Background: I have used lititz auto service since they went into business in the early 90s. They are located near my childhood home in Lancaster County, PA. I had alway gotten wonderful service there from Tim Brown and Kevin Booth. My car was having an issue with a leaking heater core (as evidenced by antifreeze fluid dripping from drain and bad smell). Called Lititz auto for an estimate to repaid this problem. Spoke with Kevin Booth and got an estimate of $350 for the heater core and $200 additional to also replace the blower motor (total $550). I scheduled the repair at a time I was going to be visiting in the area.
Upon taking the car to be serviced found that they didn't order the parts for the service ahead of time, so the repair could not be completed in the two days that I gave them.
Scheduled another time for the repair when my father would take the car there for me (note again here I don't live in the same state). This time they took 3 days with the car (once again they didn't order the parts before the car arrived). The repair that I had gotten an estimate of $550 for came out to $1160.21 tax. This included them installing a used blower motor which they charged me $135 for plus 3 hrs of labor (223.89) (NOTE: to replace the heater core you MUST take out the blower motor and put it back in when you are done as it is in the way). The explanation for the hours was that they needed hours to remove it from another car (huh) (a new from the dealer fan costs $277) (total for this used blower $135 223.89 = 358.89 tax)
After a week the "new" fan began to squeak just like the old fan. I called and talked to Kevin Booth, the mechanic. He told me that they would take this one out and replace it with another used one at no cost.
Once again my father took the car to this shop for me. Thinking that I needed to get the blower replaced and they would do the labor portion without charge I requested they order a new blower and I would pay the difference between the new and used price. When I finally saw the bill I found that they had again billed me for 3 hrs of labor at 223.89 and only gave me 70 of the 135 I had paid for the original fan back. So now I have been charged 6 hrs of labor for what should have been zero hours. If they had put a new fan in it would have both been cheaper and lasted longer. Total rip off from this repair shop:
6 hrs labor @ 74.63/hr 447.78
extra cost of defective fan not refunded 65.00
extra cost of moving ac parts out of the way to get to heater core (note thesaabsite.com says this isn't needed 331.36
Total Ripped off $844.14
Footnote: In the middle of replacing the defective fan the second time they called and said they had lubricated the fan and it stopped squeaking. They wanted to know if I wanted to put in back in the car. When I asked how long it would be before it started squeaking they said 3 - 6 months. I am not sure how they lubricated the fan, which is a sealed unit. Needless to say I passed on that offer.
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