This is a story of greed and deception. We will refer to the owner as greed and the service writer as deception. After a Google search I contacted these guys after seeing a perfect five star rating.
Now even Google may look at this rating as suspicious, nevertheless I called them.
We purchased a 2013 Cadillac XTS several months earlier that was blowing hot air on the driver side and cold air on the passenger side. Sometime thereafter the passenger side was no longer cooling.
When I contacted these guys I was greeted by a very soft spoken gentleman I explained these conditions. I was told the inspection charge would be $95.00.
I brought the car in the following evening. The next morning the service writer told me and actuator was bad and quoted me over $500 hundred dollars for repairs. I asked him did the air compressor check out ok. He told me they had not gotten that far. I asked him why you would check out a minor system over a major component. This is when the deception began.
I told them that I would pick up the car and pay the $95.00 fee. The inspection fee went from $95.00 to $150.00. They sent me pictures to show me what work they did. (see pictures) I told them I did not care just have my car ready. This is when the owner got on the line in an attempt to coerce me to do the work.
This is when I started to record each conversation and discovered they had added to the ticket a $70 dollar synthetic oil change unbeknownst to me and the owner began his sales pitch on why it was so urgent to do so. I relented and told them I would go ahead and do the work but he would paying for the oil change for my aggravation. The cost was nearly $475.00 dollars.
[According to the Mitchell Guide and Repair pal the average cost for a Cadillac XTS HVAC blend door actuator replacement is between $410 and $454. Labor costs are estimated between $167 and $211 while parts are priced at $243. Estimate does not include taxes and fees.]
The lies just kept coming. I asked him how many actuators are on the car for heating and cooling. I was told by the owner there were nine. The fact is there are only two.
The car is garaged most of the time. We have taken it out three times since repairs and each time we notice the tachometer is not functioning properly as it had previously. I thought about returning to complain about the issue but on the day we picked up the car the owner out of the blue begin to denigrate the local Cadillac dealer in Gwinnett County.
Now I’ve been around long enough that when someone begins to slam the competition they are trying to plant the seed of doubt. Do you remember the story of the Frog and the Scorpion? Old parts not returned.