I purchased a rebuilt manual transmission for my 1988 pathfinder last year on eBay from Phoenix Remanufactured transmissions for over $800. The pathfinder is my daily driver, so I needed the transmission back promptly. The salesperson I spoke with on the phone before purchasing the transmission assured me it would be back very shortly. I did not receive the transmission for over one month. I demanded they refund my shipping charge, and they gave me back $50, which was roughly half of it. All of this time I was without my daily driver.
The transmission came to me with a bad third gear. It seems the third gear synchro wasn't pressed on correctly. I called the company soon after I installed it and found the problem (within three weeks of receiving it), and they told me to send it back whenever I had a chance. The first chance I had to return the transmission was one month before the one year warranty expired.
I had to pay for shipping, which was $100 something. I noted the markings that were stamped into the transmission (the name 'PETE'), so I would know if I received back the same one. I did, the markings were exactly the same. Not only that, but I received back the same transmission with the exact same problems. The transmission still popped out of third gear while decelerating. The transmission had been stripped and repainted, but I don't think they even opened it up.
I called immediately, spoke PRT's receptionist. She couldn't find the person I needed to speak with, and after she returned from trying to locate him, she told me that I would have to remove the transmission and send it back again. I told her that was not going to happen, and I demanded a full refund. She told me they had to verify that the transmission did have problems, so I offered to take it to a shop of their choosing so the shop could verify for them (if they would foot the bill). She then started repeating basically the same thing every time I tried to reason with her, that they couldn't do anything until I sent it back.
There is no possible way I was going to send the transmission back to them a second time. I have already lost a LOT of money from dealing with this, I refuse to risk having the same trick pulled on me once again and losing my shipping charge again.
After more calls I talked with Matt, who I believe is the general manager. Matt told me they could not do anything but have me send them the transmission again. We talked for a while and I let him know I would be sharing my experience with thousands of potential customers.
Before I found out about this site I posted in numerous automotive bulletin boards about my experience. Soon after I posted these threads I had to leave for the summer to take classes in North Dakota. While I was away, Frank, the president of PRT, found my messages, claimed they were false, and had them removed from these boards. He even claimed PRT had no records of selling a Pathfinder 5 speed to anyone in my location.
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