I want to start this by making a few things clear. I very rarely leave negative reviews on business profiles, because I understand how impactful negative reviews can be, especially on small businesses. I was thrilled to patronize this female backed, and led business made to support women, and make women feel comfortable in having repairs made on their vehicles.
I have never had such a bad experience with a shop in my life. It is not overstating things to say that the negligence, and absolute disregard my partner and I experienced, truly derailed our life for several months, and unfortunately it continues to.
My partner took our car to Girls Auto, because there was a noticeable noise coming from the engine, and the engine light had come on two days before our appointment. We were originally told that the problem was a sensor that had gone bad. I was confused how a sensor would cause that kind of physical effect in terms of the car shaking, and a clear knocking coming from the engine. Either way, I'm an attorney and not a mechanic, so I trusted that obviously they must know something I don't, and $600 later our car was "fixed." We had also paid for an inspection, that we were told we'd have to come back to the shop to get our inspection stickers.
The next day, while driving to visit family, the check engine light came back on, and while driving down a very busy road, our car went into "limp mode," which essentially means that the car will only go about ten miles an hour. Before we could even get off the road to safety, the car completely died mid turn through an intersection to get off the road.
When we called Girls Auto, they told us, the sensor they had replaced must be faulty. Once again this sounded odd to me, so we had our car's onboard computer scanned for trouble codes to let the technicians at Girls Auto know what was going on to see if it was safe to drive. We told them, and we were told to bring our car back, because it must be a faulty sensor. When we returned to the shop, we were told it was in fact a faulty sensor, and they had replaced it, all fixed up, but we would still need to drive for a bit and then return for the inspection stickers we still didn't have. We were assured there were no other issues, despite the same noises being present.
Two days later, the check engine light came on again as we were driving, but this time when the car died it made an awful sound, and never came back on. We called Girls Auto and were told by the owner and the "head mechanic" that the altitude we were driving at, must have affected the sensor and caused the problem. At this point the car needed to be towed to a shop. Despite having AAA, we discovered we would have to pay out of pocket for the tow, because we didn't have our inspection stickers. When we had it towed to a mechanic, we were told that the timing chain had broken loose and damaged the engine so badly, we would need a brand new engine.
When I described every repair from Girls Auto, every symptom we had experienced with the car, and everything we had been told, we were told by two different mechanics, that no reasonably experienced mechanic would assume it was a sensor.
They couldn't believe we were told there was no problem multiple times, or that the altitude would cause any problem like this. We paid nearly $8k to have a new motor installed, which had to be sent to GM in Michigan. This took a little more than 3 months, and throughout this entire time, I continued to reach out to Girls Auto for help. In my last conversation with Patrice, I was told if they had done something to cause the continued issues, they would "take care of it." For three months, I continued to call and ask for anyone that could at least speak to me about my experience. For three months we continued to be ignored.
After finally getting back our vehicle, we reached out to Girls Auto to at least get the inspection stickers WE ALREADY PAID FOR, we got back a one line email, telling us we could call the "head mechanic." When I reached out to the mechanic I was told he had no idea what I was talking about, and when I began to question him about the issues we had and the significant costs we incurred as a result, he seemed to remember things that were helpful to Girls Auto an oddly selective memory, despite being able to identify exactly which car we had and the "sensor" problem he "fixed."
He told us to come by anytime and pick up the inspection stickers. Yesterday my partner drove to Girls Auto to get these stickers, and she was told that while there were technicians in the shop, none of them could give us the stickers or an inspection, we'd have to return another day.
We've been ignored for 5 months, and have spent thousands of dollars to fix issues that all started when we made the mistake of trusting Girls Auto. read more