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| - I had high hopes for this establishment as it's close to the house and my first interaction was very positive (my son had his vehicle aligned at Stamps Auto at Higley/Williams Field along with a routine oil change; the alignment was well done and reasonably priced, no problems with the oil change).
When my own vehicle started experiencing a loud, squeaking sound from (what I guessed to be) the serpentine belt I called Stamps Auto in the early AM. After explaining the problem and that (ideally) I needed the vehicle back by the early afternoon for a work obligation they advised me - to their credit - to bring the vehicle right over, which I gladly did.
Within the hour they called me back and confirmed my suspicion(s), their diagnosis was that the belt as well as the belt tensioner (not an uncommon or major repair or strangely unrelated combined issue) were in need of replacement. I authorized the repair which was completed in a timely manner and for a reasonable price; I was able to meet my work obligation.
Several days later I noticed a slight squeak from the belt again, this occurred primarily on start-up. I had my brother, who is a decent mechanic on his own, look at the car and he commented that the belt looked old and had some glazing on it. I brought the car back to Stamps and they agreed, yes, the belt has some glazing on it which could be due to - they guessed - a breaking in period. They took a steel brush to the belt and off I went again. Several weeks later, the squeak returned again, back I go to Stamps. After dropping the car off, they call back and - in what gave me high hopes - advised me that they were going to install a new belt and tensioner (at no cost, everything was still under warranty) to eliminate the possibility of having received old and/or faulty parts (remember this for later) from their parts distributor.
A week or so later the weather is consistently hot with the air conditioner utilized regularly, and the squeaking is back with a vengeance - it is now noisy all the time, at start-up, at idle, etc. Back again I go to Stamps and drop the car off, several hours later I'm invited back to the establishment to discuss the situation. The problem, I'm told, is related to the alternator and for a quick $XXX (I'll leave it blank, let's just say it's in the mid-upper 3 figures) they will fix it right then and there. Not comfortable with this, I don't authorize the repair and retrieve my vehicle. I then do what I should have done from the beginning, I had my son-in-law - who is absolute ace mechanic, but is also busy 98% of the time - look at the vehicle. He comes up with a rather stunning diagnosis - the reason the belt is still squeaking is that the replacement tensioner isn't even the right part while the belt - despite being bottom-rung quality - is adequate. Not only were both parts no-brand aftermarket (not unusual, but greatly inferior to what the factory would use for replacement/repair) but the tensioner was a complete and visually obvious mis-match, i.e this was not a simple oversight or unintentional error, this was professional corner cutting directly related to additional created/fantasy work to pad someone's pockets. He said that the belt was literally just flopping around and that to do this job right you have to remove the motor mount which they did not do; he expressed some professional disgust/reverse admiration how they were able to do the job in the first place (which, in actuality if you think about it, they didn't).
So, my problems are the following - cheap, incorrect parts were used, a completely wrong diagnosis/repair to pad their pockets which still not repaired the problem (unless they were thinking of fixing the tensioner correctly while they were in there replacing the alternator...right), and/or an unwillingness to simply do the right thing which - I have to believe - as professionals they very well knew what was going on. Had they utilized factory parts when I came back for the replacement (the third visit) and told me, 'Look, we'll eat it on the labor if you buy the Nissan parts', I would have gladly done so, instead, they committed the following serious errors common to so many service-oriented business -
Short-term victory at the expense of long-term defeat - Do the repair on the cheap, hope it holds and when it doesn't maybe the customer won't come back due to time constraints and/or they'll just deal with it, the business comes out ahead for this one transaction. As is common with today's informed customer, he finds out that a business tries to pull multiple fast ones on him and that the proposed solution each and every time was done soley to benefit the business at the expense of the customer. The business has now lost a potential long-term customer and who knows how much potential revenue; in a small town this MO is business suicide, in a large metropolitan area this can go on for a while, but not forever.
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