Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Branches Southwest Phoenix: shop warning...

If you live in the Phoenix, AZ area... stay away from Phillips Transmissions (formerly Thrifty Transmissions). They pulled and installed my tranny while Terry Haines rebuit it. I just picked my car up Friday night... and I've made a list of the minor/major issues (no particular order):

• Front bumper cover, drivers side damage -- skirt cracked/mangled and the underside is all scraped. Looks like they somehow ran it over a curb.
  
• Inner clamp is missing on passenger side inner CV boot (grease is everywhere... alternator is covered). Is the alt now ruined??
  
• 2"x3" scrape on side of rear bumper cover.
  
• Underside of entire rear bumper cover is scraped and had green paint left on it (??). -- another car?
  
• Power steering cooler lines aren't attached to anything.
  
• A clamp is missing on the intake pipe
  
• Splash shield in passenger side fender (covering pulleys) is missing.
  
• Subframe isn't aligned... alignment is way off.
  
• Bottom of radiator is bent/mangled -- looks like they put a jack under it.
  
• Upper radiator mounts are trashed -- radiator pins aren't even through them.
  
• Small dent in drivers side fender, where bumper cover meets.
  
• And there's tranny fluid all over the car (paint, windows, sunroof...)
  

Needless to say... I'm really pissed. I drove it to my brothers shop that's nearby, so we could check it out. I left it there so they can't claim I did that stuff after taking it home, and for the mechanics to witness the damage. I'll be calling Philips monday.

Wow, man that totally fuggin sucks... I hope they didn't rape you on cost of the work.
Hopefully you get something outta them when you call.
If not, I say we form a strike team and head over there and sabotage thier facility

Wow, that is some half assed work! I had a simular situation happen to me with my SVT when I first got it and a local shop when replacing the clutch. It led me to not letting anyone touch it other than myself....and why it has sat for 2+ years with a meandering project plan .

See if you can get some money back from them by playing it cool, yet stern.
Get lots of pictures now, and see if you have any "before" pictures. I think if it came down to it, the burden of proving that they scratched up your car would land on you. The other issues are easily proven to happen during a half assed reassembly. By the sounds of their work, this probably isn't the first time this has happend. Check with better business to see if they've recieved any complaints of this nature.

Another option...
Do you have a tv news channel person that goes after crooks, rip off artisits, consumer fraud, etc? In Salt Lake, we have Gephardt who can bring an uncomfortable light on companys that almost always gets ideal results.

They've previously had some problems (while my car was there)... and they have a new manager (Owners son) and lead mechanic. I showed the new lead mechanic some of the stuff today, like the misaligned radiator, non-tightened strut towers... and explained to him that the subframe wasn't reinstalled straight. He agreed that the person who did the tranny install did a half assed job... and that the damage to the front bumper cover looked like it happened when they took it off the rack. Getting the manager to admit guilt will be another story though.

I'm dropping the car off in the morning... they're going to reattach the missing parts (fender splash shield (for engine accessories), power steering line bolts, etc..) and are supposed to realign the subframe, fix the cv boot. I'm sure the cosmetic stuff will be a secondary battle... but with the pictures we took right after I picked the car up... I should be able to at least drive it again after tomorrow.

Oh... and they destroyed the wiring on one of my MIL'd o2's. Just annoying... but I'll have to solder up a new one.

Now... the cosmetic stuff. I get the feeling that the manager is going to blow it off. 2 of my brothers had their cars in the same tranny shop as mine, while mine was there. All 3 of our cars have tranny fluid on them. My brothers were blown off by the guy, when they said they ruined their paint. They're waiting to see what the guy says about my paint before we contact a local tv station that does consumer protection (and that station JUST did a review of this place and said it was a great tranny shop!! )
Tranny fluid ruins paint... and it's all over my car... so they'd be better off fixing it as I have plenty of time at work to make phone calls to various organizations.

Good luck man. Hope all goes over well, and they fix thier F-Up.....

Thanks guys.... it's really tough. I just want my car back. I'll post updates when I get them.