Auto repair problems, what should I do next?

Just one year ago I had a wheel bearing replaced by Big O tires in Los Gatos. It went bad in August and they replaced it again. By January of this year the same bearing was bad again. I took it back to Big O and they said that it was not the wheel bearing and that I should take the car to a Subaru Dealer. So I did. The Subaru Dealer (Santa Cruz) said that it was the wheel bearing was bad and that the installation was faulty. I contacted the owner of Big O Tires (Rich) and asked if he would work with the Subaru dealer and pay for the new wheel bearing. Rich contacted the dealer, but refused to pay for anything. In the meantime, I needed my car back so I paid for the repair at Santa Cruz Subaru. Rich originally offered to pay back $300 of the $380 that I paid to fix the bearing in the first place, but has since reneged on this maintaing that it is out of warranty (1 year for the part, 90 days for the labor). It seems to me that if the installation was faulty, I should get my money back regardless of the warranty period. Big O Tires corporate has offered to pay for the bearing, but not the labor ($109). Does anyone have any ides on what I should next?

QUOTE (dkrahl @ Jan 31 2007, 05:06 PM)

It seems to me that if the installation was faulty, I should get my money back regardless of the warranty period.

I don't really have advice but I agree. If they will pay for the parts and you're only out $109 for the labor, I think that's probably as good as it's gonna get.

I agree with Pam - you should probably just take the money offered and run.

However, if I were you, I'd also post reviews on Yelp and here at the Social Wave Reviews Center so that word gets out about their bad business practices. If they're members of the Better Business Bureau and the Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce, I recommend you also send letters to those two organizations. That way, you can advise people not to go there and why. It may cost them some customers and some of their reputation, which is sounds like they deserve.

I agree -- please warn others of their bad business practices.

My son took his car to Big O in Los Gatos -- and I felt that he was oversold on services.

I did not do anything -- I just made a mental note to cross them off my list (word of mouth is the best advertising)!

It will be really interesting to see how long this wheel bearing lasts. If I were to guess, the original BIG O problem was a part failure (3rd party part that is supposed to work with your car but didn't). The second installation would have the same problem unless they changed part suppliers (not likely).

Regarding your options now: First, A wheel bearing would not last EIGHT MONTHS if it was installed faulty. You would have major damage as the wheel could not spin but you were forcing it by driving it. Second, BIG O exceeded your warranty and replaced it eight months after. Lastly, you agreed to take the money for the part, I believe you should not complain. Any payment is a settlement for good will on both sides. You agreed to their warranty and the warranty applies no matter how the original installation is done. (Should Best Buy replace a television if it was not manufactured to last at least thirteen months with a twelve month warranty?) Warranties are usually a reasonable window to see if everything works.

In my experience, a wheel bearing only fits one way, it is a graduated precisely machined part. It either works or it doesn't. The only way you can "mis install" it is to forget the grease or install a wrong part that fits but is the wrong size (too small). I have changed wheel bearings but have never had one fail on me. I can't believe it cost $380 to do it. I can't believe the part was $272.

I really hope the fix works. In the future, I would ask for original parts for your Suburu when dealing with machined parts like wheel bearings. There are so few Suburus, that 3rd party parts may not work.

I use Zipin Out on White Oak when I can't figure something out. I have given them some complex problems to solve and tested them well.

This post has been edited by techvbjoe on Feb 3 2007, 10:10 AM

Wow! Joe, you know your stuff! This is great!

I agree with Joe, too, about always making sure your mechanic is using Subaru parts. That's what I do with my Honda (request Honda parts), and I've had great results. I think it makes a difference when we drive foreign cars.

Thanks for the input. I guess I'm out of luck. For the record, the Subaru Tech wrote that the bearing was "missing the inner dust shield" and he/she suspected that "dirt and water entered the bearing assembly and caused it to go bad". This is an interesting question. If the installation was done improperly, does Big O have no responsibility to repair it because it was out of the warranty period?

You might want to post them on www.angieslist.org.

Just a thought... I had a left caliper replaced, fail, replaced again, fail, replaced again in 5 years... had it, temper tantrum, and my stepdad looked at it. Finally connected that there was damage to the undercarriage of the car when the previous owner had a serious blowout on the freeway, and it turns out that the left caliper as a result of the alignment issues kept getting stuck in the "out" position. Since then, I've just taken the wheel off with every brake pad change, shoved it all the way back, and no more replacements in the last 4 years. Is there possible there was damage elsewhere that might be causing this repeated issue?

Why do we complain puiblicly and praise privately? Why, when something doesn't go right we try to destroy someone's business and when things go well, we don't spend the same effort promoting them? Should we just not use them again? It was not the deal we expected. How many times will that happen in our lives? Shoot it happens to me at Costco every visit. But I go back. I think I can still find a deal.... or a cheap sausage.

I think when someone is malicious like Mike Milken (bilking billions from seniors in failed junk bonds), PGE (ripping off California of billions), Comcast (ripping off Cities of billions), we need to advise others to be careful but we still see them in business and in good standing. Hell we give them tax breaks for I guess a job well done?

Where do business's go to complain about customers who don't make their final payments, or renegotiate after the work is done. Ask for everything extra for free. How about the ones that write bad checks, prolong every payment and ask for every discount. All your bills have to be paid on time but the revenues come in when you are lucky.

Can't we ever say "we agreed to disagree".

Hey, I work for a small business and truly understand the problems with customers. Some people will take advantage of you no matter what you do. However, I also stand behind my work. If there is a problem I fix it. If its beyond my expertise, I find someone that can do it. In this case, these guys had no idea what they were doing. They tried to fix it twice and got it wrong both times, on the third time, they did not even get the diagnosis right. Yet, they happily took my money. So what are we disagreeing about? I think a company that does substandard work should refund the money to the customer. In this case substandard work is installing a part that should last 100,000+ miles in such a way that it lasts less than 10,000 miles. Do you disagree with that?