While Shopping at Wal-mart on April 28, I got an oil change at the Tire & Lube Express. That day I left for Savannah, GA, which is approx. 300 miles one way. This was just a weekend trip to visit a friend. Once I returned home my car seemed to drive "rough" kind of the way it does when I need an oil change.
On May 2, My co-worker checked the oil and transmission fluid and noticed I needed both. I went immediately to Auto Zone where the gentlemen put two quarts of oil into my car, along with 1.5 quart of transmission fluid.
I called Wal-Mart that evening and was asked to call back when the Tire & Lube was open. I called on May 3 to inform them of my findings, and had to leave a message until the service manager came in on the following day. Allison (Service Manager) and myself played phone tag for a couple of days.
Finally, I spoke to Allison and told her of my findings, at that time she told me she would fill out a customer complaint form, and keep it on file if anyhing should happen with my car, she would have something to refer back to. Allison also informed me at this time that the technician who had done the oil change has since been fired.
One week later on May 16 I had white smoke comming from my muffler, and the car had no power. A friend of the family who is a mechanic looked at the car and told me that the anti-freeze and oil was mixing and that this is due to driving the car with not enough oil. At that time the head gasket had not blown, but was damaged so he drained the oil, gas, and anti-freeze, and changed the fuel filter, as well as the oil filter, and refilled them all to the appropriate levels.
I called Wal-mart and spoke to Laura in the Tire & Lube express, she informed that I would have to speak to Allison again because she didn't have a customer complaint for me. Therefore, I left a message.
The following week I called Wal-Mart and spoke to the assistant store manager, and was told I have to come in and fill out a customer complaint form myself and they would be able to look into it and file an insurance claim.
The complaint was filed and the ditrict manger called me back and told me that he didn't think Wal-mart was responsible for my car because no where in the conversation did I mention that my oil light came on. I explained to him that those sensors did not work all of the time.
At this time I contacted 1-800-walmart, and the customer service rep had someone from the main office give me a call, and he told me that he would make a claim to there insurance company, Claims Management Inc., and an adjuster would get in contact with me wihin 24hrs.
After two days of waiting I called the adjuster and he told me that in order to persue the claim with wal-mart I would have to pay to have the cylinder heads and the oil pan removed from the car. After speaking to the mechanic where I left the car, I was told that would be a rather expensive job and if they (Wal-mart) are going to replace the head gasket they should pay for the heads and oil pan to be removed.
The bottom line is that I am still without a car, because I need a new engine, and wal-mart is insisting that I pay the initial fee, just so that they can come out and inspect the car, so that they can determine if they are going to pay to get the car fixed.
0 comments