I purchased a transmission in November of 1998. This transmission had the standard 6-month warranty. A month after installation, I took the vehicle back to the shop because of an irritating noise the transmission was making. Aamco said that there was nothing wrong.
One month before the warranty expiration date, I had the vehicle in another shop for some unrelated work. The technician noticed that there had been an aftermarket transmission cooler installed on the vehicle. Normally, this would not pose a problem but the main transmission cooler from the radiator had been disconnected.
Under the advice of the technician and also from the second opinion that I got from a Chevrolet dealer's service center, I took the vehicle back to Aamco and let them know about the problem. I explained to them my concern that an aftermarket transmission cooler could in no way replace the standard transmission cooler. It is only meant to enhance the performance of the internal cooler. Aamco did nothing to remedy this situation stating that they knew exactly what there were doing and incinuating that I had received bad information from both Chevrolet and the other technician. The Aamco manager stated that they did everything by GM standards.
Six month later (transmission is now 11 months old), the transmission stopped working. We took it back to the Aamco and told the manager exactly what I have explained above. All they were concerned about is that the transmission was out of warranty. They said they could repair it but it would not be covered under any warranty. They even wanted to charge me to take it apart to see what was wrong with it.
I then had the vehicle towed to another transmission shop for repairs. As soon as the technician took the transmission apart, he noticed the disconnected cooler lines and the aftermarket cooler. His exact words were No wonder it burned up, it's probably been overheating for some time now. He explained the same thing that the other two technicians (mentioned above) told me about. An aftermarket transmission cooler can in no way replace the standard transmission cooler. It is only meant to enhance the performance of the internal cooler. Even after getting three of the same opinions, I called another Chevrolet service center. They told me the same thing.
The transmission had to be totally rebuilt and I had to pay extra money to get the transmission cooler back in working condition.
Here's the kicker:
I anonomously contacted several Aamco shops posing as a potential customer and told them the above information but omitted the fact that Aamco did the actual damage... I just acted like I had gone to a no-name shop. EVERY Aamco agreed that the transmission cooler was done improperly and they were happy to do the rebuild.
I contacted Aamco corporate (Jami Lent was the rep) with the locations, phone #'s, and persons I spoke to at each of these locations and the comments they had stated about my transmission. Aamco corporate stated that the Duluth, GA. Location shop that did the work did nothing wrong... Even though 10 of their other stores admitted that it was! They refused a refund! I then threatened to purchase Aamcosux.com and post my horror story... The domains were purchased by Aamco corporate the next day!
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