On 01/10, I and my fianc dropped our vehicle off for service at Autotronics in Oviedo. On the 01/11 at 11:00AM, I called the shop to see if they had gotten a chance to look at it. I was told, The mechanic ran a computer scan and had found several bad sensors. Kathy told me the bill would be $497.07 and that the vehicle could be picked up on 01/12. My fianc left work early the following day to get to the shop before they closed and pay for the repairs. After paying, she drove the vehicle home and called me immediately. She told me the vehicle still seemed a bit sluggish. When I arrived home to test drive the vehicle, I agree the problem DID NOT seem corrected. However, it was too late to call the shop so we shrugged it off to maybe the car needs to be broken in.
At 7:05AM on 01/13, my fianc departed for work. At 7:40AM the very morning, she called to tell me she was broke down on SR 408 and the car was suffering from the exact same symptoms as before. I left home to go pick her up and called my job to let them know I wouldn't be arriving late due to this huge problem. I did not arrive until 8:30AM because the traffic at the time was so heavy. My fianc called Autotronics at 7:45AM to tell them she was broken down and the car was giving her the same problems as before. They instructed her to call back at 8:00AM when a customer service rep would take care of her situation. At 8:00AM, she called back and spoke to Kathy regarding this issue. She was told they would tow that car back to their shop and take ANOTHER look at it. She was told the tow and service would be free at that point. The free tow and service was mentioned twice by my wife and Kathy confirmed as the conversation went on.
At 9:30AM that very same day, I called back Autotronics to see if the tow was in route. I spoke to Mr. Wilkens (Owner) who assured me that tow was on its way. At 5:30PM, a full eight hours later I had yet to receive a phone call about the status of my vehicle. So once again, I called and spoke with Kathy. She told me, We think it might be one or both of your fuel pumps. But we aren't sure on how to test them both at this time. She told me I wouldn't hear from them tomorrow since they had to do some more research on how to test the two fuel pumps.
At 11:00AM on 01/14, I still hadn't received a phone call from anyone from Autotronics so I called them. I was told they just finished pricing my ticket and that the repairs needed to repair the car would be an additional $560.00. I asked her why didn't the first payment of $497.07 cover these repairs, since obviously the first attempt to fix the problem was not successful. I was told by Kathy, The first set of problems were different. I asked her why should I have to pay twice since your company misdiagnosed the vehicle. She stated to me that, It wasn't a misdiagnoses and I had not properly told them what was wrong with my vehicle. She then went on to say the following, We never told you your vehicle was 100% FIXED. To that I asked her, why would I spent $500 to not fix the problem 100%. Anyone can guess and install unneeded parts. I paid you guys because you are suppose to be technicians. To that comment, Kathy said, Auto repair IS NOT AN EXACT SCIENCE.
I continued to express my displeasure and wanted the manager to give me call back ASAP. Several hours later he called me back stating, You're out of line and this situation was getting out of hand. You should be grateful that we fixed ONE of the problems. He went on to tell me his mechanics WOULD NOT do any more work on my vehicle, and that it was my fault it was not fixed because of my bad description of the symptoms.
When we dropped the vehicle off the first time, we give Autotronics a typed letter of all the symptoms and the major problems the car was giving us. We also called several times BEFORE we picked it up the first time to relay MORE INFORMATION regarding the symptoms. He then told me, It wasn't fixed correctly in my possession because we couldn't get it to break at the time. But they still felt the need to run up a $497.07 bill on a vehicle that they say isn't broken.
He then admitted to me the parts he replaced COULD NOT be the cause of the problem for the car stalling. At this point, I would have been happy with any type of cooperation, I even offered to pay for the fuel pumps myself and his company give me a break on the labor. And I was told that request was unreasonable and that deal was not going to happen. I was then told the fuel pumps were very expensive and he was cutting me deal with the $560.00 request. But when I called AutoZone to check and exactly how much these pumps were, I was told the price for BOTH pumps were $138.00!
At this point, I was convinced I had been had! So I called me fianc to discuss our options. We decided to stop payment on the check to force their hand on the matter since; they hadn't been returning our phone calls or requests for phone calls. Two hours later, I received a phone call from Mr. Wilkens. He expressed, that is a bad idea to stop payment on a check since I have your vehicle on my property. This was both threatening and a warning on his end. 20 minutes after that phone call Mr. Wilkens called to express that the free tow he promised was now withdrawn and I had to pay for that as well.
In the end, I ended up paying my original $497.07 in cash and looking for some type of legal assistance. This company was approved by AAA yet they were the rudest set of people I had ever encountered in my lifetime. I'm left completely trustless of this establishment and its employees, who took my money, DID NOT repair the problem and turned their backs when we wouldn't produce more money.
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