I had tranmission problems on my 1995 Ford Mustang. My mother was going repair it so I advised her to contact Cottman Transmission because they had no complaints with the local BBB El Paso Office. She contacted Cottman around Sept. 2004 and she talked to a manager who's name is Frank. He told her to bring in the vehicle and he would only charge her $1,500 to put in a rebuilt transmission.
He gave her a price without inspecting the vehicle first. So, my mother had the vehicle picked up by a tow-truck paid by Cottman at my home. They allegedly put in a rebuilt transmission, they took a whole week to do this. When my mother and I arrived at the shop, she had the $1,500 in cash and was going to pay for it. However, at that moment Frank told her that he had never told her it was going to be $1,500. My mom told him that was the whole repair agreement. He denied that agreement ever happened told my mother it was now I believe around $1,900.
He released the car, but with no copies of any paperwork or warranty. My mother gave him the $1,500 and she told him she would pay the rest. So, I went personally to deliver a payment around a month later and he refused payment. From then on I sent in payments throught the post office with a return-receipt to acknowledge he received it.
When, balance was paid I picked up the warranty, but Frank advised me that he had to reduce the time of the warranty of 12-months because I had driven the vehicle. At that time, I told him that the vehicle still had the original problem I took it in for. It seems like they did not do anything to the vehicle. It had rough upshifting, he told me to bring it in sometime during the week. This was sometime in November.
He told me my catalytic converter was the problem, he referred me to a muffler shop called Sandovals Brakes and Mufflers. They replaced a catalytic converter and I was advised it has nothing to do with the shifting of the vehicle. Problem, persisted and took it around 5 times to Cottman for the same problem, each time they kept telling me it was not the transmission. They told me eventually it was an engine problem. I told Frank if it was an engine problem, how come they replaced my transmission if it wasn't my transmission. He always gave me an excuse and sometimes had my car in the shop for several hours or several days, cause they were allegedlly testing it and road-testing it.
One occasion, when I picked it up I noticed it had an additional 11-miles from what I originally had on it. He said they drove it on the freeway and on the side streets to make sure it was running fine and it was, he said they even video recorded the road test.
I kept driving the vehicle, because I had no money to fix it cause I'm a poor college student. I went occasionally to other transmission shops to have dianostics and inspections done on the transmsission and they all told me it was bad transmission job. I went to 3 places, one is Trevino Trasmissions, the other AAMCO, and the last one was Montana Transmission. I went to Trevino twice and they told me both times it was bad work.
One day my vehicle, all of a sudden while stopped at a red light it didn't want to move forward when I pressed on the gas pedal. The vehicle only went in reverse, so I had to get a tow-truck to have it towed to Cottman. This time, they didn't tell me it was ready for pick up, I had to call. I didn't have transportation to pick it up, I asked them if they could please bring it to my home and they refused. So I had to walk to their shop and pick it up, it was left in their parking lot and had closed. My car even had a flat-tire, so I had to put the spare and drive it home. My car started driving forward, but still with the hard shifting.
I filed a lawsuit in Justice of the Peace #4 and they failed to show-up on the first hearing which was I believe Oct. 2005. They showed up for the second hearing, they had representation from their attorney Federico Soforo. I represented myself, the judge ordered them to repair my vehicle completely. They picked up my vehicle after the hearing and had it in their shop for a week. When I picked it up I noticed it had the same problem. I contacted the owner, Eric Jacquez and told me that they had repaired the vehicle which is not true by the way the vehicle was acting. I had a follow-up hearing on Jan. 2006 and they failed to show up. The judge gave me a default judgement of $2,200 which is the amount to have it fixed at the Ford dealership.
The owner Eric Jacquez appealed the decision to County Court of Law #7. Their attorney kept stalling and postponing the court hearings. An friend of my family which is an attorney agreed to represent me at no cost. I eventually won a judgment in my favor of $3,060.00. This included the attorney fees my attorney charged them. Yet, two months after this decision my attorney has contacted their attorney Federico Soforo and he hasn't return phone calls and last I heard he had called Eric Jacquez for him to write a check, which he still hasn't done.
So, my attorney wrote up paperwork for a lien also called an Abstract of Judgment against Eric Jacquez and the Cottman Transmission branch in El Paso. To this date I have not received any money from Eric Jacquez the owner.in fact, now I have to pay an additional fee of $170 to the constable at Justice of the Peace #4 to have the lien executed and hopefully take possession of some of the belongins of Mr. Jacquez. PLEASE!!! DO NOT take your vehicle to Cottman Transmission, instead spread the word to your friends and family that it is a company full of deception. I have filed complaints with the BBB of El Paso, the TX Attorney General, and I am about to send a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission and notify the local media outlets and perhaps even picket outside the business.
0 comments