A summation of the facts is as follows:
Date In: 6/29
Date Promised: 7/09
Estimate Given: $1400
Dates Re-promised: 7/16
7/23
Date Completed: 7/26
Total Bill: $1700
Date Available / Billed: 7/29
Date Received: 7/30
Total Days without Vehicle 32
The purpose of this complaint is to disclose the immoral, unethical, and potentially illegal activities engaged in by Kolar Automotive. Between a web of deceit, false promises, delays, and vacations they managed to turn a repair job that should have taken no more than a couple days into an affair that extended beyond a month. The main dispute I have with Kolar is their unjustified $838 bill for the labor on my car. After reading the remainder of this complaint it will become apparent that no effort was put into actually completing the job.
As can be seen on the original invoice the promised date was July 9th. I understand that there can be some unforeseen complications as well as some due grace period that should be allowed, but the car was not finally completed until the 26th and not delivered until the 29th. This makes the total time it had been in the shop over a month, with a comparable repair job on my associate's truck taking only two days and costing less as well.
Calls were put in to the dealership on the 7th, the 8th, and the 9th of July. All three times my family was told specifically that the car was in the shop and currently being worked on. A visit to the site on the ninth yielded a different story. The car was sitting outside the shop with no attention being given to it. Upon going inside the facility my father was told that the only thing that had been done on the car was the diagnostics that were performed when it arrived.
Furthermore, the mechanic assigned to my car was actually on vacation and would not attend to it until he returned, an additional half week later. Two phone calls had been submitted to the dealership that day from two different individuals (Troy DeWalt; the family mechanic, and my father). Both times they were told that it was actually inside and currently being worked on. It is quite clear at this point that we were spoon-fed information that was blatantly false. I would think it was illegal to so clearly mislead customers and to so deliberately dispense false information, but perhaps I am not up on all the legal aspects. At the very least it is unethical and no paying customer should have to endure such false pretenses that are laid out by the person entrusted to take care of their problems.
Unfortunately the run-around did not end here. Upon the mechanics return from vacation he took several sick days as well. As to the validity of his sickness I cannot attest, but further delays should not be warranted for a car that has not even been looked at yet. Additionally, a dealership should have more than one qualified mechanic and should not impose delays of over two weeks for such petty personal reasons. Prompt attention should be given to a paying customer, and since vacations are something that are planned in advance they should have notified us as such and factored that into their estimated date.
Sadly, that was not the last of the maladies inflicted upon me by Kolar. I was scheduled to travel to Duluth from the Twin Cities to pick up my car on the weekend of the 23rd, complete with reservations for hotel, haircuts, and verbal promises to meet a couple of my associates. All of these had to be canceled because on Friday the 23rd a call from the mechanic revealed that they had lost one of the clips that holds my engine in place. This caused a an additional delay of a week for something clearly their fault. Truly one would hope that after such failures on the part of the dealership that all the repairs would be fixed and the car would be in working order, but as fate would have it this is not the case. The car is currently in my family's possession, but is leaking anti-freeze as well as some other fluids. It is clear to see from a look at the bill that they were the last ones to touch the anti-freeze and we ended up paying for things that were delayed, done incorrectly, or not done at all.
Based on what I have seen from Kolars professionalism and courtesy (or lack thereof) I highly doubt they will take any actions to rectify the situation. However, I propose the following remedy that would resolve our dispute:
1). Reimburse me for the cost of labor. The fact is there was no effort made to perform the labor on my car. After a series of lies we discovered it was not even being worked on and they took a month out of my life to string me along as such. I would like to be reimbursed for the cost of labor due to the fact that only a minimal amount of labor was performed and it was done so in a less than timely manner. When it finally was completed it was done incorrectly.
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