ComplaintsforTravis Auto Service Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  08/17/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  On the evening of July 28th I dropped my 1973 ******** ******** off at Travis automotive to have the wheels and tires swapped out. I then received a call a couple days later saying that for the new wheels to fit they needed to order wheel spacers and different lug nuts and wheel studs, which I was totally fine with and instructed them to do. After another week went by I was told the car was done and was all set to pick up. So I picked the car up on a Friday and while driving home in a rain storm realized I had no brakes, initially I thought that maybe I had a blown brake line or something had gotten on the rotors but after getting home and checking for any leaks or film on the rotors. I realized that they had removed the calipers and did not properly re bleed them before giving the car back to me. Upon calling Travis Auto I was told “oh I drove your car to North Western and it was fine then”. No apology and no explanation at all. Additionally when I went to inspect the brakes I noticed that they had cracked my brand new lug nuts and damaged a brand new center cap on one of my wheels. They also decided to keep my original ** rally wheels that were on the car when I dropped it off. I request that I be refunded a total of $1,727.38 this money would both cover my shop bill of $1,080.39 as well as the cost to buy a replacement set of rally wheels that they stole from me, the cost of those being $646.99. I find it shocking that a shop that considers itself a mom and pop shop would act in the manner and which they did, especially since I had taken cars to Travis in the past. I’m very disappointed with the poor quality of work, the theft of my wheels and the nonchalant attitude upon informing them that they gave my car back with no brakes.

  Business response

  08/23/2024

  Here at Travis Auto Service Inc. we take complaints like this very seriously. Never in any way shape or form are we ever intentionally being malicious or demeaning towards our customers. To be accused of stealing a customer’s property in our own facility has taken us off guard and we will do everything we can to resolve this issue completely. This customer brought to us his 1973 ********* ********, a set of aftermarket ******** ****** wheels, along with tires to be installed onto the vehicle. Upon receiving the vehicle and wheels, a test fit of the wheels should have been performed but unfortunately we dropped the ball and it was not. The tires were mounted before test fitting and fitment issues with the wheels arose once attempting to install. I.E. The wheels were making contact with the brake calipers. From our experience, once tires are mounted to wheels, the wheels become non-returnable. In order to use the wheels, a spacer would be required to achieve the required spacing from the caliper. With one problem solved, another arose. Now that wheels were spaced away from the caliper, and inherently the wheel hub, the studs that the lug nuts screw onto are too short. Causing the lug nuts to only be held on by approximately 3 threads. (Not Enough) In this event our only option is to purchase extended wheel studs, to make up for the extra spacing created by the wheel spacers. The customer states in his complaint that he was made aware of the plan and he had agreed to correct the situation created by his mis-order of the wheels and our lack of due diligence by not pre-fitting the wheels. In order for the studs to be installed onto the vehicle, the calipers and rotors must be dismounted from the vehicle. I use the word dismounted because the calipers were never completely removed from this car but rather suspended from the vehicle with a caliper hook. The brake fluid system never opened up and no fluid was lost or replaced. Bleeding procedure not required in a situation like this. Keep in mind we are talking about a 51 year old vehicle. Are we sure there isn’t the possibility of another part of the brake system failing causing a low brake pedal? Master cylinder? Multiple tech’s here moved the car around the facility with no issues, as well as the test drive the vehicle went on to confirm the repairs were satisfactory. (approximately 4 miles) Nevertheless, mistakes are mistakes and if it was our own we would make it right as we always do. The customer called back with the complaint that the vehicle had no brakes and the pedal was to the firewall. He was advised by the same tech that took the vehicle on the test drive to bring it back and we will get the situation straightened out. We never heard from the customer again until we received this letter in the mail. Theft allegations again are something so unexpected and unnecessary to us here at Travis Auto Service Inc. Especially involving a vehicle of this nature. Not exceptionally rare, not exceptionally valuable or in great condition, just old. The only thing we see of value in these wheels would be the scrap price received for the steel in the wheels. I’ve taken pictures of the wheels where they sat for  weeks while we waited for the customer to come back and pick them up. They actually sat there so long we had moved them outside onto the side of the building. (dirt pictured)Now with all of this being said, unfortunately in today's society we feel this is becoming a regular thing. There is no such thing as free lunch and we should not be expected to give ****** a complete refund, plus the price of a new aftermarket set of wheels when these “original **” wheels were so near and dear to this vehicle. The same wheels he never inquired about on his brake failure phone call and has never returned to pick up here at the shop. We here at Travis Auto Service Inc. are more than happy to cover the cost involved with replacing the lug nuts, center cap as well as the labor involved to correct the stud length that damaged the lug nuts in the first place. We don’t see how our work would have had anything to do with the brake failure, although we would again be more than happy to diagnose the situation and subsequently repair the issue at no cost providing it was our fault in the first place. We are taking this situation into consideration going forward and will not be involving ourselves in repairing vintage vehicles once this situation is resolved. By making an attempt to do customers like this a favor, we end up with backlash and unhappiness. The amount of billable hours never correlates with the amount of actual time involved in the work needed on these types of vehicles. 

  Business response

  09/09/2024

    Travis Auto Service Inc. is a family owned and operated business located In Westernville, NY. Being in business since 2003 we have over 30,000 invoices in our records just from 2015 and this official complaint is one of two. Ever. We always; always correct our mistakes to the best of our ability and our community can attest to that. 4.9 out of 5 on Google reviews will reflect a dedication to satisfactory service.   This consumer has attempted to take advantage of our generosity and willingness to help others. Initially calling out an act of theft on his wheels and now, implying we may act in some sort of violent manner towards him if he were to actually show up to our business in person. Travis Teller, the owner of the business, attempted to make contact with this consumer to have a conversation about how we can go about correcting this situation. Only to be dodged and avoided. Attempts were not made to contact us back, we have email, 2 phone lines as well as an answering machine system that could have been utilized. This person would rather hide behind a screen and attempt to make a mockery of a business that is only trying to do the right thing.  This person had no intent on having their “situation” corrected at all. We went from stolen wheels and a sabotaged braking system to just a refund will be satisfactory. Which we all know is what the customer was after the entire time. We are still reluctant to believe there are actually any issues with the braking system of this vehicle.   Travis Auto Service would never intentionally return a vehicle knowing it had a very dangerous braking system failure. Potentially causing injury to this customer or other drivers on the roadway. More importantly, risking everything this company has worked for over the last 20+ years that we have been in service. Risking our NYS registered repair facility, NYS motor vehicle dealer and NYS Inspection Station licenses.   Travis Auto will be refunding the customer in the exact amount that was on the initial invoice. We will be mailing it to the address listed on the initial complaint. His wheels will be available for pickup here at the shop until the end of the month (10/1/2024) any time after that we will be taking ownership of them using the deposit of the check as recognition of our terms. We politely ask this customer to take his business somewhere else. We like to do business with people who can be up front and tangible. We don’t think that is too much to ask. 

  Customer response

  09/12/2024

  Better Business Bureau: I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. I do however disagree with the idea that I was simply attempting to get my money back to be some sort of dirtbag. The brakes on my car absolutely were not working properly when I picked it up and I did mention previously that if I was refunded the money on the invoice that I would be fine with Travis Auto Service keeping my old wheels. Additionally I’m more than happy to take the owner’s advice on taking my business elsewhere. I’ve been working on cars since before I could drive and I’ll be sticking to doing that from now on. 

• Initial Complaint

  08/14/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  My Van went to their repair shop to replace front wheel bearings, prayed for by my extended warrantee, "BUT" when I went to pick up my van he said the problem was my rear wheel bearings, and the insurance did not cover the rear, so he replaced them without contacting me or the warrantee place billing me over $500.00 They never consulted me about the differance in work done..

  Business response

  08/23/2023

  Good Morning, We here at Travis Auto Service sincerely apologize for any inconveniences we may have caused as a result of our negligence. Being a family owned and operated business, we try our hardest to do what is in the best interest of our customers safety as well as the health of them and their vehicles.  This instance specifically was irregular in the fact that this customer was recommended to us personally by a great previous employee of ours. We were told by the previous employee, as well as the customer, that the vehicle required front wheel bearings. Those of which were covered by his aftermarket warranty he had purchased for the vehicle.  Ultimately to our demise we found the vehicle was actually in need of bearings in the rear. Unfortunately we found out too late that they were not covered by his warranty. We dropped the ball in this instance and never verified with the customer and the warranty company before moving forward and performing the repair on the rear bearings. We assumed thinking in the best interest of the customer, being these are a safety concern, they would want the rear bearings repaired regardless. And also thinking the rear bearings were covered under warranty.  Once we submitted the claim to the insurance company and realized that this was going to be an out-of-pocket repair, we quickly and apologetically informed the customer of the situation. He informed our employee that he cannot afford this large of a bill at this point in his financial standings. We made an attempt to discount the invoice as much as we possibly could due to the fact this was our mistake. Bringing the initial bill that was north of $700 down to just over $500. At the time of pickup the customer agreed to make monthly payments to us of $100 to which we absolutely agreed with. Whatever we could do to help.  This brings us to today when we received this letter in the mail stating someone has made a formal complaint against our business. Since our opening in 2008 this is the first and hopefully only formal BBB complaint we have received as we try to handle all of our issues in house. We always try our best to correct our mistakes and make our customers as happy as possible. We tried our best to help this customer out after making a mistake but that unfortunately wasn’t enough for them. Even though they agreed to make the payments, and we were under the impression this situation was handled, they filed the complaint regardless.  In our final attempt to correct this situation, we will officially wipe the invoice from our system and file it as paid. From this day forward the customer will have paid $100 and will owe nothing further. We have attached a copy of the invoice that shows his $100 payment. The owed amount will be null and void. We feel as though we have made strides in trying to fix our mistake.  Please let us know if there is anything else we can do to further assist the situation.  Thank You, and we sincerely apologize again.  Travis Auto Service Inc. **** State Route ** Westernville, NY 13486 ************************ (FAX)

  Customer response

  08/23/2023

  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. , My son who works   for ****** ***** ****** kept telling me not yo pay it it was ilegal on what was done to me, without a consult about the difference in repairs, I could have done the work my self since it was not under warrantee. the shop had my contract where it stated only front suspension>> ?   they are nice people there, it just was a big shocker on a 700.00 then a 500.00 bil when like I said I could have done it for just parts from autozone for 216.00 plus tax..  Regards,  ****** ********

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩