ComplaintsforMeineke Car Care Center

• Initial Complaint

  07/11/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Vehicle was taken in for a oil change. They came back with found issues that were not there. I usually get my car serviced at Christian Brothers but this one time I took it to them. The car was barely driven and one day within the two weeks of getting car back from them my car fell apart while driving it on the street. My niece who is a authorized insured driver for the vehicle was driving it at the time when he fell apart. Meineke had it all back to their location and gave me a bill of 2000+ dollars needed in repairs. I informed them that I had already had my car serviced a month before bringing it to them for a while change a Christian Brothers and no issues were found. There were no previous signs of wear and tear from the Christian's brothers that I usually take my car to on file. Or needing to have repairs done eventually by them. I told them that the car had been tampered with and I was insulted and yelled at by a gentleman named Joey. The car dealership had the car towed to Christian Brothers closest from to that location where the car was sitting at Meinicke. And they found tampering with the vehicle. One of the Meinicke employees told one of the Christian brothers employees that they had a balancing issue with the device in that they use to make repairs with. But did not go into details and became very short with him once they found out who he was. We have been trying to contact the owner of state location but they have been giving us the runaround staying at the owner has been on vacation for two weeks and to call back in two weeks.

  Business response

  08/31/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2022/07/26) */ Summary: The customer's alternator failed 1300 miles after our shop changed the customer's oil and they believe that our technician "tampered" with the car to create this issue. Sorry for the long read, however, the details are important. There is also a full video available in the next paragraph of the oil change being done, start to finish, which illustrates that no "tampering" was done. On June 1st the Nissan Juke was brought into our shop for an oil change and tire rotation. It was the first time that the vehicle has been to this shop. The mileage was 85,803. During the oil change a vehicle inspection was done and nothing was noted that needed immediate attention. Due to the mileage, the typical maintenance items due were recommended if they had not already been done. A copy of the inspection can be found here https://motorist.autovitals.com/l/NEKWai. A surveillance video of the actual oil change being done is available, however, it may not post on this website due to the file size. It can be requested at *****************@outlook.com. On June 15th we received a call from a family member of the Juke asking if we could recommend a towing company as the car had broken down a few miles from our shop. We offered the # of our partnered towing service which is at no charge to our customers and the car was towed in the following morning. As the driver needed a vehicle for her daily activities, we arranged one of our complimentary loaner cars to use while we scheduled her car in for us to take a look at. We were able to look at the car later on June 16th. The mileage was 87,114 which is 1311 miles since the oil change a few weeks back. What we found was that the alternator pulley had come off and was laying on top of the engine and the serpentine belt that drives it was laying under the car but still connected to the harmonic balancer pulley at the bottom of the engine. There were several feet of the belt on the ground along with some leaking engine oil. The alternator and belt obviously needed to be replaced. The harmonic balancer was also damaged, the oil seal behind it was leaking and the large bolt holding it on was loose and likely damaged. The inspection report can be seen here https://motorist.autovitals.com/l/NEKT9n. If the link does not work the photos are posted separately on this site. Without taking the engine apart, we assumed that the belt, while on the ground, was run over by the passenger **** front wheel, which momentarily stopped the rotation of the balancer, shearing the crankshaft keyway and spooled the bolt loose likely damaging the bolt and balancer. We put together an estimate for repairs and sent it to the driver the same day. She contacted us the following day (June 17th) and shared with us that they felt that we had damaged their car when we changed the oil, they no longer trusted us and they were going to take the car to another shop. She also stated that they planned to sue us for the damages. We then asked her to return the loaner car and have her car towed out as soon as possible. Several days later we were called and told that they found out that they had an extended warranty on the car so we could go ahead and contact the extended warranty company to complete all of the repairs needed. At this point, due to the feelings of no trust and lawsuit, we elected to decline the work and recommended that they find an alternate shop.

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