Shoddy/poor workmanship & substandard work.
My family and I was on a trip from Minnesota to St.louis MO and ran into car trouble. My car had a bad alternator that forced us to stop in Iowa. The nearest shop at the time was Brakes Plus in Hiawatha that was recommended by the AutoZone we stopped at. I took the car to Brakes Plus and they were able to get us in right away and they said it would take about 3hrs. Which is in line with the labor quote i got from the Toyota dealership for an alternator job (2.9hrs) for a Toyota Sequoia. When they finished and they handed the vehicle back to me I drove it to the gas station next to the shop to give it a look over before continuing our trip. I know my way around cars and have worked at shops fixing vehicles as well as my own so i did my usual inspections around where the repair was performed and I found that the tech who worked on my vehicle FORGOT a nut to the power steering pump. I immediately took the car back and spoke with the manager Antoine. My car was brought back and the bolt was supposedly put back on. At the time, Antoine told me that the tech had forgotten the nut in the tool he used. Antoine took me back to look it over and there was now a nut on where it was missing before. As i looked around with Antoine's flashlight, I noticed wet spots on the undercarriage/skid plate. I pointed it out to Antoine and he went down and felt around it and he said it was nothing but old oil stain. I should have pushed the issue harder and have Antoine remove the skid plate to verify the leak because my car was NOT leaking anything before we started the trip but against my better judgement I took the word of the MANAGER and we left to continue our trip. About 300 miles later around our destination my transmission light started flashing intermittently. When we got to the hotel we checked in and when we came back to unload our belongings there was a pool of fluid under the car. Upon inspection, it was transmission fluid. At this point I ended up having to contact a mobile mechanic since my car was not drivable at this point. The mobile mechanic found that the transmission line from the radiator was kinked in a downward position and was breaking off. He said this was most likely caused by something (like the alternator hitting it when it's being removed or installed.) I ended up having to replace the radiator to the tune of about $650 for parts and labor for a mistake made by Brake Plus. In the process of replacing the radiator the mobile mechanic also found the missing nut to the power steering pump. It was sitting next to the pump itself. Antoine and his staff had lied and put on a random nut they had laying in the shop in the place of the missing nut. I contacted Antoine once i got back to Minnesota and told him what had happened and so far they haven't taken any responsibility of this. I explained what the mobile mechanic found with the missing nut and his reasoning was that it looked like a rusted nut so it must of been from my car. I've submitted invoices and receipts for the parts I had to buy to fix the radiator that Antoine requested and I still have not heard anything. Not even an email or a call to confirm that the information was received and it's being worked on. Brake Plus charged me a little over $1000 in parts and labor to replace the alternator and this is the type of work they did. Extremely disappointed. Will be contacting corporate office for more resolution. I can't speak of other Brake Plus but stay clear of this one. The lack of care put into double checking their work and taking accountability for their mistake is enough to stay away.
