Cindy r. COBURN, under penalty of perjury, does hereby swear that the following testimony is true and based upon her own personal knowledge:
1. I brought my 1996 Pontiac Transport Mini Van into Purfect Auto Service located at 10050 S. Eastern #180, Henderson, Nevada, 89052 to have them diagnose why my car was overheating. The earliest receipt that I can find regarding the cooling system is dated 1-8-02. At that time I was told that the radiator needed to be replaced. I authorized the repairs to my radiator and picked up my car, after the radiator had allegedly been replaced. The odometer was not recorded on that repair order.
2. Ever since I brought my car to Purfect Auto Service I have not been able to drive any significant distance without something going wrong with the cooling system. After the radiator repairs in January my car continued to overheat.
3. On 6-7-02 after intermittently overheating I brought my car back for a diagnostic check. At that point my odometer read 82,519. I was told that I needed a head gasket. I authorized the repair and requested that they also fix the problem of my air conditioner failing to blow air through the top vents (it was only blowing air through the defrost and lower vents). The manager,? Ed? (who I now believe to be Ed Hazen) and I agreed that I had already been in the shop for other various coolant problems, including the need for new freeze plugs, so he said he would only charge me $1,000 instead of $1,400 as long as I paid in cash.
5. The repairs were finished and I left the shop with my car. I did have to return immediately though because it was still overheating. Ed told me that it was probably the thermostat and the water pump. After I left the shop the car was still overheating.
6. On 1-16-03 I finally brought the car back for repairs again. At this point I had only driven the car 614 miles in over 7 months. This is because every time I got in the car it overheated. The new manager of Purfect Auto,? Pete? Told me that the car was overheating because the intake manifold was cracked and that the repairs that had been done in the past were? Probably not necessary? And he apologized for the inconvenience and said he would only charge me $428 to complete the repair. He also acknowledged that I was missing a large bolt in my engine and would replace that too. However, this did not fix the problem. As soon as I drove my car 6 miles it overheated.
7. I returned to Purfect Auto immediately and asked for my money back. Pete insisted that a mechanic simply failed to bleed or purge the cooling system correctly and that in spite of that he would refund me $428 immediately and purge the cooling system to make up for all of the poor service that I had received from Purfect Auto. This purging did not correct the overheating problem. Pete insisted that I allow him to put a new water pump in the car since he could see it was leaking. He said it? S common for a water pump seal to be damaged as the cooling system is worked on.
8. At this point Pete also told me that he could not find any documentation of the previous repairs allegedly done to the head gasket (nor could he determine that any had been done) and told me that he was concerned that? Ed? Had asked me specifically to pay him in cash.
9. Pete called me on 1-23-03 and told me that he had replaced the thermostat in addition to the other repairs and that the car was running without overheating. A technician delivered the car to me at my house on that day and I proceeded to drive the technician back to Purfect Auto. However, we only drove 1/10 of a mile before the car overheated again. I asked the technician to please bring the car back to the shop.
10. Pete called me on 1-24-03 and said they used the car to run errands and that it was no longer overheating and that he would deliver the car that evening. However, Pete called at 5:50 P.M. To tell me that the car was in fact still overheating and that he would not be returning the car to me.
11. As of 1-27-03 Purfect Auto has not refunded me $428 as they promised to do on 1-18-03, my car is still overheating; apparently my car has had freeze plugs replaced, a radiator, two thermostats, a head gasket, and an intake manifold in addition to the many flushings and purgings and it still doesn? T work.
12. As of 1-30-03, Pete is completing another head gasket repair to insure that at least one was really done.
13. Regarding Purfect Auto? S lack of professionalism: I have found my car unlocked with the windows down while parked outside the shop on a closed day, beer bottles inside, and fast food trash inside. The carpets have been damaged by the mechanic's grease and cigarette ashes. When I had my window motor repaired the unit was not bolted back into my door before the car was returned to me. And on 1-29-03 Pete said that when an electric window only intermittently works, as it was doing when I ask Ed to replace it, it? S not the window motor as Ed told me it was and charged me $250.instead, Pete said it was most likely a relay switch. Last week, my car was returned to me with the battery bolts inside my cup carrier.
14. I am providing this affidavit to document the many repeated, ineffectual and possibly unnecessary repairs allegedly undertaken by Purrfect Auto. I believe they should be investigated for possible fraud in charging for repairs that were never actually done (and asking for cash), charging for unnecessary repairs and parts, and for never actually repairing the root cause of my car? S overheating (I am told by others with whom I? Ve consulted that my radiator should have been replaced as the initial? And sole? Repair to my cooling system). I respectfully request that this matter be referred for criminal investigation by appropriate authorities in additional to resolution by the consumer affairs division.
Cindy
Henderson, Nevada
U.S.A.
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