Meccanic Shop North Inc

Sold two cars for me. Very professional and competent. Stress free and easy. Thank you!
Mar 28th, 2024

Feb 14th, 2024

Dec 31st, 2023

Dec 25th, 2023

I brought my LR4 here for a bad wheel bearing, that was making the car dangerous to drive. Whenever I have larger jobs, I tend to take the car down to the Land Rover dealer down in Darien, CT, but since the car was in rough condition, I figured that would be too far to safely drive. I called up the shop and explained the situation to Anthony. He told me to come right over, but unfortunately when I got there they were busy so I was not able to stick around while they looked it over. A few interesting things I noticed while I was there. They have 3 different hourly rates that they can charge, depending on which category your call falls into. I didn't verify this, but being a small shop I do believe they have small crew of mechanics that work on all the cars, which means that you may be paying more than the next guy, but receiving the same level of service. Also, they have a posted sign stating that verbal quotes are free, but written quotes have a diagnostic fee. Seemed like a fair policy (if they followed it, that is.) Anyway, I received a call later that day from Anthony, telling me that not only was the right bearing bad, but the right axle was bad, and the left bearing was starting to go as well. I asked him how much it would all cost, and he said he would have to get back to me. He calls me up the next day and gives me a quote, which I found really high, so I said just forget it I'll come by and take the car back. Anthony says he can't let me drive the car as it was unsafe to drive. I reminded him that I mentioned that I already knew that and had mentioned it to him over the phone when we first spoke, but he was steadfast that this was his policy and he could not let me drive it home ( I live about 10 minutes away, not too far down Hardscrabble road). I even offered to sign a liability release, but no dice. Funny how he didn't seem to have a problem with me driving it over to him in the unsafe condition, but wouldn't let me drive it home, but I'll let you decide how you feel about that policy. Anyway, I told him I needed some time to figure out transport for the vehicle and he was okay with that. The next morning I had a tow truck arranged, and they called up the shop to let them know they were on the way. They told the driver I owed them a diagnostic fee before the car could be released. So now once my driver relayed that to me, I called up and spoke to Anthony, and reminded him of his posted policy about no charge for verbal quotes. He just kept saying he needs to write up a quote to give me a price. So what exactly is the point of a "free" verbal quote if you need to charge to write it up first? Seems pretty dishonest to me but I just wanted my car back so I drove over there and paid the fee, made sure I got a copy of that written quote since I was paying for it, and had my driver transport the car back to my house. After I drove it up my driveway, I noticed the wheel hub cover from my rim was missing. I called up Anthony and he claimed he knew exactly what I was talking about, and had meant to put it back but forgot. Again, I'll let you decide whether that seems true or not. Any way, I had to drive over there yet again to pick it up. Now for the kicker. I called up Land Rover Darien and explained the situation, and told them about all the work this shop was recommending. Land Rover Darien charges $250/hr for their service, which is definitely more than Mechannic Shop's labor rate. However, even with them using genuine Land Rover parts, they were charging substantially less. I looked over the quote that Anthony provided me, and sure enough, they didn't break down the amount of hours they were charging for. When I spoke on the phone with Anthony, I had actually asked him about how many hours of work it was, since the quote was so high, and he was saying somewhere around 8 hours, but clearly he did not want to put this part in writing, as Land Rover themselves only charge 4 hours for the same job. TLDR: More expensive than the dealer, don't follow their own posted policies, may hold your car hostage.
Feb 27th, 2024