A Automotive
11969 Lebanon Rd
Mt. Juliet, TN 37122
December 29
In approximately late my husband, Gene, needed a transmission on his 2004 Ford Explorer. Jonathan advertised on Craig’s List…this is how we first met him. The price paid at that time was close to what was quoted and the car seemed to be fixed so my husband used him occasionally over the years and paid him a lot of money for working on his car.
By September he had a shop on Lebanon Rd, close to Hardy’s in Mt. Juliet called Accurate Automotive Repair and I needed a transmission on my 2004 Mercury Van. When I went to pick up the car, the price I had to pay was several hundred dollars over what his quote to us was. Since I didn’t get a written quote, I went ahead and paid it. This was my first bad feeling about him. Also, twice, we went there for estimates only to find out from where I take my car, that they were giving us estimates on unnecessary work.
Since that, I have exclusively used another honest mechanic.
However, since the garage mechanic I use doesn’t work on transmissions, when the transmission on the Ford Explorer AGAIN went out, we took it back to Jonathan who by now has moved his location further up Lebanon Rd at 11969 Lebanon Rd. The car was towed there on November 16. My husband was told that it would be done in about a week and that the cost would be around $2100.
A week went by and the car wasn’t even taken into the garage. Having one car is a huge hardship on my family because I work down town at odd hours and his office is in Mt. Juliet. My husband was without a car from November 16 to December 2 when Jonathan said it was done and the price was 2,152.16. My husband ‘s Social Security check comes in the 3rd of the month, but the whole check would not have covered that and that money had to go to paying other promised bills. Not having that kind of money on hand, my husband borrowed money from his daughter, and sold a couple of rifles he had for 40 years totaling $1500 (cash - Jonathan will only take cash or credit cards) with the promise to pay Jonathan the remaining $652.16 January 3 when the next Social Security check came in Jonathan agreed to this and my husband picked up the car.
Jonathan said that his mechanic said the car ran great, but when (husband) Gene got in, the car obviously was NOT running “great”, it was jerking and jumping after about 3 miles. He took it right back to the shop and had the mechanic (Kenny) ride with him. Kenny told Gene to bring the car back in Sunday afternoon and it would be fixed by Monday night and any further expense would be on him (mechanic). Gene was told that the seloniod was bad.
From that time on, there has been one excuse after another: couldn’t find a part, still looking for a part, parts truck didn’t come in, waiting for the parts truck, wrong part, looking for a new part…. And the cycle all over again. Finally approximately 2 weeks later, Gene was told that the car was not even at the Lebanon Road location. Jonathan told him that his mechanic took it to Hendersonville to his friend to repair the car. Jonathan added that he had never been to Hendersonville, and didn’t know where it was, and didn’t have the address for the where the car was located. This is what my husband was told every day, along with again: waiting on a part, wrong part, etc. One day Gene saw the mechanic and asked him the location of his car and the mechanic turned and walked away from him, not saying a word.
December 21, my husband walked down to the shop to find out about his car (about 2 miles—he’s 78 years old!) He told him he wanted his car back and Jonathan again told him that he didn’t know where the car was and told him to leave. Gene said he wouldn’t leave until he saw his car. There was a police officer across the street who came over at Gene’s request. The officer told Gene that since Jonathan told him to leave, he had to do that but it was a civil case and to check with a lawyer. Jonathan also told Gene that he would get a tow truck and bring the car back that day but that didn’t happen either.
December 22 Jonathan said that the car was ready, but it would cost us $575 to get it today or starting Monday the 26th, he would charge us $25 storage fee. Gene asked him who authorized that additional expense and Jonathan said it was part of the transmission (which should have been included in his final bill of $2152.16.) They had the car, that was the only way to get it. Since Social Security is not in and my paycheck wasn’t until December 23 with the bulk of that money going for health insurance, Gene called his sister in South Carolina. The sister called Jonathan and gave him her credit card over the phone satisfying that unauthorized charge which should have enabled us to get the car. This was about 4 pm.
The next day, Dec 22, Jonathan called Gene about 10:00AM saying the guy called him about 30 min prior and said he wouldn’t be in until about 11:00. Jonathan said he would pick up Gene and go over to get the car. At 11:30 he said as soon as another worker came he was going to send his mechanic and another person over to get it. Gene said “I thought we were going to get it” but Jonathan said he wanted the mechanic to drive it to make sure everything worked including the 4-wheel drive. None of this happened.
About 4PM that same afternoon, Gene called and Jonathan said his wife just left to pick up his friend who was a Ford expert and she was going to drive to Hendersonville to get it. Gene called again at 5:25 and Jonathan said his wife was almost there and he would call him when she got there. Gene later got a call saying Jonathan’s wife was there but found a note on the gate saying they would be closed until Monday. How his wife was able to get to the location but Jonathan is unable to is not clear.
Monday, December 26, Jonathan said he couldn’t get anyone to answer the phone in Henderson all day. He couldn’t call his mechanic because the mechanic just got out of the hospital and wasn’t answering his phone.
Tuesday, December 27, we (both my husband and myself) stopped by and asked where the car was. Jonathan said he couldn’t leave because he was the only one there. He couldn’t get anyone on the phone at Hendersonville and again said he didn’t know where the place was.
I asked, “where is the car? ”
He said “Hendersonville”.
I said, “Where in Hendersonville? ”
He said “I don’t know”
I said, “This car was left in your care, it’s your business to know where the car is. Is the car stolen? ”
He said, “No, it’s not stolen. “
I said, “Then why don’t you know where the car is? ”
He said, “ My mechanic took it over to get it fixed.”
I said, “well either your mechanic is a crook or you are a liar” and he said we should leave.
We did and went straight to the police department where we filed an incident report and Officer Hudgens accompanied us back to the garage where he heard the same story. He told Jonathan that unless this car was shown in some way, by the next day, there would be a stolen vehicle report on it and he (Jonathan) would be held responsible.
December 27: Jonathan called Gene and told him that the car was now at his garage but his attorney/partner who was also the Wilson County District Attorney, advised him to add an additional $252.26 onto the bill and call it sales tax and not let us pick up the car until either the total amount of $904.42 is paid or we turn over the title of the car to him as collateral. We have had the car 2 days since November 16. Six weeks, one day and $2062.16 later, we still don’t have the car.
My husband has checked with several transmission places since and have gotten prices of $889 to $1250 to completely rebuild a transmission and was told it would take a day and a half-two days max to do it.
Consumers in Wilson County and surrounding areas should know about people like this who:
1. Don’t do what they say they are going to do
2. Take advantage of the elderly or those who have no recourse
3. Add on fees on top of estimates to be paid holding the car hostage
4. Do unauthorized work and again…hold the car hostage until the amount is paid
Update: December 30: I was able to get $652.16 (between 3 sources). Jonathan had called Officer Hudgens on Wednesday saying he had the car and it was working right. Today Gene and I went to the police department and
Officer Hudgens accompanied us to A automotive. Jonathan gave me a new bill which said we owed $904.42.
I said “I have a slip right here from you that says our balance due is $652.16.”
He said, “ there is nothing down there for sales tax”
I said, “that doesn’t matter. Balance due means that is the amount that it will take to ’pay in full’”.
He said he will pay the sales tax but doesn’t want to do business with us again.
I said “don’t worry! I want a receipt that says paid in full, and the key to the car.” and proceeded to count out the $652.16.
Officer Hudgens said that we are not the first people who have been taken advantage of in this way. It’s one thing to be over charged for something, know it and still decide to have the work done. But it’s quite another for the service to take more than 6 weeks to complete, additional charges arbitrarily added on and lying to your customers several times a day for 6 weeks. The above relates just a fraction of the conversations my husband had with Jonathan. Gene is 78 years old and this thing was very bad for him, not to mention the inconvenience and hardship it caused our entire family by having just one car. My son is home from college on break now and both he and his dad had to rely on others for transportation.
Gene and Karen Kennedy
(Personal Information Removed)
0 comments