Business ProfileforGrease Monkey/Monkey Splash

A single oil change at Grease Monkey ("GM") caused $1000's of dollars in damages, endangered my family, and led to the replacement of the entire engine of my vehicle. We have never been offered a refund. In August of 2021, I took our 2021 Suburban, with approximately 5,000 miles to GM for an oil change. Two days later, the vehicle's system alerted my wife of an emergency, forcing her to pull over. As it turns out, GM used a defective oil filter. As a result, the engine leaked the new oil, which caused the suburban to overheat. The engine block was ruined, requiring a new engine. Despite repeated contacts, GM never directly contacted us regarding the customer service component of this debacle. They just pawned us on their insurance company. We had to call a lawyer just to have them acknowledge us. They refuse to reimburse us for the oil change and won't pay for the diminished value of the vehicle, despite the replacement motor consisting of cobbled together "same quality parts" on my brand new Suburban now. We had to go through the headache of getting three different mechanics to replace the engine. GM helped with none of it. Is GM going to offer us a refund for the oil change now? Hopefully so, but before you do business here, remember this review and what it took for them to do the bare minimum. After ruining the engine on our dream car, depriving us of the car we wanted for months, refusing to pay anything for the loss of value for ruining my brand new factory engine, I finally decided to write a review, which is very out of character, but people need to know how business is done at GM. Instead of making it right, GMs agent told us that if we told our story it would be "like extorting" them. You don't have to be a lawyer to know, telling the truth isn't a crime. I wish I knew then what I know now. I hope every other potential customer is able to read this review and listen to this one thing, do yourself a favor, avoid Grease Monkey.

Thank you for your review. We understand you are upset and we are as well. We are local families who chose to move back to Lubbock and open a business in order to serve the community, so clearly our intent would never be to damage a customer's vehicle or leave a customer unsatisfied. We also understand that mistakes happen with human intervention and there is always room for error. We have extensive training and quality double check processes that have limited issues over the 1000s of oil changes that have been performed at the shop. With that said we would like to clarify some of the review because there seems to be a misunderstanding that we took no action upon receiving a call of the issue on 8/21. Our manager traveled to HEB, where you were located, to inspect the vehicle. We had it towed back to the shop for further inspection. It was determined that the vehicle had no oil due to a loose oil filter. Your husband spoke to one of the owners on that day, who apologized, acknowledged fault, and indicated we would take care of the damages. Your husband was very clear that the only way he would consider the problem resolved was for us to purchase an entirely new vehicle, rather than allowing our insurance company to repair the damages, and then threatened legal action, which forced us to turn this over as a claim. On 8/23, a claim was opened and the vehicle was towed to a dealership, directed by you. The service writer, at the dealership, when contacted, indicated they were backed up and it would be 3-5 weeks until they could do the diagnosis of the issue. Our insurance company provided a rental car throughout the process until your vehicle was returned. At some point during the process it was requested by you that the vehicle be moved to another dealership, which was accommodated and it was moved but further delayed the process. At the end of December the vehicle was returned with a new engine, paid for by our company and the insurance policy. So from the first day, we acknowledged fault, accepted responsibility, you spoke to both a manager and an owner, and we worked with our insurance company to try to resolve your issue as timely as possible. Again, we are sorry for the errors and we are handling the issue in the best possible manner considering the circumstances.

Mr ****** , no sir, I don't think you do understand. This is the FIRST apology we have received and the FIRST time you have acknowledged even knowing about this situation.

The review clearly states we were pawned off to your insurance company, where in i didn't even have a rental for 10 days and we went through 4 rental cars. The first sat 4 people and was intended to replace my suburban......The last three I was forced to return for various reasons, including life threatening electrical issues with the computer on my Suburban, after it was represented to us it had been repaired. This is a brand new vehicle, the only event that triggered all of this was the ruined engine from the oil change. Would you feel comfortable if your wife had a vehicle that could possibly lose brakes and power steering on a highway because of engine problemsbecause that's what happened to meafter your insurance told me it was fixed.

Grease Monkey has done nothing or even come out of pocket from the customer service side to make this right. Grease Monkey could give me a refund for the oil change for starters, and also pay for the diminished value of my vehicle. You don't need your insurance company's permission to make this right from your company's side. Your insurance company told me the "diminished value" part of your policy was "more for auto accidents"

Yes, my husband was very adamant about a new vehicle, but anything is better than nothing. We brought my BRAND NEW suburban to your shop, for the FIRST oil change, trusting you guys could do simple maintenance, considering you advertise an, "exceptional oil change experience." We now have a REBUILT Suburban that will be incredibly hard to sell or trade, while we're still paying for a BRAND NEW suburban. End of story.

Now, I think you're smart men, and I'm very well aware of who y'all are, but you cannot honestly tell me you would be happy with this solution. In my opinion, if this is the way you run your business, people have a right to be completely informed!