Midas Muffler &Oil Change Service, (in Highland Park, IL. 60035 - our home town Midas) changed the oil in my daughter's NissanAltima on 03-19-10. My daughter (Carly - High School senior) brought her carhome, and parked it after the change. The entire family left the very next dayfor eight days in California. The car was untouched, at home, for those eightdays.
The day after wereturned, Carly drove to a friends house, also in Highland Park, perhaps a tenminute drive. She and my wife noticed a large puddle of fresh oil on ourparking pad as she left for her friends. Late that evening my daughter calledtelling me her car would not start. I drove over and found the all oil haddrained from the engine and oil-pan, the bolt, that sits in the oil pan wasabsent. I believe 100% the screw was seated improperly by the Midas employee. This allowed a heavy leakage. When the car was driven again (after ourvacation), the nut must have worked itself out and there is evidence of oilleakage on the road from my home to Carly's friends.
_I'd like to pointout here that the assistant manager at the guilty Midas shop, shared with me "I'mactually ashamed to work here... If I were the manager, I'd have handled thiscompletely differently". This man clearly has an excellent sense ofcustomer service and honest business character. Not so for squirming Frank (mgr.) and James Corollo (owner).
Midas Muffler & OilChange franchise in Highland Park, IL. James Corollo, refused to speak with me. The store manager ("Frank"), told me Midas would look into thematter. After a week (the car having been towed to a local service station), Ireceived a call from Midas' "agent" "Trinity", claimingMidas can see no responsibility for the oil drainage. That is virtuallyimpossible! I'm 100% righteously indignant that Midas is not only responsiblefor negligence, but there is no question about their failure to seal the oilpan after the oil change. A home-town service dealer that ruins a teen's car (and obviously so) makes the very poor choice of refusing to accept obviousresponsibility, and throwing their reputation in the gutter.
I STRONGLY encourageanyone who might be in this area, to take the smarmy situation intoconsideration before doing business with this greedy and UNSAFE organization. If this has happened to you, and I know this does happen now and then, call themanager, Frank, at (847) 831-5000, and tell him (or owner James Corollo), howunsettling it is to hear of such sloppy work, and lack of responsibility! Itcould have been your daughter or son who lost a car to their negligence.
My apologies to thereader for redundancies, however I asked my daughter to explain the situationin her own words:
"I took my '97Nissan Altima - originally owned by a mechanic who rebuilt the engine, to Midasfor an oil change. A day or so later I left for California with my family for aweek. When we returned, I saw that there had been some dripping, but I wasn'tsure if it was serious. I saw a red light on the dash and told my mother. A fewdays later I drove to my friend's house, and as I was driving the oil lightwhen on again. As soon as I stopped in her driveway, the engine rumbled anddied. I tried to restart the car, but it would only make some noise and thendie again. When my dad came by to check what had happened, he found that therewas no longer a nut covering the oil hole. Midas either did not put it back on, or failed to put it on tight enough. As the car sat in the driveway it drainedof all the oil, and when we tried to add more, it went straight through. We hadto have it towed, and found out later that the engine was entirely shot - anengine that had been rebuilt and refurbished by a mechanic".
Today (04-23-10) Salfrom Midas called representing James the Midas owner. He ask me what happenedand I explained. He knew of all the voice I planned to give this incident, right this wrong, and Sal informed me I couldnt do this, wed be speakingsoon. I perceive this as a veiled threat. Theyre wrong, know it, and are notlooking forward to my exercising my 1st amendment right, not beingfound responsible.
In closing I want tothank RippOffReport for the wonderful opportunity to post here. This posting isjust the very start of my fight for what's right. Thanks for reading.
Http://cbs13.com/consumerwrapper/midas. Franchise. Fraud. 2.777695.html#
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