aamco...what do you guys think

[DSMeclipse4G63]

Ok so my tax return didnt come back so good, and I was planning on going to ipt to get some work done but now I cant . So now all I can afford is a tranny flush at aamco to help prolong my tranny. What do you guys think of these guys? should I take them up on thier deal or stay away? thanks
ANdrew

 

[Car Cannibal]

I am also going to do the tranny flush soon. As long as they are not actually working on the trans I do not see this as being a problem.

Just pull over, emergency brake it and check the fluid in neutral when you are done with them. Thats just to make sure they put enough back in it or else you will burn it up pretty quick.

 

[definitiveno]

Ok so my tax return didnt come back so good, and I was planning on going to ipt to get some work done but now I cant . So now all I can afford is a tranny flush at aamco to help prolong my tranny. What do you guys think of these guys? should I take them up on thier deal or stay away? thanks
ANdrew

aamco is the name of a franchise not a standard by wich all employees/builders operate under. I had my trans rebuilt by them this week so we will see how it goes, just by talking to the guy who worked on mine he knew alot about my car. He's been building transmissions for over 20 years, was able to talk tech with me about a dsm (actually knew what dsm meant, ) and plus aamco gave me a 3 year/36 thousand mile nationwide warranty on it.

1600 parts and labor.

 

[DSMeclipse4G63]

I am transmission cerified and have some years of experience in it, I just need to know weather its worth it to get their flush because I live in an apartment and have no way of doing work. From what I have gather they seem to be decent so I think I will get the work done.

 

[c5chris]

I would just save my money and have IPT do it next year, or when you can afford it.

AAMCO is franchised, as stated above, you wont know what kind of mechanic you will get.

 

[91Bomb]

My experiences with Aamco can be read here -- see post by 91BOMB:

http://www.njdsmasocialdisease.com/viewtopic.php?t=2297&start=15


*edit* The above link is not working. Go to www.turbocarz.com/njdsm and use the search feature and type in my name 91Bomb under author search and hit submit. Scroll down a few until you see the post 'Tranny Problems!' and click on page 2. Scroll down a few until you see my reply (91Bomb). It's well worth the read ,IMO, if you are thinking of going to Aamco for ANY reason.


Here's a website on other people's experiences with Aamco from around the country:

http://www.geocities.com/aamco_ripoff/
Once there also check out the link to a news story that reported on Aamco abuses.

 

[91Bomb]

DO NOT GO TO AAMCO! They are offering the flush job to get you in the door. Once they get their greasy hands on you and your car I can almost guarentee they will get you for a rebuild. They are going to F@#K you somehow -- it's the way they do business. Their goal is to rebuild your transmission whether it needs it or not. They employ con men and call them sales managers -- some use the vasoline, others don't. Either way it's not going to be pleasant for you or your car.
I'm sure most of their mechanics are fine -- but it's their sales managers that are going to determine what work you'll need and it probably won't be based on anything mechanical but rather on greed.

I just posted 'IF YOU'RE CONSIDERING AAMCO...'
I've included a link to my post at NJDSM that chronicles my hellish experiences with aamco when I took my '91 TSI there. You'll have to use the search button to find it but it's there and well worth the effort for those of you considering going into aamco.

If you decide to go to aamco anyway, GOOD LUCK!
But please do not come back on this board and complain if they stick you pretty hard.

 

[definitiveno]

aamco is a franchise, owned and operated by individuals who bought their own transmission shops. If you are having a problem with one aamco, #### em, go to another one. Aamco has a nation wide warranty program, any aamco will fix your shit.

 

[definitiveno]

I went to aamco and my tech guy determined what work was to be done. Hell even after it was rebuilt he brought me in the builders area and showed me all the fried clutch disks.


Take your stuff to some place else if you dont want them to work on it.

 

[91Bomb]

aamco is a franchise, owned and operated by individuals who bought their own transmission shops. If you are having a problem with one aamco, #### em, go to another one. Aamco has a nation wide warranty program, any aamco will fix your shit.

Obviously you haven't taken the time to find and read about my experiences with them. What you are saying is exactly what I used to think too. WRONG!!! Think again.

Are you taking your car to aamco? If so report back with the results but if you get screwed keep the post simple and just type 'I got screwed' and leave it at that. Beacause the 2 links I posted here should be enough info for anyone considering SCaamco.

 

[definitiveno]

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=176386

 

[91Bomb]

I went to aamco and my tech guy determined what work was to be done. Hell even after it was rebuilt he brought me in the builders area and showed me all the fried clutch disks.


Take your stuff to some place else if you dont want them to work on it.

If you got your trans rebuilt and had no problems with aamco good for you. But someone who shows me some fried parts after the fact wouldn't mean anything to me. I would stick with a DSM specific shop if possible because of their superior knowledge with dsm's and because they depend on word of mouth so their reputation makes or breaks them. On the other hand aamco is a national corporation with millions to spend on slick advertising to bolster their image. If they screw 1,000's of people each year it doesn't matter much because there are always new customers coming in. It would take a massive governmental investigation to find and prove any widespread and systemic abuses by a company like aamco. Even then the press would have to pick up on it and harp on any findings to get people's attention. In the end a few corporate heads might roll and the common man who owns any stock in the company would be at least temporarily hurt -- but after a few fines and some damage control by aamco it would be business as usual.

Do some internet research in addition to reading about my experiences with SCaamco and maybe you'd think twice about going back there.

 

[definitiveno]

are you a consumer or a conspiracy theorist? I'm getting confused. Much like my success story doesn't proove all aamco's are good, your problems with them do not mean all aamco's are bad. Aamco is owned and operated by different individuals, and there for every aamco will be owned and operated differently. Aamco is franchised so that an individual may take advantage of aamco'sw advertising marketing, contracted to follow aamco protocols and guidelines, and own his own business. If you found a particular aamco cell is operating outside of aamco's protocols, report them, or go to a different aamco.


You obviously have no idea how a franchise works because you keep trying to accuse thousands of businesses, and hudreds of thousands of employees of all being shady.

 

[91Bomb]

are you a consumer or a conspiracy theorist? I'm getting confused. Much like my success story doesn't proove all aamco's are good, your problems with them do not mean all aamco's are bad. Aamco is owned and operated by different individuals, and there for every aamco will be owned and operated differently. Aamco is franchised so that an individual may take advantage of aamco'sw advertising marketing, contracted to follow aamco protocols and guidelines, and own his own business. If you found a particular aamco cell is operating outside of aamco's protocols, report them, or go to a different aamco.


You obviously have no idea how a franchise works because you keep trying to accuse thousands of businesses, and hudreds of thousands of employees of all being shady.

You still haven't read my experiences with aamco or clicked onto the other link that lists dozens of stories involving aamco customers throughout the U.S and Canada. Also, a web search on 'aamco' should reveal over sites reporting dissatisfied customers too.

My experience involves 6 aamco shops and all 6 were miserably similar. 6 shops -- 6 bad experiences, that's enough for me.

Am I a Conspiracy theorist because I don't trust Mitsu dealers for service? Or because I doubt the reliability of certain cars?

I know from experience, word of mouth, and from forums like this one that, for example, Mitsu service commonly botches t-belt jobs. It happened to me, people I've met, and read about it right here. Of course it doesn't mean every mitsu dealer is bad but their track record as a whole is not good -- hence the name 'satan' and the avoidance of Mitsu dealers by most of us here.
I chose aamco because I was stranded 1,000 mi from home. It was my best bet at the time because of their nationwide warrenty. It turned out to be the single worst choice for automoive repair I've ever made -- and I've been fleeced by Mitsu dealears a half dozen times before discovering the DSM community.

If all you needed is a flush and filter change wouldn't it be wiser to do it yourself or have a mechanic do it for you who doesn't have any intrest in rebuilding transmissions? IMO, you're asking for trouble by going to Lee Myles, aamco or any franchised trans shop for a fluid change because their bread and butter is rebuilds. They are going to look for problems with the trans because it is their business to 'FIND' problems.

I only have experience with aamco but I wouldn't even think about going to Lee Myles or ANY national trans shops with my dsm or any car. It's bettr to have people refer you to a shop that they know is honest and competent. And I wouldn't take recomendations from people who don't know much about cars either because they usually wouldn't know if they've been ripped off or not.

 

[definitiveno]

Number of aamco's in world 720, number of years in operation 42, amount of cars a given aamco services annually 2500


It's kind of interesting when you put it in perspective. You have to analyze the shear volume aamco deals with and compare it to the amount of problems they have had with customers. Granted other shops have more problems than others. Basically if there were 100 thousand complaints written about aamco on your website last year, that still leaves them with aproxamatly 94 percent approval rating.


These are very rough figures of course, but honestly. Aamco works in one way or another on around 1,800,000 cars a year. Mistakes happen. Not every customer is going to be happy. You can't please every one.

 

[91Bomb]

Number of aamco's in world 720, number of years in operation 42, amount of cars a given aamco services annually 2500

Do you work for Aamco or have you accessed their website and readily believe how great they say they are? And where do you get these #'s? I believe they have 720 shops in the U.S. alone -- they are huge.

It's kind of interesting when you put it in perspective. You have to analyze the shear volume aamco deals with and compare it to the amount of problems they have had with customers. Granted other shops have more problems than others. Basically if there were 100 thousand complaints written about aamco on your website last year, that still leaves them with aproxamatly 94 percent approval rating.

!) WTF??? My website??? I don't have anything to do with that website I posted. Someone started a thread here asking for opinions on Aamco and I put in my .02 which included that site which I happened to stumble across.

2) You still haven't read my personal experiences with Aamco yet -- have you. It's great that things worked out so good for you at 1 location that you now feel the need to be their spokesperson but why don't you write back after you've been to more than one location? And BTW, I don't know about where you live but here in the NYC tri-state area I have never come across a single person who has ever said "Man, if you ever have tranny problems go on down to Aamco because they're the best". Never have read that anywhere either -- especially in the DSM community. In my area I've heard about IPT, BM tranny, and a guy in Long Island N.Y. named MITSUGARY. Never heard any of these places advertise on mass media but they all have a good word of mouth reputation for DSM work. So why would I take my chances at SCaamco? They sell you on their warentee but it's worth lees than the paper that it's written on -- I fell for that warentee crap and when I had problems with the rebuild all I got was grief from them.

3) Do you really believe they have a 94 percent approval rating???

These are very rough figures of course, but honestly. Aamco works in one way or another on around 1,800,000 cars a year. Mistakes happen. Not every customer is going to be happy. You can't please every one.

I agree, mistakes happen. But from my dealings with 6 aamco's and running into other very dissatisfied customers at those same stores while I was there with my own trans problems I seen cause for concern. And then I'm running across whole websites that feature nothing but disgruntled customers and what am I supposed to think? And if you read the complaints it isn't of a nature that a mistake happened and then it was resolved but rather that the so-called 'MISTAKES' were not dealt with properly -- which could lead a reasonable person to believe that a pattern of shady bussiness practices is to blame.

All I Know is that a turbo DSM a/t needs the right attention. Most everyone here puts a high value on having cars that run the way the factory built them to run and personally I just don't have any faith in aamco's ability to get the job done right. After all, they are a high volume busines and not a DSM specialty shop. Get it done right the 1st time and you won't have to worry so much about Aamco's famous BULL%#@! "warrentee".
Since I can't seem to get a direct link to my post that chronicles my dealings with Aamco at NJDSM I will copy down that post word for word and re-post it here -- it might take awhile but I'll post it.

 

[91Bomb]

This is my experience with aamco and my '91 TSI A/T FWD. I originally posted this on NJDSM sometime in Aug '02 (I think)


Someone mentioned aamco. I would avoid them like the plague! They %uck BIG TIME. Even their advertisement on tv says that 'ONLY' half the cars they service need new transmissions. That should tell you something right there -- imagine a mechanic that says only half the cars he services needs a new engine? Would you go to him if he tells you this even before he looks at your car?


I got stuck down in Daytona Beach early last summer ('02) with a 'mysterious' electrical problem and traans problem. I stupidly took the car on the beach and then hosed it off to remove all the sand and like an idiot I decided to use the semi-pressure hose to spray up underneath the car. Well, I no doubt got the cold spray right in the hot alternator (they sit very low on our cars) and when I was finished my 3 wk. old pep boys alt. was toast and trans was in limp mode. Go and get a junkyard trans comp and it works fine so I drive over to local p. boys and they put a 2nd alt in for free. Leave there and the trans comp is fried again which I noticed before I even make it 2 blocks down the road -- no limp mode this time but completely insane and eratic shifting. P boys can't help or was even willing to try?! Return trans comp to junkyard and plug my old one back in which gives me limp mode (in my case it gave me 3rd gear only). At a total loss as to what was going on so I swing by 2 auto electric shops who were unwilling to touch the car since the trans was involved and swung by 2 highly recommended independent trans shops who were also unwilling to touch it because it had a 'mysterious' electrical problem so I had no choice but to bring it to AAMCO who said they will find and fix the electrical problem and the trans problem. Now, prior to hosing off the underneath of the car the stock 140,000 mi trans ran perfect for the 5+ yrs. I had it so since the prob Only began the second after I sprayed under there it was more than reasonable to believe I had just shorted something out. AAMCO strings me along -- they need $100 to locate electrical prob. then another $200 and THEN if they were to open the trans they needed more $. Even before openining the trans up the service manager says it's going to need to be rebuilt -- I asked why since the car was in limp mode and I drove it VERY easy and not far -- trans fluid was in good shape and no metal in it either. He says 'well the car has a lot of mi. on it' and the kicker is that he says quote: "We make our money on rebuilding transmissions and we lose money if we only fix other problems", {translation} they make money when fixing ANY problem but they get completely rich off doing complete rebuilds. So, he flatly said they weren't just going to fix the electrical problems UNLESS I give them the ok to rebuild a trans that they hadn't even inspected yet. At this point I owed them over $300 for just looking at the car so it was have it their way or leave my car in Florida -- They would've waived the $300-400 I owed them for their 'troubleshooting work' in exchange for the car as is' so I relunctantly told them to go ahead and fix the thing and hoped for the best. (I figured at least I'd wind up with a trans as good as new) so I signed an agreemenent that total cost of re-build would be b'tween $!200-$2000 plus whatever the electrical probs would cost. After 2 weeks of a lot of back and forth bull%hit total bill was $2700!! Over $1900 for trans re-build ($45 less than their estimated high -- big surprise) $478 - re-built trasns computer (I find out later Tallahasee mitsu sold new for $3 less) and misc. covererd the rest. The serv manager even commented that they "couldn't" charge me any more than they did on the re-build even if they wanted to {the motivation for sayiing this? I guess he takes pride in giving th old scew job}. Now, for the same cost of the re-build I could've had mitsu down the street drop in a re-manufactured unit that would've been COMPLETELY re-built from top to bottom using factory specs. To this day I have no idea if AAMCO even opened up my trans or not. To make things worse they changed the shifting characteristics from that of a positive and fast shift to that of a soft and slower shifting car and refused to set it at factory specs saying that is part of what they do when re-building a trans. Their warentee booklet backs that up as well as 4 customer service reps and 2 cust rep managers at their 1-800 line. Well, I left florida with the pan gasket dripping a bit and made it back to jersey. I take it to the Union AAMCO and the guy doesn't have the time to change a simple pan gasket even if I was to wait all day. Ok great, just had a $2000 re-build, it leaks, and he can't squeeze me in for a pan gasket job. What really pissed me off with this guy is that he was in his 60's and said to me "that in all my years I've rarely seen fluid leak from a pan gasket" (of course he hasn't -- that would be a very cheap fix, now how would he make any money on something like that) I bolted out of there and went up to West Caldwell who gave me an appointmet for the follwing monday. 1st customer there mon. -- takes them 3 hrs. to put a gasket on -- 2 guys are sitting around the whole time doing nothing. Service manager there says he's doing me a favor by not charging me becaude he insists my 1 yr warentee only applies to where I had the original work done in florida (complete bull%hit because the warentee covers all of their 700+ locations) Finally, after watching the mechanic re-fill the trans, chk. it 3 times w/ car warm, running, in neutral on flat ground they were done. Get 2 blocks dowmn the road trans is jumping from gear to gear -- I pull over -- ckk fluid -- bone dry. Slowly drive back to the shop to tell them and serv mang. wryly says "you're dipstick is the wrong one for the car", his partner looks at him incredulously and proceeds to bring out a gallon jug of fluid. It takes 3 QUARTS to put it at the proper level and no the trans fluid hadn't leaked out of anywhere. I was fuming and really laid into that FAT BASTASTARD until he threatened to call the police which I told him to go ahead so I could report this scam he was and still probably is perpetrating on unsuspecting customers. {you come in for a routine fluid + filter service, leave, car shifts like crap, go back and guess what? You need a trans re-build!} 1-800 main cust serv were indifferent to the situation. Car runs good though until 2 months later. Major shifting problems. Take it to Bloomfield where they really don't even want to bother with my car because "warentee work is wholesale work". IT'S THE WARENTEE AND ONLY THE WARENTEE THAT BRINGS MOST PEOPLE TO AAMCO I WOULD THINK -- AT LEAST THAT WAS A MAIN FACTOR IN ME GONG THERRE. Reluctantly, they schedule me in -- keep the car 1 wk -- give it back and say it's as good as new with a new valve body and they were curious why florida hadn't put a new one in. THEY charge florida AAMCO over $100 for the part and more for the labor. Good as new? Drive 1 block -- not good as new -- bad as ever. I had checked the trouble codes before going there in the first place and pulse generator B came up so when I went back I asked them if they checked the codes and they hadn't. When I told them I had they were besides themselves that a customer could actually access this top secret information. 10 days later -- "we put pulse generators in, checked everything and at this point we're leaning towards thinking that its a computer problem" -- The rebuilt tcu for $478 that florida put in was NOT under its 3 mth. warentee anymore so come pick up your car" {funny, Tallahasee sells new for $3 less with a 1 yr warentee} So I bring the car home and its leaking a bit at the pan gasket again and luckily I wound up stumbling across the problem -- bad connection at the trans computer wiring harness. FIXED! A 3 mth problem resolved! Now I just need to get that gasket replaced. Go down to Perth Amboy Aamco and I had accidentally mis-calculated my 1 yr warentee by 1 day and they didn't think they'd be able to put a gasket on for me free of charge, however, "maybe it's leaking from somewhere else and you might need some additional work", says guy with $ signs in his eyes. I told himto go #uck himself and almost broke his glass window on the way out. Later on I was glad the 1 yr warrenteee had finally expired and now I would be through with Aamco forever. Even if the trans completely falls apart now it wouldn't bother me because 1) no more aamco 2) I would take it to a place that is highly reccomended by many people or most likely drop in the same unit that has been re-manned top to bottom with factory specs. Even when I got my car back from bloomfield there was trans fluid all over the top of the trans -- seems they can't even re-fill carefully or clean up their own mess.

Union aamco is known to be about the worst around -- even the other aamcos knew about their antics.
Elizabeth is where I grew up and only about 1 block from that aamco and they always had a bad reputation. Been to Daytona Beach, West Caldwell, Union, Bloomfield, and Perth Amboy. One place is worse than the next with con-men bent on rebuilding your transmission from top to bottom. I spent a lot of time dealing with them and observing how they worked with me and how they dealt with other customers and let me say they have some operation going. If you don't care about honesty then it would be a great place to earn a good living. You might even want to invest in their stock but the one thing you don't want to do is bring your car in there.
Sorry for the long post and I hope it's not inapropriate for my only intention is to pass on some info regarding the repairing of the A/T.
Forgot to mention: They put Dexron fluid in every time they had to fill the trans even though my car calls for type 7176 or ATF+. Their response to me telling them that is NOT the right fluid -- it varried -- 1 serv mang, "we buy Dexron in 50 gal. drums so it would cost us too much $ to use 'special' stuff for your car and anyway we have a 'special additive' that allows it to be used in all transmissions. except hondas". 1 mechanic, " I'm going to refill { not flush out wrong stuff} with ATF+", at home I drain the fluid, put a little in a plastic cup next to a cup w/ ATF+ to compare viscosity -- their dexron is thick, almost like cough syrup, ATF+ is much more thin like wine. 1 cust rep, " they use the right stuff -- any other questions? no. Goodbye (click)

 

[Defiant]

I should probably close this under the Vendor Feedback rule, but my lips are too terribly bruised and painful from all that reading to do it.