My 2002 Dale Earnhardt Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS has had me concerned of late as we're about to cross the fairly lofty 150,000 mile threshold together. That's my now 20 year old son and The Dale on the day I brought it home back in 2010. Coolant had been dripping from behind the engine on the passenger side and it was not coming from the water pump. The leak had been get steadily worse to the point where I was going through about a bottle of coolant every two weeks. Not good. My research pointed towards something onerous - a leaking intake manifold which, incidentally, I had replaced professionally about a year ago. I finally said "uncle" yesterday and dropped my car off at the shop that did the manifold work. I also had them check on why my check engine light was stuck on, why my A/C won't blow cold and inspect the front end to check on a slight vibration I've been feeling.
Turns out the problem was a leaking elbow on the intake manifold and the shop said they'd cover the repair under warranty. Score. They also told me that my A/C condenser needed to be replaced, I needed wheel bearings, an O2 sensor and a purge valve by my gas tank, which is part of the exhaust gas recirculation system (EGR). They gave me a write up for repairs just shy of $1,500 to make my 16 year old car with "just" 150,000 on it as good as new. Or as good as it can be. I thanked them for their time, instructed them to do the warranty work, change my oil, rotate my tires and call me when it was ready. I told them I'd take care of the O2 sensor, purge valve and bearings. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the A/C. I haven't had A/C in the car for over two years now and with living in northern Ohio, A/C is not all that important. I could tell, though, that the shop manger was not happy with me.
Armed with a coupon for $25 off any service and anticipating a bill of maybe $75, imagine my shock when they gave me a bill yesterday afternoon totally nearly $200 when I went to pick up my car. For what, right? Well, turns out they wanted to charge me for every single diagnosis they made. You can only imagine how upset I became especially since they did not disclose to me that they would be charging me for each diagnosis. My understanding was that they'd bill me their customary $49.95 diagnostic fee. Silly me.
I know they're not fans of customers like me since I literally use them to do the very difficult work of diagnosing problems. Repair work is fairly straight forward, figuring out what's wrong, especially if it's something that can't be diagnosed on a scanner, is the hard part. 9 times out of 10 I drop my vehicles off and ask them to diagnose what's wrong, they tell me and I do the repairs myself. Yes. I'm that guy. While it's time consuming for me to make my own repairs I've saved thousands of dollars over the years doing so and it's the main reason I've been able to keep my aging 2002 Chevrolet on the road.
I've had a fair amount of trouble with this car in the seven years I've had it but I don't really feel as though it's been that much of a bother since I've done so many of the repairs myself. With an old car, perspective is important. Two kids in college will also force you to not make snap, emotional decisions like ditching an old car for a new one just because "something went wrong". Again. Perspective.
The problem with automobile service centers is the nature of the work they do and the way they pay their employees. Is it fair for someone like me to drop of their car and have a number of diagnosis' made for one fee? I think it's absolutely fair meanwhile the shop thinks I'm an ogre. Again, perspective. Apparently at that shop they pay their employees by the job; it's what's called a "flat rate" and the techs are paid a fee based on the rate of the repair. Absurd. Why anyone would work under such pretenses is beyond me but who am I to judge? Folks do need to work, though, and I respect that but that flat rate might be one of the reasons I never see the same techs working in that place each and every time I go there. Which, candidly, is not that often.
The bottom line is you need to protect yourself when you call a repair shop asking them to diagnosis problems with your vehicle. Ask them how much the diagnosis or multiple diagnosis' are going to cost and don't assume that one fee will cover everything - shops are a business and they will do what it takes to get more money out of you. I did not ask what the fees would be and since they did not disclose to me what the charges would be I assumed they'd charge me the $49.95 they also did. They also did not tell to me that they'd recently doubled the cost of diagnosing. Wow, really? Really. Fool me once shame on me. I felt their methods of billing underhanded and I will never go back there.
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