Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:02/27/2025

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I was given a quote of $1628.31 on 2-18-25 for the total costs of repair on my 2007 *** to get it fully functional. Even though a steep cost, I decided to trust Adam Total Car Care to get my car up and running again for that amount. I satisfied the bill on 2-21-25 in good faith under that understanding. The day I paid the full bill and went to go pick up my vehicle, I discovered my vehicle was not functional. Adam Total Car Care ran further diagnostics and determined additional repairs were required. I was quoted, $1260.86 for the additional repairs. I objected to the additional costs. I would have never spent the $1628.31 had I known I would have been required to spend an additional $1260.86 prior to my car being drivable. Adam Total Car Care is now trying to charge me a markup cost on parts, in addition to their labor costs due their failure to properly & accurately give me an estimate originally. I found the part at ****** for $396. Adam Total Car Care has insisted on using their part at the costs of $807. I have now invested $1628.31 for a vehicle that is still not functional. I am requesting:1) the full refund of $1628.31 OR 2)the completion of repairs of my vehicle without the additional burden of costs to me. I do not believe it is good or ethical business practices to put customers in such situations. I should have a functional vehicle as promised by Adam Total Car Care for the amount $1628.31, as originally promised. An amount that I paid expecting fairly & fully for my vehicle to be functional. Any additional repair costs should be absorbed by Adam Total Car Care. Thank you.

  Business Response

  Date: 03/06/2025

  On the morning of February 18, ********************************************************************************************* the road, that his vehicle now had a coolant leak near the reservoir, and that it had previously indicated on that center display that the vehicle needed to pull over as it was overheating. He stated that the vehicle was currently at his home not far from out facility and that as soon as it cooled off he would like to drive the vehicle to us to get the vehicle repaired. The customer arrived at our facility just shortly before 11AM on February 18, 2025 and a repair order was created by 11:01AM. The technician brought the vehicle into the shop to begin diagnosing the vehicle and the customer remained at our facility between the lobby and the exterior bay door where his vehicle was being diagnosed.

  The technician connected the scan tool to the vehicle's ***** port and did not find any DTC's (trouble codes) pertaining to the engine or transmission computers to include the coolant system that would appear in one or both of the stated computer systems within the vehicle. The technician then began to start the process of pressure testing the coolant system with a specific tool that connects to the coolant reservoir, however, when the technician opened the coolant reservoir it was noticed that the coolant reservoir was empty. The technician added coolant to the reservoir to begin the pressure test and quickly realized that the pressure test was not necessary as there was a very large leak at the * connector that connects to 3 coolant hoses that run to different areas of the vehicle. The technician brought the diagnostic findings the customer's and my attention as we were both as that point standing at the exterior bay door. The customer then proceeded to walk to the hood of his vehicle where the technician then showed him the damage and explained the repair that needed to be made to include the thermostat housing that was also leaking enough to warrant replacement. I proceeded to return to my computer to start quoting the repair for the customer.

  I was able to find the coolant * connector and the 3 hoses that are attached to it as an entire unit as well as the thermostat housing and pulled the labor for the repairs from ALLDATA. The quote also included a full coolant service to flush any debris or corrosive build up out of the system. The customer had stated that the price was a bit steep for only having paid $3,000 for the vehicle not long prior. I sympathized with his concern and agreed to apply a 10% discount off of the bill to come to an agreed upon total of $1,628.31 electronically approved at 12:34PM on February 18, 2025. The customer was advised that the part would be arriving the following day, February 19, 2025 and he understood. He then asked that we take him home and we agreed to help.

  On February 19, 2025 the customer was texting our facility phone number starting at 11:46AM in which I stated that we were still waiting for the parts to arrive. At 12:58PM he again texted our facility asking is we were still waiting for the parts in which I responded that we were still waiting but I had reached out to the vendor that then stated we should have the parts by 1:30PM the same day. At 2:04PM the customer text again after having called my facility although I was on another phone call and unable to answer his call. I responded to the text message apologizing as I was assisting another customer and that, yes, the parts had arrived however the one part was incorrect and not correctly labeled when it was ordered the previous day. I explained to the customer that I was trying to locate the correct part to get his vehicle repaired. Once I found the part I called the customer back and explained to him that I was able to locate that part, however, it was a dealership part only. I explained that I would happily acquire the correct part at no additional cost although the correct part was a significantly hire cost and that the part would arrive at the dealership on Friday February 21, 2025 for our facility to then acquire the part from the dealership. The customer understood and I immediately ordered the part upon disconnecting the phone call with the customer.

  On Friday February 21, 2025, there were two text messages, at 7:58AM (before our facility open at 8AM) and at 1:43PM of which I had not seen before the customer had then called the facility instead. When the customer called he was looking for an update of when the vehicle would be completed in which he was advised that the part had just arrived at the dealership shortly before his phone call to our facility and that there was already one of our personnel headed to the dealership to acquire the part. The phone call ended at that point. Somewhere around 2-2:30PM the customer called wanting to know when the vehicle would be completed and I informed in that they were in process of repairing the vehicle. The customer stated that he wanted someone to come pick him up to bring him to his vehicle so that when it was complete he would already be at our facility to just pay and take possession of his vehicle. I explained that until the repair was complete and driven to ensure the repair was successful and that the system was completely functional I would not have an exact time of completion. The customer still preferred to wait at our facility so I had one of our personnel pick the customer up and bring him back to our facility. When the customer arrived at our facility at roughly 3PM same day, February 21, 2025, I explained to the customer that the technician was in the process of going through the specific steps necessary to purge to coolant system, ultimately to ensure that there was no air in the system, and that the process was roughly 20 minutes long. The technician notified me that the vehicle's coolant system failed the purge process after several attempts. I then explained to the customer the difficulty we were having and that the technician was looking into the cause. The customer then began to diagnose his vehicle via ****** I would imagine as he kept trying to explain to me what could be causing the failed purge process. I kept explaining to the customer that the technician would figure out the cause using the live data on the scan tool. The technician reported that the system was showing fault codes for the water pump being stuck off. The technician would clear the code, attempt the purge process again, and again the purge process would fail with DTC (trouble code) pointing to the water pump being stuck off. The technician made sure there was voltage to the water pump of which there was and then attempted to command the water pump on with the scan tool which was unsuccessful. I, in turn, explained the fault to the customer and proceeded to provide him a quote to replace the water pump, this now being roughly 4:45PM. The customer declined the water pump repair, paid for the original repair, and against the advise of our facility explaining that the vehicle would likely overheat, chose to leave with the vehicle explaining that he would take his chances and limp it home.

  The customer was seen going across the street to the gas station as we began to close the shop as our day ends at 5PM. The customer was at the gas station for approximately 5 minutes before returning to our facility explaining that the vehicle was indicating that it was overheating. The technician again plugged the scanner into the ***** port to see if any additional DTC's were set in the system, yet the only one that appeared was for the water pump being stuck off. At this time the customer chose to disclose that when he hit something in the road which started the coolant leak that he proceeded to drive the vehicle between ***** miles ignoring the fact that the vehicle was overheating and telling him to pull over. Had we known this information from the start we would have initially advised the customer to replace the water pump as it had been run dry for an extended period of time regardless of a fault not being present. The customer, while my technicians were still working on his vehicle to get a response from the water pump, handed me his phone asking me to speak to his girlfriend of which was not present during any of this and lives over 1.5 hours away. I accepted as he just asked that I clarify the concern for her to understand. Instead, the phone call was the customer's girlfriend pointing fingers and blaming the technicians for not diagnosing the vehicle properly of which I attempted to explain that there is nothing that can be tested within a system where there is such a significant leak and will not hold fluid. I was getting harassed over the for roughly 20 minutes by the customer's girlfriend while the customer who I was face to face with kept apologizing for his girlfriends behavior and acknowledged that our facility was not at fault as he understood how the coolant system operated. The customer chose to leave the vehicle at out facility and to have one of our personnel again take him home in which we agreed. During the entire car ride the customer was on the phone explaining to his girlfriend that we had done nothing wrong and diagnosed the vehicle in the correct order, that it was an unforeseen fault in the system that would go undetected until the leak was fixed. 

  On Monday morning at 8:21AM, February 24, 2025, I was unsure if the customer was at work so I text him the following "GOOD MORNING! WHAT IS THE PLAN FOR *OUR VEHICLE? *OU LEFT FRIDA* BEFORE I COULD FIGURE OUT WHAT *OU CHOSE TO DO." The customer's response was "can we find a cheaper part". I hadn't responded to the text message before he called our facility stating he had found a part at ********. I asked him for the part number and looked it up. While, yes, the part number he provided was a water pump it had 3 different styles. I cross referenced the part number that the customer provided to his vehicle's VIN number of which that part number did not show compatible and was not an option for me to chose from for purchase. I stated that I could try that part but if it were the incorrect part that he would still have to pay for the labor to have tried the part he wanted and that he would then have to pay the part and labor costs for the correct part to be installed. The customer did not want to endure that cost. I started that I could contact another company to try and find a remanufactured or used part and get back with him once I had an answer and the customer accepted. 

  On February 25, *********************************************************************************************************************************** used components and that it would have to be a new part. I took that information and relayed it to the customer who understood. I told him that the original estimate is the continued estimate going forward. The customer stated that he in fact wanted to get the vehicle fixed by us but needed to get him finances in order. He asked if he could leave the vehicle on our lot for a day or 2 while he figured that out and I agreed with no storage charges for those 2 days. Maybe ***************************************************************************** voice and the new estimate to be emailed to him so while he was still on the phone I emailed both copies to him. Shortly after he received the emails I had an email stating our facility had a new review. When I opened and read the review I noticed it was written by the customer's girlfriend who was never present or involved with the repairs but only had secondary information from the customer. The customer's girlfriend then proceeded to call our facility (recorded) stating untruthful accusations and threating me to include the statement that I can pull the ** amount of money out of my throat and that we would be seeing her in court. She then revised her review after some time had passed on the same day. After that she called our facility (recorded) and stated that she has spoken to our corporate office and was advised that the vehicle was to not leave our lot and that we could not charge storage fees. I found out 2 days later that her statement was untrue and that she had not physically spoken to anyone at our corporate office and had only left a voicemail on February 25, 2025. 

  I have spoken to our corporate office as the customer's girlfriend has also put a complaint in with them, and was advised to send an email to the customer providing at least three business days to have the vehicle removed off of our property or a storage fee of $50 per day would apply starting March 4, 2025 and that we reserved the right to have the vehicle removed from our property after March 11, 2025. The customer and the girlfriend have acknowledged the email with a not so nice response via email that was also forwarded to our corporate office. There has been no communication between our facility and the customer or the girlfriend verbally since February 25, 2025 and the last email that was received was technically to our corporate office on March 3, 2025.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 03/10/2025

  I am rejecting this response because: I deny and reject the responses from Ms. ********* accounts of the situation as untrue & inaccurate. I have attached several additional documents here, and have emailed others to the BBB that provide proof that Ms. ********* statements are baseless. 

  Discredit claim #1. Ms. ********* claims incorrectly I took the vehicle in morning of 2-18-25. I have a quote attached from AAMCO dated 2-18-25 time-stamped 11:01am for the amount of $1628.31. In addition said document will show that I gave my authorization on 2-18-25, time stamp showing a time of 12:34 pm. Indicating either the likelihood that my vehicle was taken in on 2-17-25, or AAMCO rushed looking over and diagnosing my vehicle in the first place.

   Discredit claim #2: Document has been provided to the BBB the night of 2-16-25 Hunter **** & Wrecker came out at 11:18 pm to help put a spare tire on the front passenger side. The service address was in *********. Afterwards, I drove the car to my girlfriends house.

  The following day on 2-17-25, I then drove the vehicle from ********* to ********** **. I took my vehicle to Xpress Tires. This was an additional 35 miles driven. I have provided documentation and receipt of this service. At time of the service there, not once did I mention concerns of my vehicle overheating. At this point, I had driven my vehicle for over 50 miles since the night prior when I had ran something over.

  Afterwards (still 2-17-25), I drove my car from ********* to *********** (another 37 miles was driven). By the time I got home to ************ my coolant light had come on. That is when I decided to take my vehicle to AAMCO in ********** (driving roughly another 10 miles). I have provided records that I drove my vehicle for over one hundreds since Hunter **** & Wrecker put the spare on.

  Still, upon taking my vehicle to AAMCO never was overheating of my vehicle a concern addressed when I received my original estimate. Overheating of my vehicle only became a concern and issue after AAMCO technicians worked on my vehicle. Their technicians had to ****** how to perform certain procedures. As Ms. ******** has openly acknowledged the incorrect part for my vehicle was ordered. They appeared a bit frustrated and lost in fixing my 2007 *** throughout the entire process.

  Discredit claim #3: Since AAMCO has so blatantly disclaimed and refused any accountability for the liability in their negligent workmanship. This has left me the burdern of substantial costs that were unknown to me when original estimates were provided. My fear is that AAMCO has caused far more damage than just the water pump. Water pump issue was only discovered at end of the business day on 2-21-25 when I drove my car for less than five minutes after paying my bill. 

  I had provided consent to my girlfriend, *******, to reach out and speak to AAMCO Headquarters on my behalf. Ms. ******** allegations of dishonesty that ******* had spoken to AAMCO Headquarters on 2/25/25 is not only wild, but completely inappropriate. Two call records have been provided to the BBB showing ******* had two phone calls with the same individual, totaling 15 mins on 2-25-25 (also recorded). This individual advised ******* that it went agaisnt AAMCO policy to charge storage fees during an active investigation.

  ******* again spoke to this individual on February 28th 2025. This person was going to get a hold of Charlenes supervior to intervene in this situation. He (supervisor) was supposed to call ******* on 2/28/25. We still have not heard from him. In fact, not one person from the **************************** has tried reaching out to myself, or has tried to even speak to ******* without interrupting her or being dismissive.

  Discredit claim #4: I had paid knowing of additional damages. This statement does not even make sense. I paid the bill under the impression my vehicle had been fixed. I would have never agreed to pay $1628.31 had I known eleswise. I wanted in good faith to give Ms. ******** the benefit of the doubt at first. Then I overheard her telling my girlfriend, *******, on 2-21-25 she had done me a big favor by saving me thousands of dollars. Very untrue. I started to realize that there were some very unethical business practices transpiring. 

  I deny other claims by Ms. ********* too. The bottom line is I drove my vehicle to multiple cities without it overheating prior to it being in the possession of AAMCO. Prior to be taken to AAMCO my vehicle had several services in various cities. No where at these places were there any reports noted for any concerns of my vehicle overheating or water pump issues. Fact: only after I paid the bill, and AAMCO technicians had worked on my vehicle did overheating problems start. Ms. ******** once again admitted techs kept trying to repeat a procedure of purging air out of the system. We are now consulting with ********* to find out how AAMCO techs damaged my vehicle during service. 

  I will be more than happy to provide any further documents needed. I believe the documents provided have shown that AAMCO has behaved in bad faith and has abandoned all of its sense of duty and responsibilities. I have now spent $1628.31 at AAMCO with no value returned for service. In fact, only poor service and a lack of courtesy is what I have received. This includes an email from Ms. ******** that was very unprofessional, it was typed all in CAPS making demands, or threatening to charge me more money.

  We will be hiring an attorney after the conclusion of BBBs investigation to collect the loss for damages that have occurred due to AAMCOs negligence that has now left me without my vehicle. Given AAMCOs unethical behavior and shown lack for its responsibility. We will not move the vehicle in the likely event that there has been more damage to my vehicle than has been recently discovered at the hands of AAMCO. 

  Thank you for taking the time to read my compliant and looking into this situation that has unfairly left me with much stress and hardships.