I have been going to Automotive Specialists for over 7 years now and have always had a good experience with the service and the quality of the work, so it is surprising that I have to leave 1 star after my recent experience. I brought my car in to get its 100K mile service done. This included changing shocks, struts, spark plugs, trans oil, and a few other small things. I told the manager there that I would be driving the car to Canada and needed to make sure it was in proper working condition for the long trip, and those where the recommended items to change. Since I was a long time customer of Automotive Specialists and trusted their knowledge, I proceeded to get the work done. It cost roughly $1800. The same day I got my car back, after only driving 10 or so miles, to my surprise, the check engine light came on. I called Automotive Specialist to tell them, and of course they insisted I bring it back for them to take a look. What they found were 3 codes all pointing toward the catalytic converter system. This seemed odd to them as the car was running perfectly fine and showed no signs of a catalytic converter failure. They cleared the codes, said it was probably some bad data, and told me it would be fine to drive. The next day, as I was driving, the check engine light came on again. Now I'm getting frustrated, as I just spent $1800 to get my car serviced for our long trip to Canada and the check engine light keeps coming on. It was not coming on before I brought it to Automotive Specialist. I brought the car back and the mechanic there told me that the whole Catalytic converter system needed to be changed and it would mostly likely cost a few grand. Obviously, I was shocked and could not believe that all of a sudden, after I have you guys work on my car, I now have a $2000 catalytic converter system that needs to be replaced. This did not make sense to me and I explained that maybe something one of the mechanics did could have caused this issue to occur. They explained to me that they did nothing to cause this problem and these things just happen sometimes. I could not accept that answer and left. I did my research and found another company that does catalytic converter repair for a fraction of the cost it would be to replace the whole system. It would be roughly $250 - $350. I called the manager of Automotive Specialist and explained to him the service I found and asked if they could meet me half way with the cost, as I just spent $1800 for them to get my car perfectly running and got it back with a check engine light...plus news that I may need to spend an additional $2000 or more to fix a catalytic converter system that was working fine before I brought it there. I was told that they could not pay for services outside of Automotive Specialist and all they could do is run more tests if I like. At this point we've already ran a bunch of tests and I don't trust them anymore. They were not willing to help with any further costs nor refund me a small portion of the previous work done. It just really disappoints me that these mechanic shops hold no accountability for problems that arise after the work they do. I wasn't asking for much, a mere $100 or so to put towards the catalytic converter system cleaning. A small price to pay. It feels like they would rather me spend an additional $2000 or more to replace the whole system without even trying to help me with a cleaning of it first. I don't trust them anymore and will be seeking further legal action. UPDATE: 04/26/2019 After speaking with the manager again on this issue, we were able to resolve the problem without having to change the cats. He agreed to run cat-a-clean through the system and had Cadillac come out to update the car software. We drove the car to Canada with no issues.
I feel for Sheldon's situation. Sheldon is a great guy and super friendly to deal with as a customer. I am the manager of Austin's Automotive Specialistss and my name is J.T. Matteson. Sheldon did come back Friday, 6/7, after picking up his 2011 Cadillac SRX, with the check engine light on and no driveabililty issues. He actually remarked that it was driving much better after the suspension work and tune-up. I enjoyed hearing this, but I was dismayed with the check engine light being on. We had replaced the spark plugs, exchanged the transmission fluid, installed front quick struts, installed rear shocks and aligned the vehicle for $1,742.77. We pulled a current P0420 code (catalyst inefficiency) and two history codes for a BARO sensor. We checked the oxygen sensors and they showed that the catalytic converters were performing just fine. We cleared the codes and pulled the battery cables to perform a hard reset of the vehicle's modules. We can't understand why a P0420 code is coming up on this vehicle when the oxygen sensors are indicating the converters are OK. Sheldon drives the vehicle and brings it back on Saturday, 6/8. I happen to be off that day spending time with my family, so I don't know exactly what transpired to make Sheldon think that we were going to sell him some catalytic converters. He says that one of our technicians told him that he needed converters and that they would be over $2000.00. Since I was off, I have to believe Sheldon heard what he heard. I was dismayed to hear this, since my other technician told me that the oxygen sensors were showing that the converters were OK on Saturday. The only thing I can be sure of is that I never tried to sell him converters and I didn't tell him the vehicle needed the converters. I kept thinking the solution had to be something else. Being a manager means I am responsible for what my technicians say even when I am off of work and that I must take responsibility for the situation. Fast forward to Monday morning. Sheldon calls me and lets me know the check engine light is back on. He asks if I can pay some money towards letting another company clean the converters. I had to tell Sheldon that our company has a policy that our company doesn't pay for work done at other shops. I told him I wanted him to bring the vehicle back in as soon as possible, so I can have another technician look the vehicle over. The vehicle is still driving great during this whole time. After talking to Sheldon, I started to think that it couldn't hurt to try cleaning the converters to see if it would even help based on Sheldon's recommendation, so I ordered the first bottle of CataClean. I researched reasons a P0420 code would come up on a Cadillac when the converters are still showing as being in good shape per the readings on the oxygen sensors. I came across some techs saying that updated ECM software may resolve the issue. By this time, Sheldon had put us on blast via his Google and Yelp reviews. I understand his frustration, but we hadn't given up on him. I never once told him that we gave up on the situation, but I can understand him feeling that way after not agreeing to pay another company some money to may or may not resolve the issue. I started putting in calls to Covert Cadillac to get a technician to bring a programmer out to our facility to update his Cadillac's engine control module with the newest software available. My solutions were both proactive and reactive to the reviews Sheldon wrote. Some of the solution was put in motion after our phone call which was about an hour prior to the reviews and the rest was put into motion after the reviews. We had his vehicle's software updated at 2:00pm on Monday and installed the 1st bottle of CataClean and gave him an extra one for later at no charge to him. He will drive to Canada later this week and he said he would update his reviews. We are sorry we let you down Sheldon. Have a safe trip!
- 10181 E. Crystal Falls Parkway