I brought my 2003 Ford Explorer to Cottman transmission on 3/2/07, located at 700 Old Spanish Trail in Slidell, La. Just for clarity, I have been working on vehicles for over 15 years, but am not a automatic transmission technician. The problem first occured when my overdrive light kept flashing and my vehicle would hang up in first gear. I brought it to Cottman, because Ford said it would be two weeks before they could even look at it. Cottman calls me back that evening and tells me that my transmission is burnt up and the whole things need to be rebuilt.
I personally was skeptical from the beginning in whether or not the thing needed rebuilding at all, the vehicle only has 76,000 miles on it. Anyway, they kept the vehicle for two weeks, and then I recieved the call that it was ready. I sent my wife to pick up the vehicle because I was at work. She said everything was fine. Later that evening when I got home, I got in the vehicle to test drive it for myself.
Immediatley, I recongnized an exhaust leak coming from the passenger side of the vehicle; it was a low noise, but I could here it. When I got home I jacked the vehicle up of the ground to inspect and locate the exhaust leak, which I could feel pouring out of the exhaust manifold flange, to my surprise, I found more than I wanted to.
The first thing I noticed was the transmission fluid running out of several locations: the rear driveshaft seal, the front seal in the bellhousing, the plug on the pan, one of the transmission cooling lines, and the rear tail shaft assembly was leaking. If this wasn't enouph, I also notice my new oil filter, that I had just changed my self about two weeks prior, had about a 1.5 inch smash in it were the so-called transmission man obviously had used it to try to pry my exhaust over to make the bolt up on the manifold.
I also found two of my electronic transmission wires hanging off of their factory clips and resting on my exhaust pipes. So I grabbed my digital camera and took pictures of all these issues. I brought the transmission back the next day myself and confronted the manager/wanna be transmission tech about my problems. Keep in mind this hole time I have remained respectful, kept my voice down, and never cursed or threatened anyone, although I would have liked to have done all of the above.
I confronted the manager with the pictures and my disatisfaction of the work. He never argued or denied the poor workmanship.in fact, he admitted to doing a rush job and being undermanned. A Rush Job! He had my truck for two weeks! He assured me that he would fix the problems and that I wouldn't have anymore. This whole time, I'm wondering what corners they had cut on the internal work of my transmission, since they can't even fix the leaks that they caused.
Later on that day, thet called me and informed me that the vehicle was ready, again, and I went to pick, it up. The manager left it on the rack so I could look under it to verify that there was no more leaks. The thing is, they don't even test drive it before they call me, the thing isn't going to leak until it is driven for a couple of miles. Anyway, I didn't see any leaks at the time and took my vehicle home, again.
The next day, I was going down the street and the truck quit moving, the transmission started slipping. I had to pull off the road and rev it up several times to get it to start moving. I got it to the store and had also noticed some more fluid leaking on the concrete. I called the manager back Monday morning and told him of the problems, I expressed my dissatisfaction of the work again. I told him that this was ridiculous that I had the same problems, and more.
I told him that the tranmsission was worse off now than it was when I brought it to them. I reminded the manager that I had paid $2,500 for a quality job and expected one. He had the nerve to tell me that I didn't pay for it, that my warranty paid it. This is the level of intelligence that this manager thinks on. He seems to forget that I paid $1,500 dollars for the warranty, and $425 for a rental car for a week, lost a day of work to bring it to them, and paid a $100 deductible to them. Not to mention the aggrivation.
This is when the owner/wanna-be technician named "Ziggy" answered the phone and asked me of my problems. I pleaded my same case to him, he assured me that he would personally take care of the problems, So I brought the vehicle back again to them. He called me two days later to inform me it was ready, again.
When I went to pick it up, I asked for some documentation of them needing to rework it two times, he said I didn't need any, that I had a warranty. I asked again telling him I needed it so I had documentation. He started getting upset with me. I informed him I had enouph of this and that I wasn't arguing anymore and that I was calling the police. He told me to call who ever I wanted and to get the F@#@ out of his store. The police did come and did nothing of course, they informed me that it was a civil matter and since he did not threaten me, I could not press any criminal charges. Now, is this anyway to treat a customer that paid $2500 for a quality job, to get a leaking, damaged transmission back in return, worse than it was when I brought it to them the first time?
So, I paid $2500 dollars, or the warranty company did, plus lost an additional $800 from work, rental cars, and deductibles, just so I could get cursed out, and bring my car there three times, and get treated like I did something wrong for confronting them on their so called quality work. My transmission is making a funny noise still, and I don't know if it is still leaking, I'm scared to even look under the car to see what is wrong now.
I reported them to the Cottman corporate office, just to be told by emai from them that they are sorry and that I should bring it back to the same shop so they could work on it again, they offere me no help what so ever. I also reporte them to the Better Business Bureau over two weeks ago, and still never heard from them. How can these companies get away with everything, leaving the consumer out to dry?
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