Bill & Ray's Truck Repair

Jan 5th, 2024

Oct 19th, 2023

Oct 18th, 2023

Jul 30th, 2023

Unfortunately I have mixed feelings at this repair shop. They are incredibly smart and are always able to find the issue Im having when other shops cant. Theyve done good in the past. However the 2 most recent interactions I wasnt thrilled with. Last time they came in over a grand higher than the quote and they met me halfway and dropped 500 off after I complained. The only reason I complained wasnt because it was more expensive it was because all the way up until within an hour of completion of the job they were saying we were on track for the 4200-4500 range still. Wasnt until I showed up that I got surprised with over 5k bill. This time around I had a lot of issues with the truck stumbling and running very rich and nobody found it. Took it to these guys because I knew theyd find the problem. They sure did. Called me right away saying it was cylinder 3 on a cutout test and wanted to take the valve cover off. I approved. They took the cover off and immediately called me. Told me they can see plain as day that the camshaft and rockers were shot and pitted and damaged. Most likely from being loose previously. They asked to drain the oil and check for shavings and even asked if they could pull the oil pan to check main bearings. I said no to the pan and said to drain the oil and let me know what they found. Next phone call I got they said no shavings were found and they said the cylinder under the injector looked fine so they had no deeper worries and planned to do a quote for a cam and all new rockers. Told me they had to do all the rockers for warranty reasons. Next morning I called and asked if they had the quote. He said no they were still working on the quote. Then an hour later I get a call. He says that with the truck being modified they wont warranty it anyways so he was only sending a quote for a cam and 3 rockers. The quote was a little under $12k. I declined the repair and told them to put the valve cover back on and fill it with oil so I could pick it up. This is when I learned they removed all the rockers already. But wait theres more. They also removed the injectors. You guessed it theres more. They drained the coolant according to the bill. The co owner/service writer claimed they pulled the components to inspect them all to get an accurate estimate of what was fully needed for parts and claimed it was because of me complaining last time when they went over. But in reality what Im seeing is that they began tear down and just assumed they had me in a corner and assumed Id do the repair there. After reassembly they called with a $1400 bill. I told him I wasnt paying for unauthorized work. Told him it wasnt his truck or his money he was playing around with and should always consult the owner of the vehicle before tear down. He argued with me for a while then told me it only took an hour of labor to disassemble. Yet somehow we had a couple hours of c&a and then what? A couple hours of tear down and assembly and ended up at 1400? He made it sound like he was going to work with me and settle on 5 hours. Based off the math of what hours it took to do this unauthorized work, it added up to 5 in my head to begin with so I wasnt very happy about this ordeal. He then proceeded to tell me he noticed the quote had more work and parts on it than they actually needed. Told me to subtract X number of money from the quote. What he didnt know is I already noticed those prior when I declined the repair. If I approved that repair there is no doubt in my mind they wouldve charged me for the work and parts that werent actually needed for the job. I picked the truck up to find that they somehow mustve hit my driver side mirror bracket on something because it must be so difficult to move a truck i guess. So now the left mirror bracket is loose. I took the truck to a diesel performance shop to do the repair and they did it for $9k. **update: mirror bracket isnt just loose. Its completely broken at the bottom. Must be hard to pull a truck in the shop. Theyll be getting a bill for the repair.
Dec 20th, 2023