I had recently hired the services of Start Mart, Inc.in Lynnwood, WA to service the failed starter on My Chevy Tahoe. Before that, I did the usual and shopped around on the phone to try and locate the "best deal" as we all do in the name of "smart consumers." $127.50 later, everything appeared fine with the exception of the first trip back to Start Mart to have the grease stains removed from the carpet, well, it's a dirty business and they removed the stains with no problem, O.K.
About three months later, I began to notice the starter was sounding more and more like it did when I originally took it in for service. So in August I returned with the truck, the receipt, and my expectations of having fast and friendly service to find out what was going on.instead I was confronted by a collection of newly hired employees who proceeded to, deny, blame, and point out that they where going to charge me one hour of labor ($50.00) to R&R the starter, (thirty-day warranty on labor.)
At that point I was told; if you remove the starter yourself and bring it here, we will test, then fix it for you if necessary, after I was first told, starter is fine, then, you may have a bad cell in the battery.
On a recent Saturday that I had nothing better to do (because my truck wouldn't start), I decided that I would crawl under the truck with my 9/16 wrench in hand and have a look. What I found did not surprise me to the least; the main power cable that carries the load of the starter was completely off of the solenoid and dangling in mid-air with no insulation, yes, there is no fuse on this wire and it is a 4 gauge. Then, I pulled the starter from the truck and jumped on my bike to return the starter for further testing. Start Mart did take care of the problem as soon as I pointed out their mistake and poor workmanship in front of a room full of customers; they even replaced the solenoid due to high-current arcing caused by a poor connection on the starter main power lug.
It was at this point that the realization of the Start Mart mission statement was glaringly obvious:
Quote the cheapest price
Provide poorly trained, poorly paid and often toothless individuals to perform the work on your car
Point out the labor warranty to the customer after the fact
Deny first in any warranty situation
Blame in all others
Use combination of above two points if necessary
Use the cheapest cores and parts in existence
Smoke cigarettes in and around the customers car
Create and invite a lackadaisical, care-less, run-down and filthy environment
Give the customer exactly what they paid for
The moral here is; we have all been burned by lousy service and yet, we as consumers demand cheaper prices and expect stellar service. This scenario is not a possibility while still maintaining a profitable business that continues to exist off of the bottom-feeding dregs of society who cannot recognize, the cheapest price is certainly a very costly alternative.
There is no room to complain here; after all, I got exactly what I paid for!
Barry
Lynnwood, Washington
U.S.A.
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