BBB of San Diego (San Diego, CA)
5050 Murphy Canyon, Ste. 110 
San Diego, CA 92123
Phone: (858)496-2131
Fax: (858)496-2141
Email: info@sandiego.bbb.org
Web: http://www.sandiego.bbb.org/

Here's why I finally decided to write to the Better Business Bureau to file a complaint.

Just Wednesday, I decided to get rid of my car. It had engine block or gasket damage caused by something or somebody. It would have cost me too much money, $3,000, money I can't afford, to replace it with a used engine. There was no way I was going to get that car repaired anymore. I had to trade it in for a new car.

I got a call from a broker at my credit union and he told me that the asking price for the trade-in was $1,500. I decided to go around and ask a few if anyone wanted to buy my car for more than that. I was serious about selling my car to Roadside Assistance Services for all of the "work" that they did on my car. I'll tell you why work is quoted in a minute. I talked to one of the mechanicsand I told him that I was going to get rid of my car. I didn't suggest selling it to him yet, but he said that he would pay $1,500. I told him that I got a bid for $1,500. He probably didn't believe me and said that he had doubts about my car's performance. I asked him to come by while I was at home the next day to see my car there. Thursday morning came. He never showed up. Thursday afternoon while I was at work, the mechanic came back to me near where I worked, as my job site is next door to his, and he wanted me to sell it to him for... $1,000. I thought to myself, "Is he f--king crazy?" I flat out told him no. He told me his story about needing money and working partime as a musician, then he wanted my keys so he could check out my car while I was still at work and I couldn't leave. This began to tell me a lot about that mechanic. If I gave him my car key to my old car, who knows what he would have done with it. I told him flat out no and he finally left.

Now, let me explain something to you. I did get $1,500 for a trade-in. The mechainic thought that he would call my bluff, but it wasn't a bluff. Why would anyone bid less than what bid I already had? This tells me that the mechanic was thinking only for his own financial well-being, and not mine. This tells me that my possible suspicions of my car troubles since I took it to Roadside Assistance Services back in the first week of July.

Back in June, I took my car to another mechanic at Honda and complained about my overheating problem for my car. They couldn't find it. They just put in a new radiator fan and added coolant. Three weeks later, my car began to misfire when it started. I took it to Firestone, but they were too busy. So I took it to Roadside Assistance Services. They fixed the problem. They had to retune up the engine since Honda didn't do a good job at it three months before. That should have been it, right?

Well, a day later, the overheating problem happened again. Again, Honda didn't diagnose the problem or fix it either. I took it again to Roadside Assistance Services and they fixed it. They replaced the leaking water pump which Honda replaced LAST YEAR and it should have been fixed. That solved the problem, right.

Well, two hours later, the mechanic told me that my car was overheating again and the cooling fans weren't working, but I told them that Honda replaced them last month. So, he replaced the switches for the fan. I thought that was ok.

Three weeks later, on my trip to Long Beach, the car overheated. I replaced the coolant. Two days later, the radiator blew. I took it again to Roadside Assistance Services and it cost me $1,900 to replace the radiator, hoses, and heater valve.

I'm thinking that the mechanic overpressurized the cooling system back in my July 3rd visit to a point where the radiator would fail weeks later. I pointed to where the coolant was slowly leaking by the heater control valve. How did he know what it was already? Any mechanic would have simply suggested a hose was cracked, but how did he suspect the heater valve?

I'm also thinking that something odd is going on when the mechanics were getting a bit miffed when I asked to call another car repair shop to get a quote, and they didn't want me to watch my car being repaired. I asked them to use my Prestone coolant for my car, but they didn't use what I told them to do. Instead, they used a cheaper noname brand of coolant which is NOT RECCOMENDED for Honda.

The following month, in August, an internal engine leak occurred. I took it to Firestone but they didn't understand how to diagnose it. I took it to S.A.M.C.O. and they told me that I need a new engine upper block or another engine costing me $3,000. I'm thinking that Roadside Assistance Service has done something to my car just to get me to pay more money to them with more unnecessary car breakdowns.

Just two weeks later, my transmission was beginning to act funny when downshifting.

I believe that Roadside Assistance Service had intentionally caused damage to my engine system and I will no longer do business with them. I would like to see their license revoked for their unethical business practices and my money recovered. I thought I could trust them, but now I know better. What cost me $500 for a cooling system flush with inferior coolant and a water pump has turned into a $3,200 series of repairs.

My desired outcome in my complaint to the Better Business Bureau: A complete refund of $1,901.78 for the labor and repair caused by the mechanic for doing something to it to cause my radiator to leak and damaging my heater control valve by cutting a V-shaped hole in its sleeve to make the system leak. I also want a refund of $1.359.74 for his previous two services on my car which he used to cause future damage to my engine instead of just repairing my car.

Once again, if you experienced a repair service issue regarding Roadside Assistance Services, located at 7490 Beagle Avenue, contact the local Better Business Bureau of San Diego here:

BBB of San Diego (San Diego, CA)
5050 Murphy Canyon, Ste. 110 
San Diego, CA 92123
Phone: (858)496-2131
Fax: (858)496-2141
Email: info@sandiego.bbb.org
Web: http://www.sandiego.bbb.org/

There was no way I was ever going to take my car back to them and let them "work" on my car for another $3,000 just to fix the engine, and then another $3,000 for whatever they did to my transmission to make it downshift funny.

If I get another coolant leakage problem, I'll go to S.A.M.C.O. first and let them diagnose the problem. They knew how to test for the problem. I suspected internal coolant leakage when my exhaust had a sweet smell of coolant while the engine was running. The S.A.M.C.O. mechanic confirmed my suspicion. The mechanic also informed me that my car would not pass the smog check in that condition and told me never to drive that car again until I got either a new top engine block or a used engine. The cost of a new top engine block was about $1,200, and a used engine with a paltry 6,000 mile warranty cost $3,300 or whatever. That was it for my car. That's when I decided to trade my car in.

What the mechaincs at Roadside Assistance Services did to me was insulting and unethical. I very much confirmed their greediness when one of them underbid for the car that I was selling off. There was no way in hell that I was going to just lose another $500 in that way. That made me decide that I should complain to the local BBB.

All the mechaincs at Roadside Assistance Services saw in me is a dollar sign, and didn't seem to give a crap about my own financial well being. They only cared about their own.

Are there any readers who had a bad experience with Roadside Assistance Services? Ask around. Perhaps call a morning radio talk show and vent your frustrations with car repair shops. Let me know what your car repair horror stories are. Maybe a roving lawyer could begin a class action lawsuit against the crook car repair shops.

This is all true to my knowledge. I suspect that these mechanincs did some internal damage to my engine and possibly my transmission while it was at their shop in early July. They didn't want me to watch them work. They didn't want to use Prestone coolant. Having more car problems come up soon after the car had been repaired there should have brought up a red flag that these mechaincs are shady at best. None of those problems should have ever occurred.