There are a whole bunch of other truck and trailer shops that can do work cheaper and with far less shenanigans. I've used this repair shop a couple of times in the past and, while not cheap, their prices were okay. (Okay enough to not really propel me to find another place.) Boy, did I get unbelievably hosed this last (and I do mean last in every sense of the word) time. I brought my trailer in to have a broken breakaway controller replaced and asked them to look at the brakes. Apparently, the shoes were shot and required replacement parts from the trailer manufacturer. Long story short, Hammer charged me 3.5 hours to replace two electric brakes and some very minor work such as replacing the breakaway controller. I was told by the owner?s son, Brad Hammer, that the total amount for the work was going to be $550 including parts. Folks, replacing the brakes is a simple bolt-on procedure that, according to the book time of other trailer shops that I checked, shouldn?t take longer than a half hour per side, max. Since the trailer was at the shop, I decided to go ahead and have them do the work. I was not happy about the price and called Brad back to go over each line item. I even told him that I thought that the price was high.
To add insult to injury, when I arrived to pick up the trailer and pay the bill, Hammer tried to charge me an extra $85 (one hour of labor) to put the old brake parts back on to move the trailer out of the service bay since my parts were going to take a week to arrive from the manufacturer (which they were well aware of at the beginning). Never once was I told that I would be charged an additional $85 for the time it took to bolt on the hubs. When I asked Ken Hammer why I wasn?t told that I would be charged the extra hour, here are the excuses that I was given: 1) they had to make a living in this tough economic climate , 2) they didn?t have time to call me and 3) they didn?t think another $85 was that big of a deal to them for them to call me. *Unbelievable*. Um, it?s my money and, unless I?ve specifically told you that it?s okay to not worry about an extra $85, you should call me before making that assumption. Never once was an apology extended, I guess because they didn?t think that they did anything wrong by not fully disclosing to me what the actual charge to me would be.
When I asked owner Ken Hammer to waive this charge, he said he would not. It was only when I mentioned that all of my friends would leave negative feedback for him that he changed his mind. When I went back to the shop to get my refund, he was so unprofessional and so rude that I decided that I felt it was appropriate to warn other potential customers of Hammer?s business practices.
Times, indeed, must be tough for a shop to rip their customers off this badly. Never again will I go back. There are lots of other shops out there who will not rip you off. Please do yourself a favor and use them and not Hammer.
Pros: Not much
Cons: Dirty shop, unethical business practices, high prices
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