Giving this a two star review for at least being capable and getting to me quickly, however not…read moresatisfied with the service proposed, the fix proposed, or the service.
So listen I live in Stouffville and while I eat and live here, I usually go to Markham to get my car serviced. I had an Air Conditioning issue and called these guys up late morning, and were able to fit me in the afternoon while some of the local shops were taking bookings for the following week. So that's where the majority of the stars come for this rating.
I bring the car in, the mechanics, including Mario himself spend maybe 1 or 2 minutes looking at it and say "listen, you're going to need a new AC compressor" which, if you're not familiar, is the default answer most AC mechanics give if refilling the refrigerant is not going to fix the problem.
No issues so far, replacing the compressor would fix a number of issues if they existed, but the things that irked me the most were as follows:
Mario, was only concerned at first with not fixing my problem, but getting my proper name, mailing address and vehicle details so he can put together an invoice. He got all the info and called around and got two quotes for an AC compressor for my vehicle.
He quoted me ~$1000 and ability to do it within the next hour. I ask, how much for the Compressor? He says ~$600. I was on RockAuto on my phone and found a new one for ~$230 with used OEM ones around $300.
The next thing is, that these compressors are typically serviceable with kits you can replace the bearings, coils, and clutch with a kit that costs $100 or less includes new botls and rings, and easy to work with without having to go through the trouble of pumping out the line, removing compressor and refilling it. He didn't even want to consider that seeing as I'd assume he made a financial decision that it was better use of his staff's time to do a complete replacement vs. servicing the existing parts.
Third thing, he quoted me all of that without actually checking for leaks of refrigerant or running any sort of tests with the compressor or bearing. He just immediately defaulted to new compressor.
The fourth thing, and I respect he did this though I don't agree is while checking he pulled all of my refrigerant out of the vehicle as part of his test, and while he couldn't put it back (because the bearing was seized) he kept it and charged me for 1 hour of labour at over $100. I understand you have to pay for expertise but basically I paid that to have all my refrigerant sucked out without any direction afterwards.
I picked up a replacement kit for bearing, coil and clutch and popped it on and AC works perfectly. I did have to pay $100 to "recharge" the system at a different shop but I will say this, I won't be taking any vehicles here in the future.
Shame as I wanted to keep business locally.
