On June 14th I dropped off a 1982 Ford Econoline chassis Class-C motorhome at Performance Auto & Diesel for a routine check on the engine due to some backfiring. It was assumed that a tune-up and carburettor cleaning & adjustment were the only problems. On Friday at 2:00pm I contacted them and was told that indeed a tune-up, and carburettor cleaning were needed, and new front shocks were needed, this sounded good and was all routine, and things were to be done by 5:00pm as it was understood I needed it for the weekend (next day). By 5:00pm I had received no call, so at 5:10pm I called them and asked what was going on, the response was as follows: "Sigghhhh, well we had some problems, and it's not ready, it looks like there might be some more problems, we're not sure..." I asked when it would be ready, and he defiantly told me: "Well not until tomorrow afternoon at best, probably Monday, I'm not a miracle worker...". I angrily tried to pry out of him what was going on, when eventually he basically admitted that his technicians had gone home for the day at 5:00pm, and the problem was that they had accidentally got the wrong length plug-wires for the tune-up. I told him this was ridiculous and that they could've gone down the road to get the right part and taken another 30 minutes to finish the job right, and he basically tried to say that there probably more to the problem then just the plug-wires anyway...
So after being totally brushed-off and being very angry about the fact that this motorhome would not be ready for a bachelor-party road trip to Mohegan sun, I basically just swallowed my pride and waited until Monday to get the motorhome. So Monday comes around and I go to pick it up... I get there, pay for it, and tell him I'll have to come back after-hours when I have a ride. He tells me that apparently it was just the plug wires that was the problem, and so this means that the only reason I didn't have this rig for an awesome bachelor party road trip is because these idiots got the wrong length plug-wires and didn't want to hang around to finish the job. I go back at 7:00pm, and I get in to take it home when I notice that the rubber gasket on the engine-cowling cover right between the driver & passenger seats is totally messed up and out of place.in some places it was in, and others it was out, I could stick 3 fingers through to the engine compartment... Next I go to start it, and nothing... Dead battery? Who knows... Next a mechanic who was there late comes out and offers to jump start me, so I agree. He hooks up and I get it started after messing with the pedal and keys... So I go out to close the hood with the mechanic there when I notice a pair of long-nose spark-plug pliers just sitting on part of the frame in the engine compartment... I say: "Are those your pliers"? And he says: "Hey, I've been looking for those all afternoon"! So at this point I'm putting it all together and seeing that this place has stupidly delayed my pick-up time by getting the wrong plug wires, screwed up the gasket on my cowling and thrown it in there in a hurry without fixing it, and then some chump leaves his big, long pliers in the engine compartment where they could've fallen in while I drove off and could've shredded my belts and fan... But there's more... Finally after repeatedly having some trouble starting it over the next few days I realize that it's not the starter battery at all, it's actually the mechanics fault at Performance Auto Diesel because they knocked a power wire off of the throttle choke, and the engine could barely turn over without it... So basically these guys are sloppy, and unprofessional, and they hurry. None of this story is an exaggeration. On a side-note: The guy in line in front of me when I originally dropped it off was there for the third time with the same problem on his motor because they couldn't get it right, and when I've told everyone locally about my ordeal they just say: "Well there's your problem, you took it to that place". So apparently they have a bad reputation, and I've also heard that they've been evicted from one of their previous locations.
0 comments