I have used this dealership twice and have felt both times that they were not interested in taking care of my problem, only interested in how much $ they could get out of me.
Let me tell you how my experience went with this establishment. My Astro van which has about 70k on it started to run very rough and an SES light was continuous, there was noticeably less power and gas mileage was terrible. I took it in to Magruder's, I have had other Astro Vans before and have had this happen twice. First the EGR valve was at fault and the next time it was the catalitic converter on two different vans. I was contacted later that day and was told by the service writer that my EGR valve had a piece of carbon stuck in the pintel area and they dislodged it, freed up the pintel and it was working properly, but that the engine was full of carbon and needed to be decarboned a service that would cost some $418.00. I declined the service as I felt that this was excessive and I have another GM vehicle that has the same amount of miles on it and there is not a problem with it, I use the same gas and use the same oil change business.
When I picked the Van up it was obvious that they had not even test drove it as the same problem existed and the Van broke down on the way home from work stranding my wife on the highway, this was a Friday night and we had it towed back to Magruder Chevrolet. This first time in cost me an $85.00 estimate fee.
On Monday, I went in to explain the problem again to the service writer and I told him that it seemed like the catalitic converter was clogged, when they looked at my Van again I was told that it needed to be decarboned and that now the EGR valve needed to be replaced, as another piece of carbon had been found lodged against the pintel and that the pintel had now been bent rendering it useless.
The service to correct my problem with the van would now cost $597.00 apparently the cost of the decarbon service and the egr valve. I gave the go ahead and was able to pick my vehicle up that afternoon. I went home and didn't give it another thought until my wife was looking over the paperwork and noticed that there were some warranty parts used in the repair. This was a catalytic converter.
I was a little confused, as I had not been told about this by anyone at Mac Magruder either before the service was complete or when I picked up my vehicle. I called the Service Manager and talked to him about the incident and he was argumentative and unwilling to help. He said he would get with his service People and find out what took place and would call me back, he also did not believe that his people would not tell me about the warranty service.
I did not receive a call, I had to call him back. When I did talk to him he did find that I had not been told. I was less than happy to say the least. Why would this information about the Cat Converter be covered up. I know from the way the vehicle ran that this could have been the problem all along. The service Manager did agree that the diagnosis of the problem was not accurate and that the problem was the catalytic converter, I even asked him why the engine would get all carboned up and he stated that yes in fact the converter would cause the carbon build up problem, but that the warranty covered that, and I should be happy about that.
Our conversation now turned, after establishing the facts, to why would I be charged the full service if they had made all the mistakes in diagnosis and service recommendations. He would not bend, he said he would in fact talk to the owner and see if he could do anything.
By the tone of this man's voice and his demeaner it was obvious that he was not going to help me out with an adjustment of the bill. This Manager after I had to call him, as he did not call me back like he said he would, responded with taking $85.00 of the original estimate fee and giving me a credit redeemable in service at there Service dept. For an oil change or something like that, I'm sure he felt quite satisfied with his response to me, I did not respond and as far as he knows I am satisfied. I was frustrated and frankly pissed off at this point. What an insult, do you really think I will ever get my vehicles serviced again in that establishment?
I'll tell you what I think took place. They did all this suggested service they sold me $597.00 and took it for a test drive and found that it did not run any better, this is when they decided to look at the Cat converter and found it clogged, and that is when they found the problem and corrected it. They could not even bring themselves to let me know what they had found, a practice which I find deplorable and cowardly. From the beginning to the end they did not have a clue as to the problem and stumbled across it only as a last resort and the only possible part in the system left to replace. This is a terrible way to handle people and vehicles.
There have been laws established in the land concerning the practices of the Automotive Repair industry and good reason for them. Over the years these repair establishments have been made to answer for their practices. Not once was I offered the faulty parts back, I was not told of the bad catalytic converter which was the cause of the whole ordeal in the first place
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