We took our mini van to have the transmission worked on. There was a $90 labor fee for diagnostic, which we understand. They came back and told us that it needs a new Transmission Control Module - $600 for the part and $200 labor. And once they put it on there still could be another problem that might have damaged the module, but they would not be able to find out if there was any other problem unitl after they put on the new module. And on top of that if there was another problem they told us it could damage the new module, meaning another replacment.
This jsut sounded a little too fishy, and after asking arround, my wife found out that the fahter of one of her co-workers owns his own repair shop specializing in Chrysler. When we called him, he laughed and said they were pulling a scam - I'll explain it more in a second.
We took the van to him and with in 5 minutes on the computer he found that the module was damaged, and that the overdrive part was bad as well. Basically when Ferman hooked the van up to their computer they had to have known about this. And that is the scam - the mechanic we took it to used to work for Ferman and according to him the mechanics get a commision on the work they do. So by having us only put on the module first knowing there was still another problem that means we would have had to bring it back in and ultimatly buy another module.
Now for the sales tax scam - Later in the day my wife pulled out the receipt for the $90 diagnostic and that is when it hit her - they had charged sales tax. But this was labor, no parts, so there should be no tax collected. Now imagine if they do this regularly, how much extra money they make. When she called back to them they just kept transfering the call.
0 comments