crappy day

[HiImBrian]

Well my alternator died on friday 13th and I finally had a day off work to go get it fixed. I would have loved to do this on my own considering it's really not that hard, but I wanted to enjoy my one day off work and just pay $50 bucks or so to have it done. Well I had it towed around 10am from my buddies house where I left it and I got to precision tune around 10:30ish. Luckily my buddy had some nice long boards in his garage so I could get my car on the flatbed w/o killing the intercooler and bumper. Anyways, I have a lifetime warranty on the alternator but I lost the receipt. So I was going to just take it to red rooster where we got it and hope they could replace it. So after waiting for precision tune to get the alternator out I finally drove to get the new alternator. Turns out I have to wait 2 hours because they don't stock em. That was my fault for not calling ahead. So after driving around for a while I finally go back and pick up the new alternator. I was lucky enough to get a free replacement. I go back to precision tune and wait like a few more hours till they close at 6 and finally get my car back. I was very hesitant to take my car to a shop like this. I normally go to db, lse, or map. Well I had asked them to let me know when they were done so I could reload my tune before they started it. Well they didn't let me know and all of a sudden I hear them trying to start my car. So hopefully nothing is messed up because of that. I loaded the tune asap when I got in my car. At the end of the day they charged me $188 to replace the alternator. I am pissed. Then to make things worse, as I'm driving home I notice theres a huge bump in my floor from something pushing up under my car. Like they jacked it up in the wrong place or something. So I've got to go fix that tomorrow and look over everything and make sure it was done right. wow I'm pissed and I don't think I'm ever going to a non performance shop again. OK rant over.

[HiImBrian]

And besides being screwed over from the shop nobody will buy my computer and I don't understand why?! IT"S A GOOD COMPUTER AND I'M LIKE GIVING IT AWAY!

[Jakey]

Originally Posted by Mr.98GSX

Well I had asked them to let me know when they were done so I could reload my tune before they started it. Well they didn't let me know and all of a sudden I hear them trying to start my car. So hopefully nothing is messed up because of that. I loaded the tune asap when I got in my car.

I sure hope that you spoke with the manager about this before your car left their property.

[DBMajik]

Dude, next time you want an alternator changed... Give me a call, I'll do it for $10. Free if you got beer haha.

[HiImBrian]

Originally Posted by Jakey

I sure hope that you spoke with the manager about this before your car left their property.

Shit he's the one I told in the first place. He's also the one that did most of the work. And also the one that didn't let me know. My dad just loves this shop and they usually do great work and are really great to work with. Just not a shop for modified cars I guess. I took a chance thinking it's just an alternator. Guess I was wrong and I need to just accept the fact that I got screwed.

[HiImBrian]

Originally Posted by DBMajik

Dude, next time you want an alternator changed... Give me a call, I'll do it for $10. Free if you got beer haha.

I'll take you up on this. But since I'm not 21, how bout I just pay you cash to go buy beer and we share haha

[tpunx99GSX]

The last time i took my car to a shop, i broke a bolt that is one of the ones that hold the tranny to the engine, the only reason i took it there is because the week prior i pulled and put back in my tranny 4 times (yes, in one week.) I ended up paying 500 bucks just to get the bolt tapped out. they said (which was complete bullshit) they needed to take the transmission out to do it. Then after i got it back they put only 1.5 quarts of trans fluid in. (and who knows what they used. even though i told them REDLINE ONLY)
I got raped but what can ya do.

[HiImBrian]

Yea it totally sucks when you just have to bend over and take it up the butt lol. When I first got my dsm the alignment was pretty off cus the guy just threw springs on it and didn't mess with camber kits. I met a guy at uni that drives a burple gst with more stickers than I've ever seen before. I was quoted $1000 plus to do an allignment at firestone and he said hed do it as a side job. I ended up paying $500 for them to put shocks and camber kits on my car. They said they had to cut the front endlinks to do it too which beets the hell outa me why. O well. We should have an "I got ripped off" thread lol

[HiImBrian]

I went in to talk to them today about my car and the manager wasn't there (he was the one that did the work). I talked with another guy briefly and noticed they broke the pin that detects if the hood is open or closed for my alarm. They must have pulled on the mbc as well because that was not tight in the zip tie like i have always had it. The mbc was partially melted leaning against my exhaust mani. The guy also got down to look at the bottom of the car where the big indent was and his words were "hmm looks cracked to me. There's a little rust too, this has been there for a while." haha I'm like nope there's no rust and it just happend. Basically I didn't wanna argue with a guy that doesn't matter. I'll go back today and talk with the manager. Not sure what I want accomplished, but I figured he should know about my frusteration.

-indent in the floor
-broken pin for the alarm
-partially melted mbc (i wont blame them for this)
-ghetto rigged a bracket on my t-bolt to hold some wires

[TheBlizzard]

I just can't believe you didn't have 20 spare minutes to change it yourself. You would have saved yourself a lot of trouble.

[Onefast99gsx]

you got dsmlink? I'm assuming they disconnected the battery before replacing the alternator. If you got dsmlink, that would have put everything back to stock dsmlink settings in the chip. Just starting it up with stock dsmlink tune settings would not harm anything.

But ya, it doesn't get much easier than changing an alternator. A couple bolts (1 of them long) and a couple wires. And doing the belt too of course.

[b00stcreep21]

I would never bring any car I own to a shop like that ever again. They hire any joe schmo off the street that claims they know how to work on a car and do an oil change. I havn't let anyone touch any of my car's in almost 4 years now. The only places I would bring my shit to get worked on would be somewhere that I PERSONALLY know the people workin on my car. I know this isn't possible for most people, but I thank god it is for me

[Swifty1638]

And me working on it at goodyear is outta the question...why?

-A. Swift

[HiImBrian]

Cus I forgot you worked there swift. Damnit. I know I shouldn't have taken it anywhere and I definitely paid for it. Honestly, I know I could have done it pretty easily, but I just didn't want to hastel with it. It was hot as tits out and idk I just wanted to enjoy the day off. Guess that didn't happen.

As far as starting the car w/o the settings loaded, that could have messed stuff up. I was running rich as hell which is never a good thing (not horrible either). But how do they know I didn't have a built motor? That could have messed stuff up for sure!

In the end I'm an idiot and I know now not to go back there. The only reason I did is because me and my dad know the manager (guy that did the work) pretty well and he's a great guy to work with.

[HiImBrian]

Just left precision tune and I talked with Jeff, the manager about the work done and my dissatisfaction and I am completely appalled. I was treated like a 12 year old kid and all he really did was rip on my car. He said "I don't care if this car is ever in the shop again," and "Everything is so hooky," "I hate working on these kinda cars." He denied breaking the hood pin sensor but never told me it was broke, he said they didn't dent the floor because they never used a jack (which I wondered how they might have done it anyways), he said his little bracket he rigged up on the t-bolt clamp was mandatory. Basically I went and tried to have a mature talk about some things and I was treated horribly. This was right up there with the top worst customer experiences I've had. I know for a fact my car or any car from my house will never be back in that shop again. He just lost some good business.