AAMCO Transmissions & Total Car Care

With a very heavy heart I type this review.
I wanted so much to believe there was hope for this little business… but alas, the owner. Ben, is so stubbornly set in the old school «get em and skin em» mentality… plus he has the business in a deep hole which causes him to use desperate unethical business practices… And I should know, I was his manager for 2 ½ months. A little history here. bare with me…
My father and my hero; Bob Roberts of Parkhouse Tire (retired), built his Giant Tire empire by treating people the way he would want to be treated through relational business principles. Dad was not the «cheapest guy» in town, but anyone… that was anyone, in 1980’s –1990’s Southern California earth moving business, did business exclusively with my Father… he earned their trust and his reputation spread very fast.. My father taught me to not «sell» but rather to «create an atmosphere that is conducive to transactions» and that only happens when trust is established… and that must be earned… and may even cost you something to earn… which takes time…
…It’s the old «Seed time and Harvest» principle. You reap what you sow. But you gotta start off with a right heart, wanting to help people first, then planting good seeds to get to the good harvest… «Poor Ben had been sowing such bad seeds for so long that the business was deep in a hole and was barely holding on, most all of our parts venders have Ben on CASH only status, having customers like the one in my example below …“prepay» him to work on their cars and even offer discounts if they will pay in cash, he was bouncing paychecks on employees… and still to this day, I’m waiting for my final paycheck that he has repeatedly assured me would be taken care of A.S.A.P. Its been over a year now! That’s his character speaking – do you want to trust your vehicle into the hands of one with that kind of shoddy character?
Red flags go up when he and I first met and the first words out of his mouth were «Are you gonna have a problem lying to customers?» «Cause sometimes we need to keep cars overnight… parts problems etc…» Now, I was here as a favor to a friend .so Ben could start a medical treatment he was overdue for. I didn’t need this job or Ben’s temper and bad business practices… I was only here to try and help him… but…
In my experience… if your just honest and tell the customer that the wrong part was delivered and could I have a little more time with their vehicle?” 9 out of 10 times the customer was fine with that, I may give a free oil change for their inconvenience… but I see that as an investment for future business. under promise and over deliver Dad would say.
One example; This woman, an x-​marine, single mom, stopped in with her caddy over heating. The water pump had seized, breaking the belt, which in turn broke the carbon polymer pulley it rode on. (This motor, the carbon polymer pulley was at the end of the #2 cam shaft) Ordered the pulley and got my iPad out and checked local service bulletins via dealership, (like ya do) and sure enough TONS of tech chat on proper removal of this pulley from the end of the cam shaft– MUST USE PULLEY REMOVAL TOOL — Any prying or unequal force applied will result in snapping the cam shaft. So I went out to the shop and asked our lead tech –Do you have a pulley removal tool, I further explained what I found on the inet. Our lead tech assured me he had «it under control». and «I don’t get paid the big bucks for nothing, he stated» …pride comes before the fall, I was thinking as I went back up front to see to a customer. About 45 minutes later… the lead tech comes in and tosses the now broken cam portion still attached to the broken pulley. What this meant was he… the shop, were responsible for breaking this persons cam— …When presented to Ben… he gets on the phone finds a used head at a junk yard and has it delivered, (I still have pictures of this) tech removes that used cam that came loaded in the used head to replace the one he broke… then Ben charges her for the repair!!! Ben even went to her apartment to pick up cash making her prepay… Oh and to add insult to injury… She got into a rental car to use while we had hers in the shop — there was a $ 40.00 upgrade charge that Ben refused to cover for her! Which of course sent her sideways.. I had to subtract myself from the entire thing, just taking pics for later reference… Her total bill when done was over $ 1800.00– This is only one example– There were times when, because of his own bad seed coming back on him, that even in front of customers he would go into these rages, throwing things and cussing, screaming so loud you could hear him out in the shop. That was it for me… I could not be affiliated with Ben or his way of doing business… I have to answer to a higher authority… in my life anyway… I left and have been waiting for my last $ 600.00 paycheck ever since

Brought my Jeep here a week ago and no need for me to nitpick, it was fast, affordable and my truck runs like new. That’s all that matters:) Very satisfied!