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| - I have only been shocked by amazing customer service at a repair shop one other time in my life, and that was in 1996. Usually when I deal with car repair issues the defenses go up and stay there.
The staff at Marshall's has done the impossible- change my mind and prove to me that even though a good shop usually has a full schedule and charges a good chunk of money just to open your hood, there are exceptions and occasionally someone commits a random act of generosity that makes your day.
How many people really walk away from a shop, after their new to them car has broken down and been towed, with a smile on their faces? It wasn't my car, it was a friend's, but it was so nice to deal with a business that told the truth, even when it didn't make a profit!
We were 35 miles away from home when my friends just over 100,000 mile car, that he'd bought less than a month ago, lost most of it's accelerating power while getting on the 101. We were fairly alarmed and got off the road to check it out. There was not anything that we could see causing the problem and neither of us wanted to be involved in one of those stories that start with- "The car was still moving so I drove it", and end with "if I had just had it towed I wouldn't be shelling out a couple thousand bucks to replace the entire transmission."
The car was towed there at about 3pm and the error code was pointing towards a really expensive tranny repair.
We were bummed, no ride available for at least a few hours, and who has extra money for a car problem, especially after just buying a vehicle?
They said they'd get it in and check some stuff out that afternoon, which was great. Even greater? The mechanic came back and told us that he couldn't find anything wrong- he had driven it to make sure. He had called the transmission shop that he uses when he can't diagnose a complicated problem, and the the error code was one that printed off 4 pages of things to rule out before it would be possible to guess what the actual problem was well enough to fix it.
They said that they would be more than happy to keep the car overnight, send it to the other shop for more diagnostics, and then to bring it back and fix it. Then- something rarely heard in a business that wants to make a profit. There was nothing going on that would prevent the car from making it home, and that it might be more convenient and a whole lot easier to take it back to Glendale and go to the transmission shop that he had been given the name of.
That was so cool, but even cooler to hear- No charge! The prices are clearly listed on the wall behind the counter, and it was $120 just to hook it up and read the code #. They had done that, driven it, called some people that knew more than they did, and then just passed on the info at absolutely no charge. I think we were out of there by 4:30.
I will be purchasing a car soon, and a good shop, with honest staff who don't have a problem consulting another business when it gets more complicated than they feel comfortable with, and who actually cares about the customers enough to just make sure the car isn't really broken is exactly what I want. Now that I know that one exists, I will make every reasonable effort to get my vehicles there for maintenance, scheduled repairs, and, with a decent AAA membership, unscheduled and highly stressful breakdowns.
I did not know that people still did business this way. They must be doing a lot of good repairs to be able to give completely honest advice that doesn't make them a cent.
There was a vehicle on every lift being fixed, so it wasn't a slow day. This didn't happen because they had nothing better to do. Apparently it's just the way they run the business.
Thanks guys! The car is home and the customer is very pleased.
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