Hello Everyone!

I own a 1989 Honda Civic LX sedan. It's in amazing condition and only has 52,000 miles on it. Here's the story....took the car to Pep Boys last Friday for an oil change and apparently someone leaned on the air duct and cracked my radiator. Well, they claim no responsiblity and are basically screwing us over completely. They just keep telling us the car is 16 years old and that's all they can come up with. This car is in impeccable condition and we've never had a problem with anything - no leaks, nothing breaking, etc... Funny how the coolant starting leaking the exact day I got the oil change.

So, my question for all of you - any advice on what we should do regarding this incident with Pep Boys? We are so disgusted they would break something (and even admit it is conceivable they did the damage) and then blow us off and say there's nothing they can do.

Also, where do you suggest we find a new radiator??

Lastly, have you heard of many cases where a radiator on this particular car would just out of the blue get a 4-5 inch crack in it on it's own??

 

wow. thats rough. but they should be responsible. go in and talk to them, and when they wont cooperate, ask to see that persons supervisor. if that person wont help, ask to speak with THEIR supervisor. just keep moving up through the ranks, and always ask for the persons name who you are talking to, and write them all down, right in front of them. if no one at that store will help you, then take all of those names and send emails to everyone you can get ahold of from their website, explaining what happened. if no one will answer within a day or two, send another letter, certified mail, to the corporate headquarters, saying that if it is not resolved, you will be taking them to small claims court. this may seem like a lot of trouble for a hundred dollar radiator, but its the fact that they are trying to get one over on you. its not right when big businesses try to screw over their customers. also mention in the letter that you have relayed the story of what happened on online car forums, and thousands of people see them everyday, and how you have a hard time seeing how that could be good for business, whereas an update on those forums saying that the upper management was very helpful might be GOOD for business. thats what i would do, though ill admit most of it is out of rightful indignation, im very stubborn when it comes to problems with customer service.

 

MUHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! The power of the small non corperate ********! [sm=icon_rock.gif]

 

i would simply go in and ask for a corporate number..it shows that youre serious..i worked for a corporate run garage for a while..and thats how people got results with us...but then again..i didnt break things on peoples cars...

 

get a lawyer

 

The store manager will basically tell you the same thing the little douches did. Talk to him, and ask him for the regional manager's contact information. That would be where things get done.

 

id say send out some death threats! no but just call the corp number and complain to them and they will surley help you in some way

 

Thanks for all of your great advice! I decided to go ahead and give the local Pep Boys store one more chance. They never let me speak to a manager when I was there on Friday, so I went ahead and called the store and asked to speak to a manager. I explained the whole situation to the manager and told her how poorly I was treated by the service guy. She explained to me this was a common occurrance with the particular guy I had dealt with and apparently (for reasons other than my situation) this guy was actually fired yesterday. I just spoke with her 10 minutes ago and she has already sent a towing company out to get the car and they are going to take care of this probably as soon as possible at their expense. Yeah!!!!!! Amazing what a 5 minute phone call can accomplish - I was in the store for 3 hours on Friday and they basically just told me whatever they could to get me out of the store....

Thanks again for all your advice! Hopefully this will all get taken care of quickly and maybe we will even go back to Pep Boys now that I know that guy isn't working there anymore.

 

sweet. and im glad that guy got fired. customer service is going extinct. people need to realize that customers pay their rent.

 

Am3n.

Glad you got that crap straight. I think I should have given VIP a chance to play rock-paper-scissors-sucker punch to the throat with me...I took my Cavvie in to get some work done on it, 4 visits and $2000 later...the Cavvie's still dead.