*** warning estimate may very. No attempt to contact *** *Response to Greg: to be clear I am upset that there were zero attempt to notify that an error was made on the estimate, and that the cost was going to be nearly 30% more. I called another mechanic and got at quote for $1200 for both axels. Hopefully you learned to contact your customers and inform them of any changes you're making, especially when you have them sign something. I have a 1985 Mercedes-Benz 300D with a broken axel. I took my car over to Pete's. They emailed me an estimate,and I had to sign before they would start working on the car. When I came in to pick up the car, I was charged nearly 20% more than I was quoted. When I asked about the discrepancy I was politely told that there was a mistake on the estimate and that someone should have called me to revise the quote. No one had called me or emailed me. Then I was told that actually the new price was a real deal and that really I was not getting charged for an additional two hours and filling up the fluids. At that point, I asked what was the point of the contract if they weren't going to update me or honor it. The woman said she understands and would honor the estimate that I was sent. A week later the manager left me a message to let me know that he was upset with me and accused me of not wanting to pay them for the work they did and said I was not welcomed at the garage anymore. Wasn't planning to go back to a garage where the Manager can mess up an estimate then won't notify me of changes. Good luck. I choose to ignore reviews I saw here talking about this exact thing.
To be crystal clear we honored the original estimate. We did quote the job incorrectly. The car is 41 yrs old and there were different types of axle attachments. This job took several hours longer to complete and we communicated this the customer and asked if we could meet in the middle. The customer said no and we honored the original estimate. One might say next time we'll know. We see this repair once every 5 years on these cars if we're lucky. In the case the customer got a deal, he paid about $500 less than the repair should have been quoted for. Afterwards we chose to due his lack of understanding to not work on his car in the future. This is what I believe he is upset about. Not the quality of the work or the price he paid. Old cars are not money makers and this why most shops even if they have the expertise, don't want to work on them anymore. I love the idea of keeping the old cars on the road and out of junkyards, but in the next chapter of the shop we will be working on fewer of them due to issues like these. We can't fix cars at a loss or for no profit.
- Pete's, Inc.