I normally don't write rebuttals because I feel my customers perceptions are always right and we strive to put our best foot forward. First of all, I want to apologize to Risa T. for her perception of how we do business here at AAMCO and for obviously letting her down. That being said, I would also like to correct a few misconceptions. Risa brought her Sentra into our center on 12/14/2010 because she stated it "lugs and slips hard on acceleration, was worse when warm and the service engine light came on". There was no mention about a code. (We have customers who have friends give them a code but because our scanner is tuned to a high degree for transmissions, we always prefer to run our own diagnostics before recommending repairs). Our scanner did diagnose a P1550 TCC solenoid (Torgue Converter Clutch) code and a P0400 code EGR (emissions). We cleared the codes and the P1550 came back again immediately. The car would not accelerate beyond 25 mph and ran poorly. Our recommendation was to perform an extended computer diagnosis beyond our 1 hour free inspection. We always try to find a less expensive repair before recommending a complete rebuild if at all possible. In the event a repair does not fix the problem, or an extended diagnostic confirms the vehicle needs a complete rebuild, we then credit the repair bill against the cost of a rebuild costing the customer nothing for this service. Risa declined any and all repairs and indicated she would pick the car up as soon as possible. We left the car in one of our bays for more than two weeks. At this point we began calling her frequently and leaving messages that it was urgent she pick up her car as we needed the lift space. I was present when she came by on a Saturday and the car would not start. I left the vehicle in the bay another week and then we told her it simply had to come out of our shop. Risa indicated she would pick it up after hours and to please park it outside which we did. After it sat for another 3 weeks with repeated calls to her to pick it up, we did have someone break the windows in two cars over the weekend. We called Risa the next morning and left another message. Her parents came by a week later to assess the vehicle and said if need be the would tow her car home. We said please, it needs to be moved. Her parents came back later that day and towed the Sentra. Again, I apologize for this unfortunate incident but our customers are usually more responsive with the second most valuable asset they own, Our employees are highly trained, polite and responsive to our customers. We run a high integrity business and work hard to uphold our businesses image with the public. If Risa had taken the same responsibilities, this incident would have been avoided entirely.
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