ThirdgenTa
05-23-2004, 05:34 PM
Here’s what happened: I decided to put long pipe headers on my car. After about 20 hours of working on them with a friend we couldn’t get the final few bolts in the passenger side header. I finally got really frustrated because I couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t lining up properly. An acquaintance worked at Dude’s, and said his shop could take care of this for a minimal amount of money. (I’m a full time student with a part time job.
I had the car towed to Dude’s. They called later and said they needed to redo the starter wires because they were hitting the header. It would be about an hour’s labor charge. I said fine. (Their labor rate is $78 per hour.) They called back the next day and said they needed to install new shorty spark plugs because the ones that I had installed were too close to the header.
That day, they called back again and said they now needed to put new spark plug wires in, because it needed angled boots. They said it would be about 2 hours worth of labor for the wires. I said “no” because I can do them myself. I finally asked what my total was at and they had to call me back. They called back and said it was at $597.00!!! I found out that my car was able to start and drive home, so that’s what I did. When I get home, I open the hood and see this wiring job!
My intent for the car is to make it a show car. This wiring job will not do. I could not believe it was hacked like this. I call and tell Dude’s I’m not happy with the work. I ran into a problem getting there so my mom calls and talks to Scott the manager, and he says they “will do whatever it takes to fix it”. And they will make it their “top priority” when I bring it in.
On May 20th, I take the car back and go to work. My mom calls in the late afternoon, and they haven’t even looked at it. Scott assures her that they will look at it right away. Scott calls back, and says they way they want to solve the problem is to cover the wires with a split wire loom. This does not get rid of the poor, cheap wiring job they did. It just hides the problem. She tells them that it will not be acceptable, and he wants to talk to me. I call from work and he tells me that I approved the work. His employee says that he told me that to do it “right” it would cost me about $300 and I said no. That I requested it be patched together! Now who in their right mind would request this to be done to their car?
To solve the problem now, all I wanted was for them to run a wire from the battery to the starter, but they said that it will cost them too much money to do it and if I wanted it done right, then I would have to pay them around $300.00 to fix it. So much for doing “whatever it takes”.
Mom calls Scott, trying to make arrangements to get the car back home while I’m at work. She tells Scott that the conversation with his employee never took place because she was here when they called. She also reminded him of his promise to “do whatever it takes” to fix the problem. Did he really want his shops name on this work. He says no, they are not proud of it. But he would have to pay someone for a ½ day of work to fix it! Says they would have to take the headers off, motor mounts out, etc.! Mom points out the car already had the motor mount bolts off when the car came in and they called about the wire, why wasn’t it done correctly then? Bottom line, I would not take my car back to them under any circumstances.
First, in my opinion, this is very sloppy work.
Second, they promised to make it top priority. Never happened. They promised to “do whatever it takes to fix it”. They didn’t. I asked what happens if there’s an electrical problem, (we will never be able to trace it with this patch job), they said they guarantee there work.
Well, we’ve been lied to 3 times, why would I believe them again! All they did was hack some wires up and splice another one in there. It looks terrible and the way they did it was terrible. They told me it took them 2 hours to do the wiring. First of all, it doesn’t take anyone that long to do what they did. Basically I asked the manager why it was so expensive. They broke it down and with parts, labor and the tow bill it came to about $300. They couldn’t even account for the other $300 they charged me.
Also, between the employees and the managers, they were all pointing fingers at each other for the work that was done. VERY unprofessional for a shop to do. When I got the car back, they made up a receipt for what they charged me. They just kind of made up all of what they did so that it came out to the amount of money I was charged. I mean, when I brought the car in the headers were already installed, sensors relocated and everything. All they did was ding the header so that the back of the passenger side header would fit (reason for me bringing it in), cut and splice a new wire going to the starter and install spark plugs.
They originally quoted me $250 for a full header install. Where do they come up with what they charged me? All I asked was for them to put one solid wire going from the battery to the starter, like they should have done in the first place and they don’t think doing it correctly for me is worth their time and money. In my opinion, it doesn’t seem that they think salvaging their reputation is worth it either.
Here are some pics of their work.
http://img36.photobucket.com/albums/v110/ThirdenTa/P1040190.jpg
http://img36.photobucket.com/albums/v110/ThirdenTa/P1040189.jpg
http://img36.photobucket.com/albums/v110/ThirdenTa/P1040188.jpg
I had the car towed to Dude’s. They called later and said they needed to redo the starter wires because they were hitting the header. It would be about an hour’s labor charge. I said fine. (Their labor rate is $78 per hour.) They called back the next day and said they needed to install new shorty spark plugs because the ones that I had installed were too close to the header.
That day, they called back again and said they now needed to put new spark plug wires in, because it needed angled boots. They said it would be about 2 hours worth of labor for the wires. I said “no” because I can do them myself. I finally asked what my total was at and they had to call me back. They called back and said it was at $597.00!!! I found out that my car was able to start and drive home, so that’s what I did. When I get home, I open the hood and see this wiring job!
My intent for the car is to make it a show car. This wiring job will not do. I could not believe it was hacked like this. I call and tell Dude’s I’m not happy with the work. I ran into a problem getting there so my mom calls and talks to Scott the manager, and he says they “will do whatever it takes to fix it”. And they will make it their “top priority” when I bring it in.
On May 20th, I take the car back and go to work. My mom calls in the late afternoon, and they haven’t even looked at it. Scott assures her that they will look at it right away. Scott calls back, and says they way they want to solve the problem is to cover the wires with a split wire loom. This does not get rid of the poor, cheap wiring job they did. It just hides the problem. She tells them that it will not be acceptable, and he wants to talk to me. I call from work and he tells me that I approved the work. His employee says that he told me that to do it “right” it would cost me about $300 and I said no. That I requested it be patched together! Now who in their right mind would request this to be done to their car?
To solve the problem now, all I wanted was for them to run a wire from the battery to the starter, but they said that it will cost them too much money to do it and if I wanted it done right, then I would have to pay them around $300.00 to fix it. So much for doing “whatever it takes”.
Mom calls Scott, trying to make arrangements to get the car back home while I’m at work. She tells Scott that the conversation with his employee never took place because she was here when they called. She also reminded him of his promise to “do whatever it takes” to fix the problem. Did he really want his shops name on this work. He says no, they are not proud of it. But he would have to pay someone for a ½ day of work to fix it! Says they would have to take the headers off, motor mounts out, etc.! Mom points out the car already had the motor mount bolts off when the car came in and they called about the wire, why wasn’t it done correctly then? Bottom line, I would not take my car back to them under any circumstances.
First, in my opinion, this is very sloppy work.
Second, they promised to make it top priority. Never happened. They promised to “do whatever it takes to fix it”. They didn’t. I asked what happens if there’s an electrical problem, (we will never be able to trace it with this patch job), they said they guarantee there work.
Well, we’ve been lied to 3 times, why would I believe them again! All they did was hack some wires up and splice another one in there. It looks terrible and the way they did it was terrible. They told me it took them 2 hours to do the wiring. First of all, it doesn’t take anyone that long to do what they did. Basically I asked the manager why it was so expensive. They broke it down and with parts, labor and the tow bill it came to about $300. They couldn’t even account for the other $300 they charged me.
Also, between the employees and the managers, they were all pointing fingers at each other for the work that was done. VERY unprofessional for a shop to do. When I got the car back, they made up a receipt for what they charged me. They just kind of made up all of what they did so that it came out to the amount of money I was charged. I mean, when I brought the car in the headers were already installed, sensors relocated and everything. All they did was ding the header so that the back of the passenger side header would fit (reason for me bringing it in), cut and splice a new wire going to the starter and install spark plugs.
They originally quoted me $250 for a full header install. Where do they come up with what they charged me? All I asked was for them to put one solid wire going from the battery to the starter, like they should have done in the first place and they don’t think doing it correctly for me is worth their time and money. In my opinion, it doesn’t seem that they think salvaging their reputation is worth it either.
Here are some pics of their work.
http://img36.photobucket.com/albums/v110/ThirdenTa/P1040190.jpg
http://img36.photobucket.com/albums/v110/ThirdenTa/P1040189.jpg
http://img36.photobucket.com/albums/v110/ThirdenTa/P1040188.jpg