Greulich Auto is the worst repair shop I have ever dealt with. They have caused me a massive amount of wasted time and money as they put in the wrong catalytic converter, changed my brakes out twice — and now I have brake fluid leak problems — and they lied about doing an oil change that they NEVER did, (they repaid me for the oil which I had to have done at Jiffy Lube, repaid me for the catalytic converter and redid my brakes.) This in no way makes up for the NEW problems I have with my car and the time and money I wasted due to Greulich’s sloppy service.
So far they’ve caused me to make fourteen different visits to either their shop, Vans Chevy, Sands Chevy, and even Jiffy Lube, all in an attempt to fix what they caused, or redo what they lied about fixing. I called owner Chris Greulich twice and left him lengthy messages about his shop and employees and never once got a return call. I called manager John Jameson, three times and got one call back.
Here is a partial list of what they did — and did not do. (i.E. A list of their bad work and their lies to cover it up.)
I brought my 2002 Chevy Impala to their shop as the car was not running well, it had poor pick-up, slow acceleration and difficulty climbing hills. They told me I needed a new catalytic converter, brakes, and suggested a maintenance replacement of brake fluid, a transmission flush and a power steering flush, at a total cost of $1,600. I told them to go ahead, but the brake price seemed high. Once I got off the phone with them, I called two brake shops for estimates. Both shops told me my car takes semi-metallic brakes and both shops had prices substantially lower than Greulich’s price. I immediately called Greulich and told them I would get the brakes done myself, in semi-metallic. They told me the car takes ceramics and that it was “too late, ” they had already finished the brakes! That was impossible.in the time it took me to make two phone calls they did my brakes? (Yes, this was impossible, as they themselves would later prove.) This was my first look at all the distortions of the truth that were about to come.
My car remained at Greulich’s a few days getting their list of items fixed. When I did get a ride down there to pick it up, I noticed the brakes weren’t strong and didn’t stop me as well as the brakes I had. I also noticed the car still had the same slow acceleration problems I originally came in with. I called Greulich and they told me the brakes were factory spec ceramics, the brakes that officially go on the car, and they were unsure about the acceleration problem. With in a few days, my “ check engine” light was on in my dash. Thus began two months of car problems and five more trips across town to Greulich to get my car “fixed.” though each time they fixed it — my” check engine” light would be back on within days.
As I was unable to bring the car to them constantly, due to my job, I was stuck driving 70 miles a day, to and from work, with massive car problems. After constantly begging friends and coworkers for rides to fix my car, Greulich finally gave me ONE ride to work. They asked their young driver Mike, to use MY car to drive me to work. He got in my car and said “Your engine light is on! I‘m not driving this car! ” He had to make the “executive” decision to use the Greulich shuttle van, as the management there was so inefficient and had no regard for me or my car. (I asked a manager once if they could get me a rental car since they were causing all this, and he told me “Sure, we‘ll get you anything as long as you pay for it.” This is just one of the snide, unprofessional remarks this ’manager’ made to me constantly through out this lengthy ordeal.)
On the fifth trip back with my engine light on, I refused to talk further to this same manager Michael S., tired of his inability to find the problem, his rudeness, and attitude swings. This trip I spoke to another manager, Stan. Stan researched my car online and told me the problem was I needed an all new exhaust system. (Over $1,000). I explained that I wish they had told me this the first or second time I came in, not make me beg people for rides there so many times and be stuck without a car. Stan gave me the print-out he found online regarding my 2002 Impala. (See attached)
By this time I had also discovered that although they told me they had changed my oil — they had not touched it! When I confronted Michael, he admitted he did not change it, had lied and promptly refunded the money I spent getting a Jiffy Oil change. (see attached check copy.)
As you can imagine, having returned my car to them five times, finding out they had lied about the oil, listening to their snide remarks, driving my car with an engine light still on after so many visits, and having already spent $1,600, there was no way I would allow them change out my exhaust system.instead I took my car to Vans, Chevrolet. Here I discovered that they had NEVER changed my brake fluid and that my engine’s lack of power was due to the fact that Greulich put in the WRONG catalytic converter. I also discovered that catalytic converters are fully covered under a Federal Law in all cars for the first 10 years, or 80,000 miles. This is a well known fact in the auto industry and I should never had been charged for this work. Greulich claimed they knew nothing about that and had no idea there was a federal mandate. (Oh, come on!) I also found out there was absolutely nothing wrong with the exhaust system that Greulich wanted to remove and replace.
Fortunately I had the original catalytic converter Greulich had removed from my car so I was not charged by Vans to replace the tiny Greulich catalytic converter, with the correct converter which is 6 times the size. (After Greulich removed my original converter, friends told me converters sell for about $100 at recyclers, so I went back to Greulich to get it. Of course Greulich claimed they had no idea you could recycle them for more than $10.00)
Once at Vans, I called John Jameson and Chris Greulich to discuss the problems I was having. While Chris never called me back, I spoke to John Jameson. He told me they would give me back the money for the catalytic converter, as long as they got their catalytic converter back. When I told him about the brakes and how they told me the brakes were “done” when I called back after only two phone calls — he stated “It only takes 18 minutes to do brakes, and he was sure they could have easily done my brakes in minutes. (Keep this 18 minutes in mind.)
I told Mr. Jameson I was not happy with the ceramic brakes and twice had to pull into another lane to avoid hitting the car in front of me. I asked him for my money back so I could have Van Chevy redo my brakes with the proper semi-metallic brakes. He refused. He told me that he had the Chevy book in front of him and it stated that ceramic brakes were the factory brakes specified by Chevy. I was standing with a manager and a consultant at Chevy and they both said: “NO! Semi-metallic’s — not ceramic! ”
Against the advise of Chevy, who told me to now steer clear of Greulich, I made an appointment the next day for Greulich to put in the correct, recommended brakes. I dropped my car off at 12:30 and was given a ride across the street to a Best Buy. I told Greulich I would leave my car for 18 minutes, plus throw in an hour extra time, although I knew it only took 18 minutes to do the brakes. The managers laughed and told me, “If you have a mechanic who can do brakes in 18 minutes — get them here! We’ll take all we can get! 18 minutes? Who told you that? That’s ridiculous! ”
As I left, ‘manager’ Michael S., smirked and told the shuttle driver Mike, to “change out her brakes.“ Suspicious of this, I asked Mike, whom I only knew as a shuttle driver, if he had ever done brakes before. He nodded yes.” (BTW: This driver, Mike was the only truly concerned, genuine person I met at this repair shop.) Mike dropped me across the street at Best Buy where I waited for SIX HOURS (what happened to the 18 minutes?) as he fixed my brakes. But when he came to get me in my car, I noticed there was a odd thump sound when I hit the brakes. Stunned by this new noise, I asked him how many times he had done brakes before. He nervously stated he was now licensed and had done brakes 3 or 4 times. THREE OR FOUR TIMES! After all the problems they caused me and all the times I brought my car in and either had to leave it, and get rides out and back, or wait for hours — they let someone practice on my car! What does that tell you about the management there? In fact John Jameson was more worried about what Vans thought of Greulich’s than wanting to fix my car. He kept saying he “had a relationship with Vans and didn‘t want to ruin it, so he wanted to clear this up.” (Vans laughed and said “Relationship? We get unhappy clients who come here to have us fix cars after Greulich’s, or they send us the cars they can’t figure out how to fix! ”
From Best Buy, with Mike in my car, I drove across the street to Vans to show them the new problem I now had. I called Greulich’s and they told me the noise was due to one tie rod which was loose. They told me they’d fix if for free. (Chevy told me this noise had nothing to do with the tie rod.) But hoping they could fix the problem, I gave the car back to Greulich’s again for another hour and fifteen minutes to fix this new problem. I got my car back and it had the exact same new thumping noise upon hitting the brakes. At that point I called both Chris Greulich and John Jameson to talk, but left messages and never got a call back.
The next evening I had to fly to California and when entering my car I noticed BOTH of my brakes lights were on in the dash. A bright red BRAKES and BRAKE FLUID EMPTY were lit up. Once again my car had to go to Vans.
This was now FOURTEEN visits to car shops due to the original error of bringing my car to Greulich. Ninety percent of these inconvenient, expensive, time consuming trips were completely unnecessary.
Less than 36 hours after having Greulich put in new brakes, I had two brake warnings light up on my dash. One is a big red light: BRAKES and the other: BRAKE FLUID EMPTY. This is no coincidence. My brakes lights didn’t ‘happen’ to go on coincidently. This had everything to do with them working on my brakes. We’ve never had a brake problem in the life of the car, not once in 58,000 miles and six years.in addition, Greulich had changed all my power steering fluid two months ago, a suggestion they made for regular car maintenance, and now there is a LEAK in my power steering.By the time Vans Chevy check it two months after Greulich changed the fluid, there was no power steering fluid left in the car. GONE! Also a coincidence? The car never leaked a drop of fluid before — if it was leaking before they worked on my car, they would have seen it and definitely told me it needed to be fixed, in order for them to make more money. This leak started once they worked on my car. There is no doubt, that in addition to all the other problems they created, they caused these new brakes and power steering problems.
I wouldn’t recommend Greulich to anyone. They are a nightmare repair shop.
While they gave me back about $700.00, (the money for the brake fluid flush, oil change and catalytic converter error) I want ALL the money back, the rest of the $1,600 which had to be spent at other facilities in my time and money to clean up after Greulich’s sloppy work.
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