This place has done right by me for the most part. The bottom line is that this is a great shop. If you do enough repeat business with someone mistakes will happen. This is just a fact that has to be accepted. They do great work and James is a very honest, ethical, and respectful business owner. I had almost let an honest breakdown in communication cause me to forget this. Everyone makes mistakes — customers and professionals alike. I work as a highly skilled carpenter myself and I know that these things do happen. Read on if you’re interested in what happened with me, but otherwise take the first paragraph as gospel. This is probably the best shop in town. I’m only mentioning the communication breakdown to put it all in context. My expectations were not met and I got upset because nobody told me to modify my expectations. I do accept and carry part of the blame for what I failed to do before taking my vehicle in, but this miscommunication regarding my ‘98 Yukon really caused me a lot of stress, and I overreacted. For this I apologize. However I do want to use this edit as an opportunity to give them some honest, constructive feedback. This would have all been avoided if the people at the shop had been more forthcoming, and had been understanding and respectful of my decision to install the MAF sensor and battery myself. They never argued with me about it, but every single person I spoke to brought this fact up. While I was never able to get them to admit outright that they resented me for my decision to replace two parts in the street outside the shop, they made it pretty clear between the lines. This is my own financial decision, that I made based on the amount of money I had. What I will never do is agree to any service that I cannot afford, and I could not afford to spend an additional $700 that wouldn’t have done anything for the misfire. One thing I disagree with is the analogy that James used in our subsequent phone conversation. What I did is nothing like bringing your own food to a restaurant, but rather more like sitting down with a big group where everyone just orders appetizers. They were anticipating a big invoice and I couldn’t afford it. I didn’t like being made to feel guilty for trying to be smart with my money. I still gladly paid the diagnostic fees and consider that to be the reason I brought the vehicle in. It seems like my decision to just bring the vehicle in for diagnostic work didn’t sit well with them. They wanted me to order the porterhouse and a bottle of Dom and I just ended up ordering a salad to go. I could tell they weren’t happy about this, but we millennials just don’t have the luxury of getting rid of our problems by throwing money at them. They should be grateful and honored that I choose to spend any amount of money on their services out of all the different places I could go. I don’t like feeling like they resent me for wanting to keep my costs to a minimum. I don’t do my own work on my vehicle because I enjoy it. I hate it. I do it because I’m a millennial who makes about $600 a week and I can’t be dumping entire paychecks into minor repairs. So, in conclusion, if you’ve actually taken the time to read all this here is the real truth. They are a very good shop and they do very good work, but if you’re like me and DIY as much as possible to save money, they may become hostile toward you if you get too specific about what you want. I should have done the routine maintenance ahead of time but I work full time and right now it’s cold and gets dark early. I didn’t consider that it would be a problem, and definitely not a point of contention. Keep that in mind if you’re one such DIY inclined individual.
Eric, thank you. Thank you for your kind words and for allowing us the opportunity to earn your trust. Trust is huge, especially in the auto industry and we do not take your confidence in us lightly. We greatly appreciate your business and we look forward to serving you for many miles to come!
- Zia Automotive