Gateway Automotive Experts (Mount Vernon)
Called a few shops and wanted quotes to do a standard transmission service. Shops all stated changing the filter was regularly done when this is done. Gateway had the lowest price so I went there. I ensured they were going to do filter too. They said sure. I went to pick it up and the price was much higher than their quote and other initial quotes from other shops. They stated that the initial price didn't include the standard filter change in the quote. I stated that this was standard service to do the filter at other shops and owner stated that it wasn't at his. Other shops quoted me less to do a service with filter and I would've just gone there and paid less if I had known. I told the owner that this was very untruthful and deceptive. He didn't believe me that another shop had quoted me less and said that the filter change was standard with their transmission service. I ensured him that it was. So, in a very unclassy move, he called the other local transmission shop on the speaker phone in the office area, while myself and another worker of his was standing there and pretended to be a customer seeking information. When the other shop confirmed that their price was lower and a filter was always included in transmission service, he hung up the phone. His attempt to try and prove that I was lying in the classless act he did backfired. He begrudgingly matched his competitions price and made me feel like I was stealing food out of his starving kids mouths by doing so. I will never, ever deal with this classless, bait and switch, crooked establishment ever again and I urge you not to either. I've never had a store owner act in such an unprofessional manner before. Going to the website, honesty and integrity are plastered everywhere. What a joke. Re: No, I am not a liar. I had a 2001 Impala serviced there about 5 years ago. The owner of the store was completely unprofessional and terrible. I can try and find the receipt from the work to prove this isn't just some "troll." As long as I live in Mt Vernon, I will never, ever patronize such a poorly ran business. There is plenty of competition in the area that will gladly take my money without trying to chump me out of a couple bucks with the old bait and switch. Shame on you for lying in the first place and for lying again when your poor customer service is exposed.
Don, it is clear that you have been deeply injured at some time in the past, and for that you have our deepest sympathies. That being said, we can find no record of you ever having been a customer at any of our shops (Edit: this reviewer left a full name originally on his review, but looks as though he has decided to be incognito, using an alias). There are other points in your story that just don't ring true. For instance, you say that you brought your car to us because we were the cheapest. Although we definitely are the best value in the Valley, we are by no means the cheapest. Your disparaging accusations, dredged up, by your own account, from some distant past experience, are very unfair to the talented and professional mechanics and service advisors that work for our company. Their dedication to honest customer care is evident every single day, and they don't deserve to have their integrity smeared in this reckless and mean-spirited way.
- Gateway Automotive Experts (Mount Vernon)