We took our 93 Lumina in to the garage because our rear driver side wheel seemed to be dragging a bit at times. We went to Universal Car Care because it was close, not because we had been there before. We just didn't feel that the car should be driven across town due to brake problems.
The mechanic (Jerry Childers) was told that the brake was catching and dragging and should be looked at. Whenever he looked at it, he had to pry the brake pad off of the rotor. It was down into the metal so that almost nothing was left and it was fused onto the rotor. He simply replaced the rotor and brake pads, put the car back together and happily charged us 129.49.
Before paying, we asked him what actually caused the problem, why the brake stuck like that and whether or not he checked the caliper. He flat out told us that he didn't see a problem with the caliper and therefore didn't check it and maintained that the car should be fine. I should add that he charged us for 2 brake jobs instead of just one. We let that go assuming the problem was fixed and not wanting to tick off a possible good mechanic by bringing it up.
Less than 3 weeks later and less than 100 miles on the car's new brakes, we end up with a smoking red hot wheel because it's locked up again! We stopped in the garage on the way home, wheel still smoking and all—and asked the mechanic if he could take another look at it, explained the problem nicely. At this point, the mechanic tells us that perhaps the problem is a brake hose or a caliper and that if that be the case, he'd only charge us for that and not the pads and rotor that he had previously installed because it could be replaced on warranty. I told him we weren't willing to pay him anymore to work on the car because we had asked him to check the caliper previously and he hadn't done it. He told us to bring the car in 2 days later so he could look at it. This was a scheduled appointment.
While the car was up on the lift, the mechanic give the wheel a spin. It stopped before it turned once. The opposite wheel would freely spin 8-10 times.
Once the wheel was off, the rotor wouldn't hardly turn and yet the mechanic is telling us that there's not a problem. He told us that it was fine and that it just needed to wear down. This coming after we had told him we weren't willing to pay him anymore for a botched job (see above) Even his manager heard the scraping of the wheel catching on the brake pads and told him to fix it at no cost to us. He maintained that there wasn't a problem and told us just to drive the car until it wore down. The next day, we took the car to another garage across town since it was not presumed safe to drive according to Universal's mechanic.
The 2nd mechanic pulled the wheel off the car and turned the rotor and determined that there was a locked caliper. This was documented and repaired at a cost of 173.12.
We called the 1st mechanic at Universal and asked him for a refund since he failed to fix the problem. We were denied. Since, we have filed a dispute with our bank as well as the BBB against this company and are seriously considering filing charges in court for the full amount that this incident cost us.
Don't go to this mechanic. They're a rip off. They will halfway fix a problem and if you don't know anything about cars, they will milk you for every penny they can get out of you! They are dishonest and don't know half of what they're doing. They halfway fixed our brakes, claimed the caliper wasn't the problem sent us on our way knowing we would have a problem out of their botched brake job and then return for more repairs. They THEN offered to fix the real problem which would make them more money on top of what we had already paid them. It backfired in their face. Oh, and they didn't issue a sales ticket showing what they had repaired until I walked in accompanied by 2 police officers. At that point, they were happy to issue a sales ticket for their services but not a refund.
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