My son noticed a transmission leak in his 1996 Nissan. Took it to Tanner transmission that day. Was told there was no way to give him any kind of estimate unless they took it apart. There would be a nominal charge. When we insisted on some type of price range, we were told $2500 for new transmission.
Having no choice (since they had locked the car and were unable at that time to slim jim it open), we left the car there. My son tried several times a day for several days to get any information out of them. We were told - too busy, manager not here, etc. Etc.
Finally, they called with an estimate of $1300 and that we already had a bill of $443 for just looking at it. He also told us the clutch was 2/3's gone and needed to be replaced. We told them not to replace the clutch for two reasons: (1) we didn't have the money and (2) the clutch had been replaced less than 1 year ago and had been working fine.
Based on that phone conversation, we understood we needed to find about $1300 to cover the bill. We heard nothing else until one week later with a call that the car was done and the total bill was over $1800. They had replaced the clutch in spite of being instructed not to.
We had to get a loan to cover the cost and needed to use the car as collateral and, of course, the loan officer needed to see the car. Once again, in their wonderfully helpful manner, they refused to allow the car off-site long enough - either to have their staff drive it to the credit union or allow us to leave the title with them long enough to get the car seen. We were told to go down the street to get a "title loan" at a nearby payday loan office which would cost $3600 for a three month $1800 loan.
The good news is the University of Utah Credit Union offered to do a signature loan instead. The bad news is, the entire loan had been processed on $1300 (our original estimate - since we were sure this "professional" company would not rip us off by performing unauthorized work).
The more I found out about this company, the more I understood that arguing about the validity of the bill would be futile. Ya just don't get your car back - period - until everything is paid in full whether it is a valid, authorized charge or not!
And... Since they start charging daily fees for keeping the car, we decided to cut our losses, pay the bill and fight over the unauthorized repairs when the car is in our possession and no longer being held for ransom.
I apologize for rambling but I am VERY disappointed, frustrated and ANGRY at these people for for taking advantage of people and showing absolutely NO flexibility, simply because they can.
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