About a year and a half ago, I was involved in an auto accident, which was not my fault (the court thought so as well.) It left the front end of my car damaged. I brought my car to Jim Ellis Porsche of Atlanta to repair and fix my car. The damage was not that bad, but it took them over 3 months to fix.
I had a rental car, so the time that it took them was not that bad. I did, however, have some problems with the General Manager and staff there, as I felt that they were not customer focused in listening to my issues with my car being there for over 3 months and the problems with my car.
When I picked up my car after three months, I was assured that everything had been repaired and/or replaced to factory specifications. I even walked around the car checking things out with a technician. To me, everything looked okay on the surface. Little did I know that this was not the case.
Fast forward to a year and a half later. I brought my car into Jim Ellis Porsche of Atlanta to have a squealing noise looked at. Over the past year, I had my car into their service department to have various things looked at or repaired. I was told, in the past, the squealing noise was either a loose cable or pulley. Time after time, they tightened a loose pulley or cable, even though I told them that the noise seems to be coming from the clutch and/or transmission area. Finally, after 3 or 4 visits, they finally hear the squealing noise and determined that it is indeed coming from the transmission area.
While they had my transmission open, they told me that I needed a new clutch. I told them to replace it since it needed to be replaced. Also, I was told that my car had some undercarriage damage. The service technician said that this damage could only come from being towed improperly (a Porsche is supposed to be towed from a front tow hook hidden by a cap on the front bumper).
Now, up until this point, I had my car only towed once, which was after my accident from a year and a half ago. I told the technician this, but he told me that there was no way of really knowing if this was the case. I told him that I could verify with receipts and an insurance call that my car has only been towed once. It did not matter, he did not care, nor was he going to fix the undercarriage damage that should have been repaired after my car accident.
The day that I picked up my car from its week in the service shop, my car broke down. My car had been driven less than 100 miles when it started to smoke. I was smoking so bad that other drivers called the fire and police department, as they thought the car was on fire. The police department called a tow truck for me. When the tow truck arrived, I opened the cap on the front bumper that houses the tow hitch, only to find that it was not properly aligned. Remember, I had my whole front end rebuilt by Jim Ellis Porsche of Atlanta because of my accident and was assured that my car was back to factory specifications. As a result, I could not screw in the tow hook to the hitch. The only way for me to get my car off the side of the road was to have it towed from the undercarriage. Now, this is the second time I had to have my car towed.
When my car was to a safe location, I called my insurance company to tow my car to Jim Ellis Porsche of Atlanta. As you can imagine, I had the same problem with this towing company and the tow hitch. However, this time, I was able to drive my car up the tow platform, possibly causing more damage to my car. I did not have any options at this point. The tow truck operator would not even tow my car from the undercarriage, as it was a liability for his company if he damaged any part of my car.
My car was finally at Jim Ellis and ready to be repaired. I was told by one of the service technicians that they would look at the smoking problem, tow hitch problem, and undercarriage damage, which they did. They fixed most of the problems, except the undercarriage damage. The Body Shop General Manager told me, that he could not be certain that my car was damaged by towing. Now, at this point, I have two conflicting answers to my undercarriage problem. I have someone at the service department telling me that the damage was caused by towing and now I have the body shop GM telling me that it could have been caused by something else. (Note: the body shop and service department are owned by the same company, but are in different locations and have different management). Either way, I have been told that they are not going to repair the undercarriage damage, caused by their negligence, unless I pay (out of my pocket) for it.
At this point, I am so fed up with how I have been treated, the incompetence, and the lack of responsibility of their negligence. My next step (after this posting) is to file with the small claims court in Atlanta. Has anyone been in this situation before? Or, do you have any suggestions and/or advice?
Aaron
Atlanta, Georgia
U.S.A.
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