Aamco Price Gouging

I have a girlfriend that was in the Air Force for 20 years and she is retired and disabled. She is no bigger than a minute but she is a real firecracker. We had gone to see a parade in a town that was 25 miles away and after we got back she dropped me off and went home.

That night her son had gone to the local quickie mart and the car broke down in the parking lot. She said that the transmission just went out. We had no clue that this would happen because it drove just fine during the 50 miles drive we went on the day before. The next day she took the car to Aamco and was waiting to hear back from them.

I received a call back from her and she was in tears. Aamco had told her they that she needed a new transmission and they could give her a re-build for $2,100. But he said that there might be more charges because there could be something additional wrong with other parts that are connected to the transmission when they opened it up.

Well, surprise, surprise, there was more damage. He called back saying that there was additional damage to other parts and now the bill would be $2,700. He then asked her for her mother's maiden name to authorize the repair. She was in shock so she automatically gave it to him.

That was the green light for him to take it apart. My friend told me all this only after she had given this guy the official go ahead to do the work. I told her that I had never heard of this before.... giving your mother's maiden name as authorization to make a repair. Maybe your social security number but not your mother's maiden name. Perhaps this is a way of giving you identity theft protection when doing business over the phone, but I have never heard of this before.

I then told her about my friend Tony, and he is a mechanic that always tells the truth about cars. He is even a certified Ford mechanic and she has a Ford Focus. So we did a 3-way conference call and he told her that once they took the car apart that it would be too late. They would charge her to put it back together anyway and that was not going to be cheap.

Tony said that he would have done the whole job including the extra work needed for about $1,700. He also agreed to call and talk to the guy for her. Well the man was not to be reasoned with and was real nasty to Tony. Tony apologized to her becaue he couldn't get him to come down on the price and encouraged her to call next time she had a problem.

She didn't know what to do... she thought she was going to have to just not pay her mortgage and pay for the car instead. But her mother loaned her the money and now she owes her mother who is on a fixed income. My friend is disabled and needed the car to get around and she was in an impossible situation. She thought finally paid the amount of $2,743.

Now here is the kicker... actually I have 2 kickers. First kicker is that she took her car to an Aamco that was right outside of the Air Force Base and was given NO military discount. She asked him if she could get a discount or a lower price and he said no. The second kicker is, she was told by yet another mechanic that she could have gotten a new transmission for a total of almost $1,000 less than what the guy at Aamco charged her.

Aamco never gave her the option of a new transmission, and this is really deceptive because he chose to only give her the most expensive option available. I don't know if this is common practice with this company but BUYER BEWARE.

I have encouraged her to call Tony see if he thinks she should report this business for price gouging. Remember folks, franchised repair shops rip you off. And ladies, get a second opinion. You wouldn't take the first doctor's opinion if you needed a new heart would you? Happy Trails and have a safe summer in your car.