When I walked into Gateway Transmissions, we talked about taking apart and fully rebuilding the transmission for about $1350. My budget was about 2 thousand dollars and they said they could work with me. I brought my car in and they called me back the next day to the shop to show me the parts that were not good.
They showed me the corrosion on the gears and told me they were not good. But, when I did a quick search online, it said on a scale of 10 that an 8 or 9 was still good to use. I felt that a lot of things did not need to be replaced; and the sales sheet had a lot of things that they "felt" needed to be done and upgraded on my vehicle, even though I had come in only for the transmission.
For the things we needed, the total was about $3400; it was unreal! Because of my situation, I had them bring the price down to $2700. The price was within reason, but I know I could have saved a few more dollars some place else. The only thing that really frustrated me was the up-sale. They were telling me about so many things I did not need and taking advantage of me just because they might have thought I did not know or had no internet to look things up!
Another thing is, it would have been cheaper to find the parts online, but with them they were almost twice the price. You would anticipate a 20 or 30% markup, but with them it was 100%! They also tried pushing the breaks issue to my wife in order to have her be scared about its safety. They wanted to put in new breaks for $300, but I just bought them online instead and did it myself.
Overall, it was very difficult to understand their reasoning why I needed so many new parts. They knew my situation and how I needed them to work with me. Instead, they wanted me to finance the parts I did not need because "it was good to upgrade." All in all, I was already stuck with a payday loan. I understand these things cost money, but they were unwilling to work with me; I was really disappointed.
Word of advice, when a business tries to up-sale you and take advantage of you, people are going to be upset. When I declined the other parts that "needed" to be done, they took a whatever attitude with me. The main reason I went to them was their highly rated reviews on their website; it sold me, but they did not work for my best interest.
RESPONSE FROM Car Care Clinic at Gateway Transmissions:
Thank you for your review. We value any chance we get to improve our operation, and we appreciate you sharing your point of view and giving us the chance to address some of your concerns.
It is our standard procedure on repairs of this magnitude to provide our customer with multiple options of repair, as we did with your vehicle. Our goal is not to push one option over the other, but to give you multiple good options and the knowledge needed to allow you to make the best decision for what suits your needs. We do not offer any option that we would not be happy to complete on your vehicle. Most of our customers feel that having multiple paths to repair provided to them serves their best interest.
Another part of our responsibility to the customer is alerting them to any safety concerns. In this case, we alerted you of your front brakes being completely worn down, and offered to replace them for a fair price. In this case you opted to replace them yourself, predictably saving money. We are happy that we were able to alert you to the unsafe condition in time to allow you to address it.
There are many sources of vehicle parts, some cheaper than others. The only parts that we use in our shop are parts that are of a high quality where we would feel confident not only trusting them to get you everywhere you need to go, but continue with great performance for years to come. While these parts may be more expensive than the ones you can find online, we have been very successful at keeping our prices competitive.
We are deeply sorry that you felt uncomfortable with our approach to your repair options, and would be thankful for another opportunity to serve you. Let us know if there is anything we can help you with, and enjoy your Jeep!
more