorized that additional time. The next call was that they had discovered that the injectors were bad and needed replacement but they were having a difficult time finding injectors but would contact me when they had found some. I told them that Rock Auto Parts had the injectors but they told me that they had several experiences where parts from Rock Auto had failed and they would not use them. I was told that my bill would be about $460 to have the repair done and was told that they would be under an 18 month 18000 mile warranty. I told them to proceed and the next day was called and told my truck was ready. The bill was $462.77. I picked up my truck and drove it home. It ran great! The next week I drove the truck to a store and after about 20 minutes I came out and the truck was very hard to start. In fact it took about 5 minutes to get started. Once started, it ran great. I called Tigard SUV and explained the problem and set up today to bring it in and have checked out. I dropped it off and about an hour later received a call the the injectors were leaking while the engine was shut off and creating a fuel flooding problem. To fix this they recommended replacing the injectors and my cost would be an additional $169.00. They said that the leaking problem was a known issue with remanufactured injectors. The ones they had just put in. So the part they had used had failed ( seems to be the same problem as the Rock Auto Parts story) and no offer to fix the problem under their 18 month 18000 warranty. I objected and asked if he was the owner or manager. He said he was not. I said he needed to speak with one of those individuals and get back to me as I felt the $169 was their problem and on them. Still no mention of the 18/18 warranty. I received a call about 5 minutes later. I went back over the issue with the individual and again said I thought the $169 was their problem and the repair should be do no charge. I was then told they didn’t want to do the repair as the injectors cost them $113 each but they were willing to refund me my original repair cost of $209 so I wouldn’t say that they had screwed me. His words.. The $260 was diagnostic time. That was where I got hammered. Hey, I am old but not totaly stupid, just a little. No offer to repair the truck under the 18/18 just a strong effort to up sell me on the new injectors. 2 hours to diagnose this issue? Hummm. Went on line and Googled the year, make, and issue I was having. Came back with crank shaft positioning sensor and injectors as probable cause with injectors and throttle body as the leading suspects. That took less than 5 minutes. So you decide. In closing why did this issue not come up in a road test. If the injectors had a reputation of leaking.....why use them? Fix it right or don’t do it at all. By the way, the first repair also had to go back. Seems a vacuum line for the 4x4 was not connected so when I put it in 4x4 it would die. Should have learned a lesson on that one. As you read this remember, auto repair is a tough industry and your not going to satisfy everyone. I was in the auto industry 45 years and I learned one thing, make it right. Pretty much no matter the cost, make it right. Repeat and referrals are the most important customers you have going for you.
No good deed goes unpunished. When this customer originally came in for an issue with his vehicle, he mentioned it was old and he wanted to spend as little as possible to fix it. Against my better judgement, I installed a pair of low cost remanufactured injectors. Unfortunately he came back with an issue caused by these injectors. When I researched the problem with my vendor, he admitted that there was an issue with these injectors and was going to stop selling them. I offered to install new injectors for just the cost difference. Mind you, he would not be out any additional money over installing the new injectors originally. The customers response was he had two options, to pay the extra money and leave a bad review on google, or we could figure something else out. I offered to refund his money for the injector repair portion less the diagnostic time since that was done correctly. Customer accepted the refund and still left a bad review - Go figure.
- Tigard SUV and Auto Repair