Empower Yourself

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Let’s say you go out to eat at your favorite restaurant. You order your food and when it comes out it’s not good food. There is something seriously wrong with it. Do you speak to the cook who prepared your food? Of course not. You probably don’t even speak to a waiter, they just bring it out. You speak to someone in charge—the manager or the owner or someone who can help you rectify the situation.

Now let’s put you in a similar situation—you order take-out. You open the food when you get home. It’s the wrong order. Do you wait 4 weeks to tell the restaurant and then ask for your money back plus a free meal? LOL no.

I’m getting to my point, I promise.

Today a customer called the shop to tell us about a faulty job. He claims we didn’t put a filter on his truck after we changed his oil, but the kicker here is that he didn’t call us about this until FOUR WEEKS later. He says that he told one our mechanics the day after he took the car home—an old friend of his and he subsequently had the car diagnosed by two mobile mechanics. Our mechanic admits he did not tell us about a conversation with the customer and that he also told the customer to bring the truck back so we could take a look, but the customer never did and didn’t contact us about his situation until today, Monday, December 21, 2020—Sonny and I had no idea anything was wrong. When an automobile leaves our shop and doesn’t come back within a reasonable amount of time, the job is complete and to the satisfaction of the customer.

On the rare occasion when there has been an issue with a customer car, the customer contacts us within 24 hours 100% of the time—either by phone or email. We stand by our work and will help a customer who contacts us within a reasonable amount of time, but a month is unreasonable at best.

Any number of things could have happened to this customer’s truck between when we changed the oil on Monday, November 23, 2020 and today December 21, 2020. Had he called us that day and left a message if it was after 5PM or contacted us the next day, we would have addressed it, but too much time has passed to know we were negligent. He says he’s only driven his truck 30 miles since. Thirty miles or 3, because it is is now 4 weeks later, we can’t know what happened or if anything we did caused it.

Based on what I heard during our conversation, this customer wants us to fix his car and give him a rental plus compensation as recourse, but again, how do we know what’s going on with his car has anything to do with us? It’s been a month.

I do understand this customer is upset because, from what I gathered during our conversation today, he can’t drive his truck and doesn’t have funds for transportation. I know I get frustrated when something goes wrong with my car, too. However, if the truck is so important, why didn’t he call us directly? Ask to speak to a manager or me, the owner? Or after not hearing back from our mechanic/his friend, why did he wait a month to call a manager and owner? It just doesn’t make sense. Something as important as transportation doesn’t wait 30 days to be addressed.

I hope that in the three years I’ve owned this business and Sonny has managed it, that we’ve proven ourselves to be good business owners. Our reviews would certainly seem to validate us. Our goal has always been customer empowerment. We want you to walk out of here understanding your repair. You also have a responsibility to empower yourself, you have rights as a consumer, but you need to communicate in a timely manner. We are not in the business of reading minds. If there is ever an issue with any work we’ve done, bring it in immediately and if you can’t, call us to tell us what’s going on. We will do our best to get to a fair resolution. Don’t wait a month to ask for help.

Our First Special Project

/ Almost Auto Service/

We recently took on our first special project — a Ford F-150 rebuild for Dayton, who just turned 16.

Dayton picked out one of the many F-150s we have sitting in the back waiting to be worked on and put back on the road. The one he picked out also happened to be the most challenging one. His selection? The 2007 Ford F-150 Lariat 4x4. 

Prior to its arrival at AAS, this truck had a small engine fire, which burned up the wiring harness and computer and other important components. Dayton saw this truck in our lot and saw the potential immediately. We talked about raising the truck 2.5" with 20" black after-market wheels and tires. 

After Dayton and Sonny discussed Dayton’s vision for the truck as well as the deadline, now it was up to AAS to get it done.

We used a wiring harness, computer, and other important components from a donor F-150 Lariat we had sitting in our lot. We also noticed the engine in Dayton’s truck was seized up. This was an unexpected expense. Within a day, a brand new crate motor was ordered and delivered to the shop. The engine and all the other parts were installed and assembled on the truck in good working order. The engine ran smoothly and now it was time to install the lift kit, install the remaining body parts, and test drive.

We test drove the truck until we were confident that Dayton was getting a safe, reliable truck. We called in Jeff the Detailer to clean the truck and make it look brand new. Once all the finishing touches were done, Sonny scheduled a time with Dayton to come pick up his truck. AAS is extremely proud of this project and the way it turned out. Special thanks to everyone who put time and effort into this project. Thank you, Viet, Duc, Carlton, Mike and Sonny!

To see Dayton’s reaction watch the video:

Sunday Session: Car Check

/ A.A.S./

Buying a used car is not always as easy as it seems.

Are you getting a good deal?

Are you buying a safe, reliable car or are you buying a lemon?

We know not everyone knows about cars. Who do you trust?

Bring your car to us. We offer Car Check - a total diagnostic check to ensure you're buying a good, safe, solid used car. For $25 we'll run a total diagnostic check. We'll test drive the car for you as well as check all warning lights, the car's computer, brakes and braking system, fluids, oil leaks, suspension, tires, and overall condition.

Give us a call at (404) 508-9654 to schedule your Car Check.

Sunday Session: Engine Cooling System

/ AAS - Almost Auto Service/

As I mentioned last week, Sonny and I are creating a video every Sunday where we'll cover a specific automotive topic. Last week it was the air conditioning. This week it's the cooling system. Next week? Who knows! Maybe oil if we don't change our minds from now until next Sunday. 

These videos are done in one take; so if we mess up, oh well! We're trying to stick to one take. Mostly because neither of us has time to sit down and learn how to create nicer videos, but also it's kinda fun to see how it turns out. We hope you enjoy these as much as we like making them :)