In April I went to 2 Fat Guys Automotive to get my oil changed and get the transmission flushed and have the fluid replaced. I was driving a 1992 Chevrolet Silverado pick up truck at the time. I told the man behind the counter what I wanted done and he said that was fine and it should take a few hours at most. This was around 10 in the morning. I informed him that I was a student at UTSA and needed to be on the road by 2pm or I would miss class. He siad it was no problem.
He then sent a technician out to my truck to look at it. He had clipboard with him and was making various notes. Then he climbed inside, started it up and roared out onto Bandera. I was a little peeved about that but the man behind the counter disapeared. Several minutes later the mechanic came back roaring into the lot and raced down the drive into the garage.
I waited in the waiting room with another older gentlemen who claimed he had been there for several hours, since 7 in the morning. He was very upset because he had been told several times by the service techs that his vehicle would be ready shortly. Each time he spoke with the technicians they would give him reason why they needed more time. He was getting very upset.
I explained to him why I was there, that I was getting my oil changed and the transmission fluid changed and he told me he had seen an advertisement from 2 Fat Guys Automotive in the paper he was reading that morning. He said it offered a substantial discount on oil changes and transmission services. I found the advertisement in the trash and brought it up to the man behind the counter. The man read the advertisement and said he had forgotten about that.
He then told me he would make the appropriate changes to my bill. It was now around 12pm and I was getting anxious to get out of there. The older gentlemen was still in the waiting room and he was very fustrated because he had been there for five hours now, and they told him they would be done by 9am.
This is what really bothered me. I looked out into the garage because behind the counter is the garage and you can see it through the huge glass window behind the counter. Everytime I looked out there to see what they were doing to my truck, the three mechanics or service techs, whatever you call them were always walking around casually from car to car, talking and laughing.
They would roam around the garage and joke with eachother, walk outside, and several time there was no mechanic in the garage at all because they were all outside smoking and joking. I never saw the same mechanic under my truck for more than five minutes, and several times there would be no one working on any of the vehicles in the garage. Time was just passing by and so I said something to the older man in the waiting room and he said he had made the same observation.
I made a comment to the man behind the counter and asked how long it was going to be because it was now 145pm and I asked him what the mechanics were doing and why there seemed to be no sense of urgency on any of the vehicles in the gargage. He told me these things take time but he would try to get them moving. I had now been there for several hours and I was getting really mad.
The older gentlemen was really upset because they had really done nothing to his car, it seemed like it had just been sitting there for hours. The man behind the counter came out of the garage and asked me to come with him to show me something. He claimed my front suspension was completely shot and all the parts needed to be replaced. The ball joints, idle and pitman arm, shocks all the way around. He then said the rear differential was leaking and the brakes were bad. He said that his mechanic who drove it said he felt so unsafe driving it becuase he truned the wheel one direction and the truck went the other direction. He was serious and I wanted to laugh so hard because he said you probably don't notice because your used to it.
He was trying to convince me that I was used to turning ny steering wheel to the right and the truck was going to the left. Was he for real?! Yeah he was. He kept telling me I was used to it but his mechanics were scared to drive it. They didn't seem to scared to drive it to me. He then showed me a checklist with all the repairs that needed to be performed all totalling just about $2000.00 worth of suspension parts. I told him I was not interested and that I wanted to get the hell out of there because I was missing my class and he told me I would be out of there before 2pm and now it was 315pm.
I told him to finish the job so I could go. He said the maitnence was almost done and he said he would allow me to pay for the service. He made me sign a waiver saying he had warned me that my truck was unsafe for highway use and he was not liable for anything that might happen to me. As I was paying some mechanic went roaring out of the garage in my truck and out onto Bandera. I asked him what was going on and he said that the mechanic needed to make sure everything was fine. I then commented that the mechanic must be extremely brave since my truck was so unsafe for highway use.
All in all, I am sorry I cannot provide accurate names, it has been a long time. I know that at some automotive repair shops they take the vehicle on the road to evaluate it in drive, it just seemed like the individuals at 2 Fat Guys didn't give a care about your vehicle and they drove it very hard and irresponsibly. I also didn't like the fact that if I hadn't told the man behind the counter about the advertisement they were running, he would charged me full price for the work.
I also didn't like the fact that all of the mechanics in the garage just casually strolled from one vehicle to the other and spent the vast majority of their time smoking and playing grab ass, then making up excuses on why the customer has been waiting five hours for service that was promised in two hours. I also didn't appreciate that man trying to sell me $2000.00 worth of suspension parts and shocks that I really didn't need. Then telling me some drama story about his mechanics being terrified becuase my truck steered in the opposite direction and that I had grown used to it.
To wrap it all up, I almost got cheated, I missed my class, and I almost got ripped off. The older gentlemen was still there when I left around 345pm, he had been there since 7am that morining and was supposed to be driving to Laredo. I felt bad for the guy because he could never get a straight answer out of any of those people about why they were taking so long to fix his car. Avoid 2 Fat Guys Automotive, you will waste time and money.
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