Morgan Hill Review

Sorry I haven’t been around much, but I’ve been living through a bit of a nightmare thanks to Mike at Bill’s Custom Transmission over on Joleen here in Morgan Hill.  Here’s the story…

Last month my daughter Z and I took a long weekend trip to Southern California to finish up my California CoasterQuest.  Upon our return to the Bay Area we headed over to Santa Cruz to enjoy the surf and take our annual Old Tyme Photo.  As we pulled off the freeway we heard a very loud KER-THUNK come from Rover (our beloved and ever-faithful 1989 Ford Bronco).  Everything seemed fine until we headed home when Rover refused to shift into fourth gear.  AAARRRGGGHHH!!!  Clearly the transmission was dead or dying.  Unfortunately, I had just spent something like 80% of that month’s paycheck on our trip, so I was going to have to wait until mid-August to have it looked at.

After putting about 200 more miles on it I finally got paid and headed to Bills Custom Transmission to find out how much the repair was going to set me back.  Long story short, he held my car for six days, cost me $300, and I’m now in the exact same position I was a week ago except that I’m going to have to put even more miles on the transmission while I wait for yet another paycheck to start the process all over again at another shop.  How could this have happened?  Read on…

I actually communicated with Mike at NBill’s Custom transmission a total of seven times as follows-

1. Tuesday 08/19 11:30am – Drove into shop (asked for diagnosis)
2. Tuesday 08/19 3:45 pm – Mike called me
3. Thursday 08/21 4:50pm – I called Mike
4. Friday 08/22 8:30am – Walked to shop (asked for car back)
5. Monday 08/25 1:15pm – Mike called me
6. Monday 08/25 2:00pm – Walked to shop (called Morgan Hill Police Department)
7. Monday 08/25 3:30pm – Walked to shop

Every time I spoke to him I got a different story.  Sometimes I even received multiple stories in the same conversation.  I’m not going to repeat every conversation, but here’s some highlights (superscripts refer to the communication numbers in the list above)-

• Jumping straight to tearing it apart and looking inside probably won’t save time or money¹
• The free diagnostic showed nothing – we’ll have to tear it apart.  Will take a couple of days to get your diagnosis and cost $525²
• We just got the transmission out and haven’t had a chance to open it up yet³
• We’ve only had the truck one day³
• We pulled the transmission this morning and haven’t had a chance to open it up yet⁴ (at which point I’m already fed up with delays and ask him to put it back)
• We’ve only had the truck since Thursday⁴
• We can’t put it back in until Monday⁴
• It’s back in you can come pick it up.  Will still cost you $525⁵
• We pulled it out Wednesday night – I remember because I smashed up my truck that night⁶
• We pulled it out Thursday at lunch⁶
• We put it back in Friday⁶
• We pulled it out Friday night⁶
• We pulled it out Friday morning⁶
• It took 6 or 7 hours just to take it out and put it back in⁶
• I still have to pay my mechanic $110/ hour⁶

Do you notice all of the inconsistencies?  The guy not only can’t keep straight when he pulled out or put in my transmission, but also doesn’t even know when I brought it in.  One would think the latter would be a simple matter of looking at the paperwork, but he never filled out any paperwork or had me sign any kind of work order.

He also never did the inspection, despite having the truck for 6 days, and still wanted me to pay the full $525 for an inspection despite the fact that he didn’t do one and couldn’t tell me anything about my transmission.  His justification for the bill was that he still had to pay his mechanic $110 per hour for 6 or 7 hours work.  His math skills are clearly no better than his time-keeping skills as that would make the bill $660 to $770 dollars plus the time to do the actual inspection – all of which he was going to charge me only $525.

In other words, this guy makes everything up as he goes, changing stories to fit his mood with no regard for his customers or even reality.

As mentioned above, I called the Morgan Hill Police Department to come down and help me out with the situation.  Not only was the officer useless, but he was also clueless.  When asked if there was a requirement that a mechanic get a signed work order before doing any work, he claimed ignorance of the law despite the large sign in the shop lobby stating that very fact.  When asked if I would be within my rights to simply drive the car away he simply dodged the question.  Even when pressed on whether he’d arrest me for driving away right that moment he refused to answer. At least they’re consistent – in the dozen times I’ve actually called the police in my life not once have they actually been of any use – but that’s a rant for another day.

I ended up having to pay a $300 ransom to get my keys back because driving away without paying just seemed like too sleazy a thing to do.  The morals of the story – never deal with Bill’s Custom Transmission,  always go to a AAA approved shop, get a time estimate as well as a cost estimate in writing before approving any work, the police are useless. Negotiating Rover’s release through the Bureau of Automotive Repair would have taken weeks and there’s no promise I would have avoided paying the ransom despite the fact I never signed a work order.

The good news – I’ve found a GOOD and HONEST mechanic much closer to home that will do the work for 2/3 of what Bill’s Custom Transmission was going to charge me and in a matter of a couple of days.  Of course, since I was ripped off for $300 it will now have to wait until next payday.  ::sigh::

Tags: 1989 ford bronco, Automotive, Bill's Custom Transmission, CoasterQuest, KER-THUNK, Morgan Hill, Morgan Hill Police, police, repair, transmission

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