Meineke Complaint

Meineke - Charged me two thousand dollars and didn''t repair my car

I took my car to Meineke on 8-21-08 because my car had problems shifting. I talked to Jeff Cross and he told me that my transmission needed to be rebuilt. He told me that it would take four days to repair. One week later he calls me and told me that my car was ready. On 8-29-08 I went to Meineke to pick up my car. I was charged 2,157.07 for the transmission rebuilt. I paid them with a credit card. I asked Jeff Cross how it ran and he told me that it ran great. I jumped into my car and drove away. The car shifted a little rough, but I thought that it would go away after a day or two. On 9-5-08 I took my car back to Meineke and I told Jeff that my car was still shifting rough and that the problem was never fixed. He took my car for a test drive and told me that it shifted fine, but it was a rough shift. Jeff reassured me that it would go away in a couple of weeks. Jeff told me to give it a couple more weeks and if it didn't go away he would hook my car up to some test equipment and try to see what the problem is. On 10-07-08 I was driving my car and the gear light started to flash and my car felt like it was slowing down. I thought that my car was loosing gear that it was in. I pulled my car over and I turned off my car. I then restarted my car and the light stopped flashing, but a malfunction light came on. I drove my car straight to Meineke and told them that I needed someone to look at it. Troy was working and he told me that he couldn't work on it until Tuesday. I told him that I needed it fixed right away. so I asked him when Jeff Cross worked next. Troy told me that Jeff doesn't work for Meineke anymore. I then drove my straight to Brakes Plus and they told me that the problem was the transmission. I have documents on what Brakes Plus found the problem to be. On 10-06-08 I called Meineke headquarters and filed a complaint with them. I was told to take my paper work from Brakes Plus and show that to the guys at Meineke. I told headquarters that a mechanic was going to look at my car on 10-07-08 and I asked if the owner would be there to talk to me. The lady on the phone said that the owner would be there. On 10-07-08 I took my car back to Meineke and Troy looked at my car. I drove with Troy and it shifted rough twice and I asked Troy if he felt that. Troy didn't answer me, so we got done driving and he told me that it shifted fine. I said how can it shift fine when it did it twice. I showed him the malfunction light and he looked up the code which came to a 'shift indicator light' and he opened the hood and I pointed out the problem. He told me that he would talk to the owner and that the owner would get back to me. I then went home and called headquarters and I told them that someone told methat the owner would be at the shop, but he wasn't. I asked if they could call him, so that we could resolve this. She said that she is not going to force an owner to go to the shop and resolve this. On 10-09-08 I called headquarters, but my call was forward to voice mail. I didn't leave a message. On 10-10-08 I called headquarters and I told the guy my story and I was transferred to Margaret Cochran. She didn't pick up the phone, so I left a message. On 10-13-08 I file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I was then contacted by Margaret Cochran. she told me that when I sent her my documents that I had she would get this resolved. I was then contacted by the owner and he said that he would fix this for me right away. I then got a phone call from an Ed Pearson. He told me to pick up my car from Meineke because they fired everyone that worked there including the owner and that they were going to shut down for a couple of weeks and then reopen under a corporate store. I called Margaret and she told me that when the store reopens in two weeks they would fix my car. On 11-17-08 I called Margaret and I asked when the store was going to open. She told me to take my car to Best Western Transmission because they were going to fix it for me. A couple days later they called me back and tole me that my transmission needed to be rebuilt because it was never done right the first time. He sent Margaret an invoice on what it would cost to repair it. she told me thean to drive my car to BM Transmission because they were going to fix it. I told her that I wasn't going to drive all around Colorado to get this fixed. On 11-24-08 I took my car to BM transmission and they told me that they originally worked on the car because they were sub-contacted by Meineke. Ben at BM transmissions told me that the ring and pinion was the problem. Ben told me that when he called Jeff Cross and showed him the problem. Jeff told him not to replace that problem, but to rebuild everything else. Ben then sent an invoice to Margaret and told her what it would cost to get it repaired. On 12-12-08 I called Margaret I asked her what was going on with my car and she told me that it wasn't Meineke's problem and that it was the owners problem. I said well, you fired the owner. she told me to call him and take up with him. I told her no because that was her problem to deal with. she then told me that she wasn't going to do anything more for me. she gave me the owners phone number and when I called him the phone line was disconnected. so I then called her supervisor and the CEO of Meineke and nobody got back to me on this issue. I still have a car that doesn't run well and I paid for a service that wasn't done.

Phone numbers of everyone that I talked to:

Ed Pearson (Franchise Development Specialist)- 303-808-4155
Margaret Cochran(Customer Relations Manager)- 704-644-8169
Tom Kirby(Supervisor of Customer Relations)- 704-644-8185
Keenan(President of Meineke)- 704-644-8154 calling him tomorrow
Ken Walker(CEO of Meineke and Driven Brands)- 704-377-8855 left messages

Filed Complaints with:

Better Business Bureau
Federal Trade Commission

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