I actually dealt with these guys for several years and thought they were a good business until now. Then a couple weeks ago, when I came to pick up my car from an oil change, Victor told me he had badly scraped my car when pulling it out. He said they?d pay for the repairs with a particular body shop (which was over 10 miles away) and a rental, and he?d take me to see the scratch as soon as I paid him $33 for the oil change.
After several phone calls from me about how the rental would be paid and whether Thaddeus could meet me at the rental agency, I was told to just get a decent rental between $50 to $100 and return it promptly when my car was ready?which I did. The trouble came when I went to CAR to get reimbursed. Victor said I was gouging them because the rental was too much. First he implied that I?d kept it too long, but I?d turned it in as soon as my car was ready, when it was 5-6 hours into the 2nd 24-hour rental period. Then he said I?d gotten too big a rental; I drive a van, and the only rental available with even near that capacity was a Suburban for which they lowered the fee to $85/day. (And then, of course, I had the nerve to actually charge him for a *portion* of my mileage, never mind the extra time I had to take running back and forth to that side of town to cope with the problem?total reimbursement less than $200.)
I pointed out that while I understood that accidents happen, I was the one who had to make the time to cope with it; that I had returned the car immediately; that I drove a van, not a sub-compact; and that, frankly, after Victor?s mistake I thought it took nerve to ask me to pay for the oil change when I?d been a good customer for years and they had caused me a lot of time and trouble. Victor responded by saying, ?Really? Let?s take a look,? and he went to the computer and said, ?The only thing you ever come in for is regular servicing. That doesn?t make you a good customer.? Of course, the point is moot now, because I?ll never be any kind of customer to them again, but there are 2 lessons in this that cannot be overlooked:
1. As far as they are concerned, their time is valuable but their customer?s is not.
2. No matter how long you?ve been coming to them, you?ll never be a ?good? customer until you?ve laid down some big bucks.
Cons: They're stinkers
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