Frustrated by Car Repairs?
By: Nicole | May 02, 2008 | Category: General
A coworker stopped me in the hall last week and said, “Girl,
I was afraid I wasn’t going to make it to that conference yesterday.” Even
though she’d just paid for tire rotation, tire balancing and wheel alignment at
her local repair shop, her entire car began to shake violently while cruising on a major highway. She was 50 miles from home, so she used her cell phone to find the nearest dealer
repair shop. There, she learned that the original tire and wheel maintenance had not been
performed. $800 later the car was back on the road, but it was an unnecessary
reminder that a good mechanic is hard to find.
Unfortunately, there’s no easy solution when searching for a mechanic. The FTC and the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) publish brochures with tips about finding a good repair shop. Both agree that word of mouth is still the best way to find a trustworthy mechanic, but sometimes that’s not enough.
There are other ways to research mechanics. Look for the ASE
Certified Technician seal
awarded to individual technicians who pass standardized tests. You can even search
online
for repair shops that have earned the ASE Blue Seal, which requires that at
least 75% of the repair shop’s mechanics have an ASE certification. The
Motorist Assurance Program is a nonprofit that also gives its seal of approval to
qualified repair shops.
In addition, there are consumer review services where you can read the real life experience of other customers. The radio program Car Talk offers this service for free. Consumers' Checkbook and Angie’s List offer ratings and consumer reviews for a fee (but the money might be well worth the peace of mind!).
Needless to say, my friend won’t be taking her car back to that local repair shop. She could file a complaint with her local consumer protection office. I’ll write more about that in a future post. For now, do you have a repair shop experience you’d like to share?
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