Tuesday 8/24/04 my mom calls, trouble with her car. Transmission is slipping told she needs a pan gasket and transmission service by a local service company. They want $250 to do a transmission service. I live in florida and have 3 had trans service done before the pan gasket is part of the job and it is usually around $100 so I tell her look take it to another place and have the service done.
I call AAMCO close to her we have all heard the commercials. But before I do i get the number and call the transmission place I talk to Chuck who says he is the service advisor. I am concerned and want to talk to the owner to let him know my mom is coming in and that I want the transmission serviced. I explain about the other company and the pan gasket leak and inquire how much to do a transmission service.
I am told it will cost between $75 and $95 depending on the transmission. He Chuck also advises I should have the vehicle towed in to his shop so asw not to further ruin the transmission. I agree to the towing wed. 8/25/04 car is towed.
Thursday 8/25/04 I call 10 am not looked at it yet. 1pm I call I am mistaken for another customer given a bunch of excuses why my dodge was not looked at, I tell chuck who I am and he appologizes and tells me he has good news the transmission seems ok it does have a leak but they cant find it yet it must be an internal hipressure leak. 10 minutes he calls me back and says that after further review and before I got my hopes up he wanted to let me know they they have discovered the transmission needs a soft rebuild. And that it has internal problems and it is chattering thus the seals and something else internal is bad.
I said to him that I have had cars that have slipped if the fluid was low or burned did he take it apart or drop the pan to inspect it. Chuck said they have a special machine that does the test and he does not need to physicall inspect the inside of the transmission. Furthermore the fluid is not low or burned he said it was leaking earlier to me because we told him it had a leak and he was going on what I had told him. The transmission fluid was full there was no leak and the fluid was not burned.
The repair was $1600 I told him I did not no what to do my folks are old on social security live in the projects of baltimore and have no money for this. I am trying to help from florida. He said he would park the car and there was no hurry in picking it up and that he would not charge me storage. I called my mom told her to take a cab and go get the car and drive it home that I would have my brother in pennsylvania see whatr he could do.
I called chuck back at the glenburnie aamco and paid the bill over the phone $101 when talking to chuck while paying he says to me oh by the way under the car you'll see alot of transmission fluid someone has topped off the fluid and spilled it it was not us they had to add because of all the leaks I guess. I then said to him you told me there was no leak, which he denied.
I reminded him that was the whole basis of the car needing a transmission job you know no burned fluid and fluid level fine. He denied saying the car did not leak. I sent my mom to get the car she told me it slipped on the way home, My dad went out and read the manual and said he checked the fluid with the car running in park no fluid showed up on dipstick, my mom went and got some my dad put it in til it registered where it should then my mom drove the car several times totaling approx. 14 miles and my dad checked it again no loss of fluid yet and the transmission has not slipped again.
My brother is coming down from pennsylv. And getting the car then I will finish the story. I sure do feel like we were getting the shaft. One thing through all this is that alot of people I talked to about this does say AAmco is a big ripoff and I found this website by typing in their name that ought to tell you something
Phil
sarasota, Florida
U.S.A.
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