This place is very close to my house, so after some completely unexpected flooding in the area and some water damage, I needed some repair work on my car (didn't have comprehensive insurance on my car) I took it here. The owner had been very friendly before and unlocked my car for me when I had closed the door and was cleaning my windshield on a frigid winter morning, and the car decided to lock itself (not once but twice) so I wanted to give him my business, and went in to tell him I wanted him to work on my car.
This was in September of 2008.
I am writing this review (because they finally called to say the car is good to go) on Friday, December 12th.
I waited over 3 weeks just to hear something about my car. Finally calling them to get information, they just told me they "almost had it." Another three weeks pass, and by this point it's late October, and they've almost got it running, they just need a little more time with it. 2nd week of November(ish) comes and I call to see where they're at -- keep in mind, I have a scooter and no job, so i'm not in the largest hurry to incur an extra expenditure -- and they tell me "oh yeah thanks for calling, we've been meaning to call you. you should stop by, we need to talk about a few things." (note that they never actually called me.)
So I stop by -- turns out they've finally pinpointed all the problems. They want to know how much I'm willing to spend on it, because it could be expensive. Well, jobless, with no income and not much money in the bank I have no way to purchase a new vehicle but I need a vehicle for job interviews and things like that, so I have little choice but to fix it. The estimate he gives me: "It will be between $500 and $2000."
Yeah, I know. That's what I thought too.
Okay, give me about a week he says. A week later he says they've having a lot of trouble, they have to order some more parts for it. Then he forgets about Thanksgiving, so that delays parts delivery by (apparently) 4 days. He says it will be about $1,000 Another week goes by.
December 5th he says they had to order just a few more parts but he's 100% sure that's all they need. It will be a week more at most.
December 12th he calls me (for the fist time) to tell me it's ready to go. He gives me a few details about what's gone wrong, what they've had to do, and tells me the final price. $1,941. I ask him if I can somehow pay over the course of two maybe three months because that's a lot of money. He says, "Um, no."
$1,941
Now, I know that Yelp is a forum for reviews, not for bitching and moaning. But honestly -- 3 months of them holding my car, calling me exactly ONCE on the day it was due, forcing me to call them constantly to get information. My car clearly being on the back burner for all that time, finally they get to it in the last three weeks they had it. Quote me a huge range in their estimate, give me no break on price even though they clearly didn't care about my car and my needs for two and a half months, and then not give me any leeway on paying for it over the course of two months because I was unemployed for 5 months and have almost no money.
This is the way you treat your customers? This is how you expect to conduct business? I'm just floored by this entire situation.
HORRIBLE customer service, clearly inefficient and slow work, and no care at all as to the needs of their customers. I understand the idea that "that's how car repair joints work" but it doesn't mean I can't still be upset when they're like this. I can still be upset when, say, Lindsay Lohan goes back to rehab! I mean c'mon, I'm rooting for her to do well! I want there to be good in this world!
And if there is any good in this world, it sure as heck isn't at Platinum Motorsport.
