Richardson Car Care replaced both my front axles in 2003 and gave me a lifetime warranty on these axles. On June 11, I took my Volkswagen Passat in to have the axles repaired as they clearly had broken parts. It took all day for them to find another axle to meet this lifetime warranty. I waited until 3:00 in their facility for the car to be ready. No offer at that time was made to take me home or to any other location. Finally, I said, I need to take care of a few things today. They lent me vehicle to run the errands. I came back, picked up my car and it was worse than before.
As soon as I drove off, the car was shaking worse than before. I returned it early Friday morning. They said it was not a problem and OK to drive to Arkansas. They apologized and said they did not think to look at the Right axle, they only looked and repaired the Left axle. They did not want to provide a rental. I did go to Arkansas under their approval. I returned the car to them Friday morning, June 18. They transported me to my home, did their 'repairs', and then picked me up right before closing. I again drove off and it was just as bad as the first time I brought the car in for the warranty covered repairs. The car was shaking and vibrating. I called them and they said it would be all right to visit my mother in Fort Worth and not to worry.
I again brought it back in to their facility. They looked at both axles. The company that provided the rebuilt axles said that they were not able to rebuild Volkswagen axles that these would need to be new axles. Richardson Car Care said they would make good the warranty.
They said they would call around to find 'new' axles. On Tuesday June 29, they found a 'new' right axle. They were unable to find a 'new' left axle but felt that the Volkswagen Passat was safe to drive to Houston and Fort Worth until they were able to replace the left axle. I again suggested they rent a car for me since the car was still vibrating excessively. The car wobbled the entire drive to and from Houston. My colleagues were very scared for me. When I returned I did not drive the car since the vibration was scary. On July 9 I went in and asked them what they thought. They said I was safe until Monday, July 12 and that it would be OK to drive to Fort Worth.
My mother is sick and in a nursing facility in Fort Worth. On July 10 I drove my car with the assurance of Richardson Car Care to visit my mother. As I was curving around Highway 121 to merge with Highway 35 in Fort Worth, my wheel flew off my car. It bounced over the hood of the car next to me and into a grassy area. I was only able to move to the small, unsafe, median strip between Highway 121 and Highway 35. Cars were zipping and speeding by my car that was hanging off the curb. I was unable to completely drive the vehicle with all four wheels off the highway because I only had 3 wheels to drive off the highway. I was able to just sit there and wait for emergency assistance on this Saturday evening. If I had opened my car door, I would have stepped on to the highway.
My brother, an aerospace engineer, was the first to arrive. He was in shock. The Fort Worth police arrived to block traffic, as it was an EXTREMELY dangerous place to loose a wheel and to have hook up to the wrecker. The police office, the wrecker company and my brother all looked at the car, the wheel, the lug nuts, and the situation. They ALL concurred that two lug nuts were over tightened, two lug nuts were under tightened, and the clearly defective axle all contributed to the shaking car thus causing the wheel to dangerously fly of the car. They were ALL amazed at my driving ability to move off the highway, keeping the other drivers safe. My legs were shaking so badly that the driver of the wrecker and my brother had to lift me from my Volkswagen Passat. The car was towed to a location in Fort Worth.
On Monday morning, I contacted Richardson Car Care to inform them that the wheel came off my car. Joe assured me that they would take care of everything and not to worry. They immediately contacted the driver of their wrecker and picked me up to drive to Fort Worth to retrieve my car. We left from my house at 10:00 am on July 12. Two exits away from where my car was located their wrecker ran out of gas. Despite the effort to fill the tank and start the wrecker, they were unable to pump the gasoline up through the lines. Their wrecker had to be towed. They did not know how much gasoline was in their wrecker because the gas gauge was broken. Although they were driving 60 miles to Fort Worth, they did not fill the tank ahead of time. It took 2 hours for someone to come to Fort Worth and pick us up. They took me back to Richardson and dropped me off at 2:00 pm. I gave up 4 hours of my day.
On Tuesday morning, with the repaired tow truck, we traveled back to Fort Worth to pick up my car. They needed until Friday to repair the car. They made no mention of any charges; no indication that they would charge me for their carelessness was ever made. They did not allow me to decide what parts I wanted replaced. They said they would take care of the car and return it to me with the 'new' axle in safe condition.
I arrived Friday, July 16 at 3:15 pm. They handed me a bill for $365.10. I said you actually or going to charge me? They said if you want the car, you'll have to pay. They had nothing authorizing the work, no quote for towing since they told me that they would take care of towing the car. They actually told me that they felt someone else had loosened my lug nuts. They charged me for towing, brake rotor and removing the wheel studs and a four-wheel alignment. I paid the bill because they threaten that if I took my car without paying (I didn't even say that I would take my car), they would come and impound my car using their mechanics lien. They said that I would have to sue them. I did not at anytime sign any document allowing them charge for this work. I was always polite and understanding during the entire 4 times that they had my car. I was shocked that they wanted to charge me for their negligence of bad axles, tow trucks breaking down and lug nuts flying off my car.
I paid and drove my car away. The car was clearly out of alignment and clearly the left side was still wobbling. I immediately took my car to two other mechanics to have checked my car. They car was not aligned and clearly the left axle is not repaired properly.
After giving Richardson Car Care 4 gracious opportunities in 5 weeks to repair the warranted axles, I cannot safely take my car to Richardson Car Care to have this still substandard repair corrected. They did not repair my car and I will need reimbursement for my time and money that Richardson Car Care cost me during these and cost to repair my car at another facility. I have given them the opportunity in July to reimburse me.
The worst part, my car is still not repaired after all the money that I gave Richardson Car Care. I still must pay to have another mechanic to repair the axle and align the car properly.
I was ripped off.
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