Our shop has been providing quality car care in Sandy Springs, GA since 1969. McCullough Auto Care & Towing is a family owned business delivering honest and professional automotive repair and maintenance services to the people of Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, Buckhead, Atlanta and surrounding areas. Our quality ASE (Automotive Service Our shop has been providing quality car care in Sandy Springs, GA since 1969. McCullough Auto Care & Towing is a family owned business delivering honest and professional automotive repair and maintenance services to the people of Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, Buckhead, Atlanta and surrounding areas. Our quality ASE (Automotive Service Excellence)-certified technicians at McCullough Auto Care utilize today's latest automotive technology and are equipped to handle all major and minor repairs on foreign and domestic vehicles. ...more
Verified Customer
Charles,
Per our phone conversation, and in an effort to reaffirm our commitment to you, I would like to thank you for your time to clarify the misunderstanding that resulted in your dissatisfaction after your last visit. The car's initial breakdown had nothing to do with anything being misdiagnosed.
I would like to recap the order of events during the service visit so that the misunderstanding can be identified. Originally, your car was towed in because of a failed NAPA battery (that had been purchased elsewhere). I warrantied the battery, which resulted in no charge to you. As a matter of good faith, I also did not charge anything for diagnostic fees and labor.
After your son picked up the vehicle, he returned minutes later stating that he had hoped the a/c issue would be resolved with the replacement of the battery. Although the battery and the a/c were unrelated items, it seems that he may have thought that the two were connected. In order to check the a/c, as your son requested, it was necessary to service the a/c system. After servicing, it was determined that it was low on freon.
Also discovered during the a/c servicing, we found that the crank pulley was failing under load conditions (such as when the a/c is running). This would not have been discovered under normal battery/alternator testing procedures. If the a/c not working properly had been brought to our attention during the battery replacement, we would have tested the battery/alternator in a different manner.
The charge for the a/c service was approximately $120. This is the only item we charged.
I have tried to reach you several times by phone to see if you were interested in my offer to perform the services the car still requires. If you would like to accept my good faith offer of replacing the crank pulley and crediting the a/c service toward the crank pulley repair, please let me know.
Thanks,
Eric McCullough
I apology as I have been involved in a substantial case and have not been able to return your calls.
You were very courteous and polite in terms of the call you made to me after my online review. Unfortunately, your offer to make repairs was too late as my son had already taken his car to another mechanic as he couldn’t wait any longer to have transportation.
There are a few items that I do not feel are entirely accurate in your account:
1) We never assumed that the car needed a new battery as we had a new NAPA battery put in the car just a few months prior to this incident. We only knew that the car stalled out and died on us and needed to be towed. The request made was for Bryan to check the car out to see what the problem was and to advise us of what needed to be done. We were told by Brian that it was a battery issue.
2) When my son came back and said that the AC was not working, Bryan realized that the problem had been misdiagnosed by your shop. Given the considerable amount of money I had spent a few months ago with your station to have the car completely examined and made safe for my son to drive, I was unhappy when Bryan advised that they now felt the problem was the crank pulley. I told him that I thought it may be best that I take back the car and donate it to charity and simply buy my son a new car.
Bryan said that the car wasn’t safe to drive and even offered to buy the car if I gave him a number. I told him that I would check the Blue Book value and get back with him. Bryan subsequently advised upon my providing him with the Blue Book value that he wouldn’t pay more than half as he wanted to make more of a profit. I was fine with that decision although I wish Bryan had not wasted my time on this subject.
3) Upon picking up the car, my son and wife were told that the cost of checking the car out would be an additional $100. I would have been OK with this if only Bryan had told me such upfront (despite the fact that the initial problem with the car had been misdiagnosed.) BTW, there was a towing charge that we incurred as well which I had accepted. The good faith offer should be to write off the $100 charge.
Thank you,
Charles