Usacomplaints.com » Cars & Transport » Complaint / Review: Keith Benson, Owner - Auto Center Specialist AUTO REPAIR RIPOFF. #728890

Complaint / Review
Keith Benson, Owner
Auto Center Specialist AUTO REPAIR RIPOFF

Prior to relocating from Texas, a garage which had done work on my 92 Chevy Sportvan advised me to have the Pittman and Idler arms replaced. They indicated a price of about $190 for the job.

I chose to postpone the repair until resettling in the Millington area. A month or so ago, I stopped at Auto Center to ask whether they could do the job. The owner, Keith Benson, said they could, and his mechanic, Johnny, overhearing the conversation, indicated two hours of shop time. Benson told me that the repair would be about $140-$150. I assumed the parts would be extra, so was in anticipation of a repair bill around $200, and made an appointment for Monday of the next week to bring the van in for the repair.

When I took it in, the owner's wife was at the desk and told me she didn't think they could finish the job that same day. I called late in the afternoon and Johnny, the mechanic, answered the phone, indicating he was just starting on the Pittman arm removal, and had answered the phone because he was the only person in the shop. Later that day, the woman called to tell me the van would be ready the next morning, and I told her it was important because I had to make a business trip to another city that day. She also quoted a ballpark figure in excess of three hundred dollars, because the mechanic was "having trouble" with the removal of the Pittman arm.

I said I felt that was too high, and that they should just put the parts together again and I'd pick up the vehicle. It was too late, however, since the arm had already been removed and was unlikely to be serviceable if repositioned. I told her to make the repair and call me when it was ready. When I went to pick the vehicle up, she presented me with a bill for $375.74. I had researched the parts online from two separate suppliers and found the total retail cost to be about $56 from both suppliers.

The invoice I was presented indicated a parts cost of $118.93 and she then told me their shop charges were $75 per hour and indicated three hours on the invoice. Nowhere in the shop did I see posted shop charges. Her husband, Keith Benson, had quoted me $140-$150 for labor, as I've indicated, in the presence of his mechanic. I'd made a note of that on the back of his business card. I wrote a check for the full $374.74 under duress, since I needed my vehicle. I went to another garage and asked what that same repair would cost, and was given a "firm and full quote, taxes included" of $240.33, which was given me on a piece of adding machine tape.

I have kept all pertinent paperwork. My sense is that (a) the owner and his mechanic made a poor estimate of the job. If the mechanic "had trouble" with the task it shows either incompetence or a misperception of the work (or both). Next (b) I ought to have been told a realistic figure for the shop charges. When the owner indicated $140-150 in shop charges, that's what I ought to have paid, despite any "difficulties" the mechanic encountered. And (c) having priced the necessary parts from two different suppliers, and even allowing for a markup, the parts charges were twice what two suppliers indicated.

I have the sense that the people working at Auto Center are less than competent and will take advantage of every opportunity to gouge extra charges from a customer. I will not use Auto Center again, and I will take every opportunity to tell whoever I meet to avoid them as well.


Offender: Keith Benson, Owner

Country: USA   State: Tennessee   City: Millington
Address: 7704 Ralieigh-Millington Road
Phone: 9018726004

Category: Cars & Transport

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