This is my first time writing about a "rip-off" and I'm very surprised at the culprit. I'm not good at writing so I'm going to try to be as direct with the situation as possible.
I have a 2002 Jeep Liberty which was having problems starting, it will start 19 out of 20 times but it always seems like that 20th time catches me in a bad situation. So I decided to take it to Steve Rayman Dodge and Chrysler in Union City Georgia since that was the place I purchased the vehicle back in 2005. When I arrived I was surprised to see that the Dealership was now a Chevrolet Dealership but the service person Mr Ron Stone assured me that they are still in transition and continue to have a few certified Jeep technicians on board. So I agreed to have them check it out.
The diagnosis they came to was that it was a bad starter which made pretty good sense to me and they quoted me about $550 to repair. Well I know how to replace a starter myself so I declined the repair and paid them the $107 for the diagnosis. I went to AutoZone and purchased a starter for $109 and had it installed in less than a hour.
The Jeep started up nicely 19 out of 20 times and once again the 20th time was not a good time for me to be having starting issues. Out of curiosity, I took the old starter to AutoZone to have them put it on the machine to see if anything was wrong with it, there wasn't. The old and the new starter was working fine from the power check from AutoZone.
When I got home and checked my email I was surprised to see that Steve Rayman Service Department had sent me a survey to rate their service. I gave them a bad rating reason bsing that the diagnosis was wrong and I'm not only out of the $107 I paid them but also the $109 for a new starter that I don't need but can't return for it being an electrical item.
They quickly called me and told me to bring it back in and they will diagnose it again free of charge so I did. This time they said that it was a bad computer and that it was sending a bad ground signal to the starter and I would need another PCM and quoted me around $740 for the repair. I agreed to have them repair it and rented a car through them to drive while my Jeep which was the family's only vehicle was being repaired.
The PCM was on back order and took over a week to arrive and it took them two more days to say that my Jeep still wasn't fixed. But not only did they say that it wasn't fixed but that they could not fix it and to take it to a Jeep Dealership. I didn't mind taking it to another dealership to be repaired but they had charged me $693.18 plus $340.60 for the rental and my vehicle didn't get repaired.
What's even worse is that they offered to rig the engine up to start everytime but it wouldn't be the way the engine is designed to work. I asked them would it damage or affect anything in the engine that would cause me to time and money in the next year or so and they assured me that it would not. So I agreed to let them rig it so that it would start.
Needless to say that after that the vehicle have had multiple problems including the engine light remaining on which I told them about and they said that it was normal because they had bypassed the computer. Then the engine started to constantly run hot less a week later which I later learned from another mechanic was because the computer was not regulating the temperature of the engine but it led to a blown radiator leaving me stranded beside a major interstate in the rain.
By that time I had had enough with Steve Rayman's no service and had the vehicle towed to another mechanic who replaced the radiator. But I did call Steve Rayman service department to have them reverse the rigging they have done. They refused and told me to take it to a Dodge and Chrysler Dealership which I did.
I took it to Don Jackson Dodge and Chrysler and told them of my experience and that Steve Rayman's service department had told me to come to them. They did not want to touch the engine until Steve Rayman had unrigged the engine and their service manage gave Ron Stone a call. Ron Stone told me to bring the vehicle back to Steve Rayman which I did but when I got there they still refused to do anything but instead gave me another diagnosis. I was finished with diagnosis from Steve Rayman and told them I just want them to unrig my engine but they said that the mechanic that had rigged the vehicle no longer works for them.
They continued to unload on me a bunch of technical talk that I didn't understand nor did I have the time and patience to figure out anymore, all I knew is that I'm out of a whole lot of money and my vehicle is still not fixed. They have put me in a situation where I can't even pass an emissions test for my tag and registration because of the engine light remaining on.
I stormed out feeling like I had just been robbed by the mob. I'm not a person to file lawsuits or anything or even post reports such as this one but this story needs to be told so I'm open to anyone who wants to take this further.
Troubled At Steve Rayman
Union City, GA 30291
0 comments