my very negative experience at knibbe automotive in crowfoot

[dinglenuts]

so, it started with me having a vehicle towed in with the promise of work being done that day. Called them at 4:30 and they had'nt looked at it yet, said the next day(this was after i explained i needed the vehicle to work in red deer the next day) day two: knibbe automotive claims my stalling and irratic rpm issues are from a faulty battery. They charged me 110 for an avr check, 148 for a battery. Guaranteed the problem was the battery even after i disputed the fact. Day three, vehicle dies on me going to work, they have nothing to say. I do an avr check and read the codes(which they billed me for, and claimed were both clean) i came up with a faulty crank positioning sensor and a 9 volt draw on the battery somewhere in the vehicle. I replaced the cps myself in an hour for 65 bucks. Made arrangements to have vehicle(jeep g cherokee) tested for draws today and have it fixed based on their promise of it getting in today for sure. Called at noon, they said it would definately not get in till monday again. I had mentioned to them i could bring it back next thursday when i'm home, but that was if they didn't have time to fully repair it. Basically, i got charged for an avr and code reading, which they claimed were good, when obviously they were both bad, and twice they broke their service promise, resulting in me losing hours at work, and generally f ing up my weekend by making arrangements for rides. Very unprofesional in my opinion, not to mention, i feel ripped off with what i paid for bullshit answers. If anyone wants to call just for kicks and let them know that this word gets around, their number is 547 7771

[adidas]

So you got ur car back, and then decided to take it back for what reason? To have them warrenty the work that they did?


If a place tossed me around like that in the first place id never think about goin back to them for whatever reason it may be!

Why no just try an get ur money back and take ur business elsewhere?!

[TomcoPDR]

Seems pretty rare that repair facilities PROMISE delivery time with diagnostic of unknown problems, quite different from plug and play repairs (i.e. changing tie rod ends, tire change)

OP, could it be a case of miscommunication where the coversation went something like this:

OP: "I NEED this car by Thrusday, you'll have it done by then right?"
Shop: "Well, I'll do my best, I'll let you know"

(then OP assumes the shop promised said delivery time)

I don't know this shop nor associated with them, however, I've seen professional dealership service advisors telling customers: "I'm sorry, we really can't guarantee you a completion time on an unknown problem like this until we start working on the vehicle and anaylize the situation, I'll keep you updated through out the way, what's the best number I can reach you at?"

[avow]

knibbe is shit. they kept jerking me around fixing stuff that didnt need to be fixed on my accord. ran up a bill of $600. I made a post on here and less then an hour later someone told me what the real problem was (distributor).

also charged me $600 to put a kill switch in my mr2.

they are a total waste of time. stay away from them :whipped:

[dinglenuts]

they did not promise the repair on time, just that they would begin working on the problem that day due to me needing it asap. I would not have had the vehicle towed there if they were going to let it sit for two days, not to mention, all the stuff they couldn't figure out, i managed to figure out on my days off, after being charged for the diagnostics they claimed were clean and were not. The second time was because i had been charged for a fix, with no fix, they again promised to definately get it in the next day, and again didn't. They also didn't call to let me know, so three days off over a week and a half were more difficult for me and my wife to car pool, she also had to miss a double time shift in order to drive me to and from work on saturday for my double time shift. just overall a run around and very unprofessional, especially when i could find the problems when i actually had the time.

[SilverBoost]

well every story usually has two sides and since different people can have different experiences I might as well post that I had a decent experience with KNIBBE automotive on Centre Street. I dealt with the owner myself with a POS VW I bought as a beater last winter. The thing went dead in rush hour downtown, so I had it towed to KNIBBE on centre street and they looked at it the next day. Because this thing was an 86 Jetta nobody there had a whole lot of experience with it so they took the time to call around and even looked for parts for me outside the province once we found the issue. Ultimately we got the car running again and I wasn't charged a per hour rate for the time it took to investigate the problem because they weren't an expert on that year. They had the car for a few days but I was satisfied with the overall experience. I told him ahead of time what I was prepared to spend on this car and it never got above that. In the end the car just had more issues than I was willing to pay to look into, but my overall service and communication experience was a good one.

Not the same location I know, but same name and owner.

[dinglenuts]

^^ fair enough, i'm sure its not bad for everyone or they've be out of business, and yes, the owner, john was great, the people helping me were not.

[crez]

I have dealt with him a tonne of times while working at a shop who used them for all mechanical work. He's a very professional guy, super clean and meticulous of the shop and the people in it. Of the hundreds of vehicles I saw sent to him never saw one come back for anything. Every shop has a problem here and there, maybe you got unlucky.

[gorelore]

That's weird. Me and my whole family service there cars at Knibbe and we've never had any problems with them. I do know that they are a very busy shop and if they said they'd try to fit you in, I'm sure they did there best. I don't think you can just show up at a shop and say fix my car and expect to get in immediately. I'm sure the other customers that actually had an appointment wouldn't appreciate that. LOL. I guess you can't please everybody. I always recommend everyone I know to go to Knibbe. They rock!

[Mr. Pat]

I also have been going to Knibbe's for years, only shop Ive ever found I can trust. (Show me my parts every time, so I know exactly what they did!) I've never had a problem , and I also would refer anyone I know to them. Used to work in a shop myself, understand it can be tough to please everyone all the time!! 9V drop is a huge drop by the way, doesn't seem likely...

[leo_vr]

Agreed! Trust them completely, service has always been awesome!! (sorry that you had a bad experience though...guess no one is perfect...) Unfortunately I've needed their services more than i'd like, lol, but they've been great every time. First time I went there cuz they were like $200 less than everyone else for axles for my car - very happy with the experience. Will keep going back again...and again...and again.... lol

[mikemechanic]

What I find wierd as a mechanic is all these years I've been measuring draw in amps not volts....

[em2ab]

Do they do alternators? :dunno:

[dinglenuts]

as a former journeyman electrician, i also know draw is measured in amps, however, when putting a voltmeter in line with your battery, it shows a volt draw on the battery - potential difference - i'm sure i was angry with the run around i received, and honestly, the owner has been trying to call me about it now, but i'm done. i am sure that most of the time, they are good for most people, just posting my experience. as i said, the owner was a great guy, and the last few times i went there, everything was good. Just this time, dealt with another guy, was not good, very frustrating. Take it as you will, this was just my situation, i'm sure many other people like this shop. For my part, it didn't seem right that when i checked codes and did avr, i found a bad sensor and a draw, yet they didn't, cleared me to go , and billed me, then the net day, hooped again.