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| - I had a half-day off from a busy business schedule and this auto shop was available to see me on the spot - I was looking for rear rotor resurfacing as there were smudgy contaminants on the rear rotors only (front rotors were spotless). Here are the pluses and (mostly) minuses of my experience:
Pluses:
1) Available when I called and checked me in right away
2) Was explained the potential causes for my concern and recommended actions. Was told rear rotors were contaminated by too much grease applied which spilled on the rotors. Was also shown front pads were 3&4mm thick and was recommended replacement - which made sense. Was told rear pads (8mm thick) should be replaced - which I agreed to, although they could have just been thoroughly cleaned.
3) Initial friendly contact/experience with Paul @ reception
4) The rotors were resurfaced and contact surfaces with the pads are now clear
Minuses:
1) Was told front rotors should be resurfaced along with rears, although they were perfectly OK, but I agreed thinking I might as well do everything at once and get done for a while. All rotors were all very thick so no problem to resurface all
2) Was provided a quote of 900CAD for 4 rotor resurfacing and brake pad replacement all around, which (everybody who has a clue about how much such a job would cost) should consider very high (double if not more than market average). However, as this was my half-day on which I could get this done, I accepted out of convenience
3) Once the job was done and I left the shop/reached my residence, I noticed all rotors had rusty grooves all around the interior side towards the hub, which were not there before on any of the rotors. I emailed them back with pictures and was invited to come back next morning to address my concerns. This is where the "customer service fun" begins - both Paul and the mechanic were adamant that having rust on a brand-new machined rotor is absolutely normal and they didn't seem to care about an (irate already) customer who expressed total dislike towards the appearance of the rotors, and just requested that rusty groove to be cleaned up properly. By the way, I was charged shop supplies for rotor cleaning on the invoice. I explained that even Costco cleans up your rotors of debris and rust when you do tire replacements as value-add for their customers - let alone my expectation for a clean and freshly-looking rotor appearance after spending CAD900 on an overpriced rotor resurface and pad replacement job, where parts were CAD100 max....unbelievable lack of support for the customer and arrogance in saying all the time "it's your opinion that rotors look rusty". I even showed pictures of my rotors from Nov-2017 when I swapped my summer wheels to winter wheels, which did not have the rusty grooves I clearly pointed to. No concern at all shown for customer's wasted time in revisiting the shop and no desire to make what's right and ethical for the customer.
I came in to Mark's Auto with high expectations of finding a trustworthy local auto shop which could be alternative to dealerships. What I found was overpriced services, and complete lack of interest/ethics for customer's concerns once the card was swiped... hope this will help readers think twice
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