J J
Before I share my experience, I'll say that I like the people at D&J and they were pleasant throughout my interactions with them for this job and previous jobs. That said, I am beyond frustrated with my latest visit to the point that I felt compelled to leave a review. I took my car to D&J because my heat stopped working. I was quoted initially for about $300 in repairs, which I approved. Once they began working on the repair, something else became an issue, and I was re-quoted for $700. I needed heat as this was when it was hitting negative temperatures, so I approved the second quote. When I picked my car up after the initial repair, I noticed the fan that was just replaced was much louder than before my heat stopped working. It sounded like there was debris in it and it also changed speeds when I'd turn, stop, or speed up. I dropped it back off the next day because I was worried maybe it wasn't secure, but they said they couldn't find anything wrong with it. I picked it back up and it still sounded wrong. Any momentum shift in the car was changing the speed and sound of the fan. So I took it back once more. They said they still didn't hear anything wrong with it, but the part was under warranty, so they replaced it. When I picked it up again, it sounded worse. I took it to a different auto shop and asked them to take a look. They were skeptical to see a repair that was done by another shop, so they let me watch as they did the initial diagnosis and the source of the sound became obvious. Where there was supposed to be a bolt securing the fan/motor, a zip tie was found instead. To make the zip tie work, a hole had to be drilled in the frame around it. So the entire part was not fit or secured to where it was located and was creating the sound I was hearing that the fan speed would change depending on my cars momentum. Additionally, there was a cover in the fan/motor area that was broken where it would clip into place. The broken piece of the clip was floating freely in there and the only thing basically holding the cover still was friction and pressure. I called D&J after this and asked about it, to which Dan basically confirmed they did this because the part of the frame for the repair broke when they began to pull it out and that it would expensive replace. Dan said the quote listed that the bolt needed to secure that particular part was broken. Not mentioned was that it would be repaired with a zip tie or that there was a broken cover being left in place. I really think I should've been verbally informed about both of these before being sent on the road three different times. I would've understood an honest conversation that the part was more expensive than what my old car was worth. But the decision if a part was too expensive or not worthwhile to replace was mine to make. A zip tie feels like a temporary fix you do while stranded on the side of the road, not one you do in an auto shop, and it's certainly going cause more issues down the road, especially once summer arrives and it gets very hot under my hood. It feels unsafe to drive and the experience left me feeling like I paid for, in-part, a dishonest and incomplete service and now I'll have to spend more money to get this fixed again elsewhere.
