Before I took my car to Bailey's, I had a general idea of what was wrong with it (had diagnostics done about 5 times by 2 different places) and how long it should take to fix (I called Autozone, a car hobby shop on the base, and 2 other garages), at the most, it's supposed to be a 5 day job to replace a valve head in the engine. I took the car to Bailey's (because they are the only garage in town that does engine work) on June 20 at about 8 in the morning and told them the general symptoms.
I didn't hear anything for 2 days til I called them on Thursday, June 22. They told me they were just about to call me and that a valve head was broken and needed to be replaced. They haggled with my warranty company, but were told they wouldn't pay the $1272.00. I talked to my warranty company and they were persistent in their refusal so I told Bailey's on Friday, June 23, to go ahead with the repairs and that I would pay for it. I asked them how long the repairs should take and they said that most likely, my car would be done by June 28, but by June 30 at the latest.
June 26, I called them and asked how it was looking and was told that they didn't have all the valve heads so they'd ordered some and the parts should show up the next day and my car would still be done by Friday, June 30.
June 27, called them and asked if the parts had shown up. I was told that not only had they not received the parts, but they didn't know where they were. I asked if they'd tried the tracking number and the guy on the phone told me that wasn't part of his job.
I didn't call on the 28th because I didn't want to have a bad day. I called them on June 29 and asked if the parts had shown up. One valve had been delivered, but the other one was still lost in space somewhere and it still wasn't their job to track the gear. Assuming the parts were found eventually, I was assured that my car would be done by July 7.
July 3, I went to the garage and asked the status of things. I was told that the part was in Yucca Valley and it would most definitely be there by Wednesday, and my car would still be done by that Friday, July 7. When they received the part, on the morning of the 5, they would call me and let me know how long it should take.
July 6, by noon, I hadn't received a phone call so I called them. They were just about to call me; I beat them to the punch again. I was told that the part had been delivered and my car was being worked on. It is an 8 hour job to put in the new valve heads and they'd already been working on it for 6, so that leaves 2 hours right? Wrong, I was told that 4 or 5 hours was necessary to make sure everything was correct. I called about 2 in the afternoon so they had about 3 or 4 hours before they closed and all of Friday still to get it done. I asked the lady what were the chances of my car being done by close of business Friday as I'd been told, she didn't answer me. When I said, were the odds about 75%? She said yes. She was going to talk to the mechanic to get a better understanding of the time frame and she would call me Friday at 10 A.M.
July 7th, by 10:30 am, I hadn't received a phone call so I called them. I was told that they were still working on my car and it wouldn't be ready until close of business on July 10 or noon on July 11. When I asked what the problem was, she tried to explain that things may not always go smoothly, etc. Etc. I told her that I'd be there at noon on July 11 to pick up my car and she said, "No, I will call you when your car is ready for pick up." She also politely told me that I was lucky I wasn't being charged for the extra work they were doing.
These are my problems with Bailey's.
1. After they knew what was wrong with my car, they said it would take a week to fix it when in actuality it's taking almost 2 and a half weeks. Why lie to me about the amount of time? I've had to plan my life around my car getting fixed. Every time I was told my car would be done, I'd plan grocery shopping, laundry, driving to work, maybe a movie. And every time my car wasn't done by their own deadline, I'd have to find rides to the grocery store, laundromat, to and from work. If I could have afforded to call taxis or rent a car, I would have, but I can't because I have to foot the $1272.00 bill. Plus, that's almost a month my car has been out of commission, a month (almost $100) I could have saved on car insurance if they had told me correctly from the start.
2. Every time I talked with Bailey's and they promised to call me with an update, they never did. This happened at least half a dozen times during this whole fiasco. But amazingly, every time I called them, the person who was supposed to call me answered the phone. The only time they ever called was when I hung up on them in frustration.
3. They do the bare minimum. After they ordered the valve heads, they just sat back and waited for the parts to show up. When I asked if they'd track the parts to see if it was in route, they said that wasn't their job.
4. They don't even know what parts they have on hand and what they don't!!! They knew by June 22 what was wrong with my car, but didn't bother even checking to see if they had the necessary parts until June 26,4 days later!!!
5. They are slow as hell. I've heard of being methodical about your work, but this is ridiculous. I was told that they had about 4 or 5 hours worth of work left on my car. That was Thursday, July 6, at about 2 in the afternoon. They are open from 8 am to about 5 pm, giving an hour for lunch, that's 8 hours they are open. They had 3 hours on Thursday July 6,8 hours on July 7,8 hours on July 10, and 4 hours on July 11. If they are done by close of business Monday, July 10, it will have taken them close to 19 hours for a 5 hour job. If my car is done by noon, it will be 23 hours!!! Even if they did get busy and backed up, it shouldn't take almost 5 times longer than what they told me. If they were working on my car every time I called, why has it taken almost 3 weeks for a week job???
I'm not even sure what kind of work they do, they are still working on my car as I speak. If their work isn't 100%, looks like I'll be posting another complaint. If you have engine problems and want your car back in the same year, don't take it to Bailey's
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