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Review content:
I have thought about putting this review up for a few days. I'm typically the type of person who thinks about things prior to doing them; especially when it comes to slamming a small business owner's reputation. My Vehicle needed a brake job. The rear drivers side was making a grinding noise. I called around town, looked at some online reviews and decided, even though there was one or two bad reviews of St. Louis Auto, the employees responded, and I would take my chances with them....
I was informed that a brake inspection was $34. Assuming that a brake INSPECTION means that someone inspects the brakes, rotors, calipers, etc... I decided, do the brake inspection, give me an estimate and we should go from there. Being familiar with what the prices were around town, I budgeted $250-350 for the brake job. I was also told that If I dropped the car off at 8am in the morning that it would be done WITHIN a couple of hours. I dropped my car off at 8am. It was nice of them to give me a ride back to my apartment - that was the ONLY good thing they did. At 11:45am, I got a phone call telling me it was going to cost me $304 to fix my brakes. When I called them at 3pm to come pick me up (my car wasn't finished yet), they informed me that I also needed my calipers replaced on one side. And the new estimate is now an additional $206. At that point, I asked what the point of doing a brake inspection was, what good is an estimate, etc.... I told them that I would have to come down there because now we had a much bigger problem on our hands (the fact that it was $200 more - 40% more than the original estimate)... When I got there, I talked to the owner, Lisa Renaud. She informed me that there was ""nothing she could do about it."" I explained to her that I picked her store over Midas, Minieke, Dobbs, etc.... because they were a small business owner and I generally prefer to do business with a local small business owner than a chain store because if I had a problem I would be able to talk directly with the owner (for the past 4 years I've been taking our vehicles to Floyds on St. Charles Rock Rd, and am now convinced THEY ARE THE BEST, AND I Won't TAKE MY CAR ANYWHERE ELSE AFTER THIS EXPERIENCE - I went here because it is 2 miles from my house). Lisa told me she would ""check to see if she could do any better on the price"" - at this point she wasn't acting like the owner, she was acting like an office manager - it wasn't till later I found out she was the owner. When everything was said and done, it was 4:45pm my car was fixed, she showed me the bill, it was $499. I informed Lisa that on her own paperwork there was a difference of $8 in the labor charge and what was on my paperwork, when she informed me that she had to pay her technician overtime to finish my vehicle - again, not my problem-my car was suppose to be done at 12 at the latest, not 5pm!!!! She then told me she would refuse to change the labor charge. I simply wish that doing business with a small business owner would of been better than doing business with a chain store; however, I now understand that with a chain store you can complain to the regional manager, district manager, and the VP or operations, etc.... where with a small business owner, when they have your car hostage, they can pretty much do whatever they want to. I'm glad that this post is going on Facebook - I HOPE AND PRAY that no one ever uses St. Louis Auto on Delmar to get anything fixed.
I am currently in the process of taking Lisa Renaud (the owner) to small claims court for $200 + court costs, etc... I don't mind paying the $300 (the original estimate), but I do have a BIG problem with paying the $500, especially after I got a BRAKE INSPECTION
If you have any questions concerning this post, feel free to e-mail me at notredamedude@charter
Cons: Won't work with you on their price, even after an estimate
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