Pepboys Auto
Michael Parks Starter Repair Ends Up Costing Over $400.00

My daughter was up from Santa Barbara and needed a starter replaced. The following are emails I sent the service manager after not being able to contact him in person.
Good Afternoon Michael,

I am the father of Holly *. Saturday, she brought in her 2002 Ford Focus to have a starter replaced. I have always been a Pepboys customer and recommended her to you because I have been happy with your service. She was told that the replacement would be two hours. After two hours, that time became three. Then four. She did finally get the car back. When she drove the car, the engine was shaking pretty bad and she returned it to find out that the mechanic had apparently not tightened the motor mounts. Thus resulted in damage to the new starter. (I am piecing this together from what she has told me and Justin in your service dept.) She left the car again to be repaired. When she got it back on Sunday, the mechanic had allowed the positive wire from the battery to the starter to lay against, either the exhaust manifold or the exhaust pipe. This shorted the system and needed further repair.

Holly lives in Southern California and she and her boyfriend needed to be back for work on Monday. Justin admitted Pepboys error and offered to reimburse her for renting a car to get home ($110.00) however, she would have to come up with a credit card for the rental security, the $110 up front and would have to get to Sears in 15 minutes. She did not have a card for the rental, nor the $110 and the car was being repaired so she could not get to Sears in 15 minutes. As a result, they had to borrow a car from her boyfriends brother to get home in time to work.

Now they are expected to find another weekend, a car and the gas to get here and back to pick the car up.

My reason for contacting you is to get a reimbursement for Holly, for some or all of the costs associated with this unfortunate mishap. Things like this happen and I am not blaming anyone but I feel it was definitely not Holly's fault and she should not be expected to pay $450-$500 plus two full days of driving and two weeks without a car, just to have her starter replaced by Pepboys. I hope you would agree. She tells me she paid $266 for the repair. My feelings is that she should be compensated for the entire amount but I will wait to hear what you think.

I have always been happy with Pepboys and am confident that you will do whatever you can to make this right. I would appreciate an email response but would prefer that you deal directly with Holly for the reimbursement..

Thank you very much for your consideration.

I receieved no respose so I sent him this email:

Good Morning Michael,

I sent an email several days ago about my daughter's car. I have yet to hear from you one way or the other. I would like to hear back from you, your decision on whether my daughter will receive a reimbursement the time, money and inconvenience caused her by mistakes made by your mechanics. Please let me know today, so that I can plan my next steps. I appreciate your help. Thanks.

His brief and impersonal respose was:

Brad

I recieved both of you e-mails and am looking into the issue. I didn't understand from your first e-mail what the amount you are asking to be reimbursed, please clarify.

Mike

That was one week ago... Then I responded:

Mike,

Since I have not heard from you, assuming you are unable to come up with a figure, I will now let you know what I expect. First of all, it would have taken you 5 minutes to "look into the issue" to find out that your mechanics made a number of mistakes. Your own service employee said that Pepboys would cover the cost of the rental cars @ $110.00/day ($220.00). It took approximately $100.00 in gas to return to Chico to pick up the car. There is the inconvenience of not having the car for two weeks and devoting a weekend to get the car. Realistically, Pepboys should be sending her a check of about $400.00. My expectation is that she will at the very least get the $267.00 back for the money she already paid you for the repair.

I hope you will be a little more timely on the reimbursement. You can send the check to the address below. Either way, I would appreciate hearing from you soon so that I can plan my next move.

Thank you

Still no response. I would like to send this to the Better Business Bureau and file a small claims should I not get any satisfaction.

Company: Pepboys Auto
Country: USA
State: California
City: Chico
Address: 1555 Mangrove Ave
Phone: 5308951336

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