Mcdermott Auto Sales & Service

Mcdermott Auto Sales & Service responded

I am sorry that Deborah Allen feels she had a bad experience with us. We do strive on doing our best to make our customers happy and satisfied with their purchase which is why we offer a personal guarantee on our vehicles for 30 days and place 90 day/3,000 mile power train service contracts on all vehicles. We also offer extended service contracts for purchase. Ms. Allen Purchased her car on 7/17/23 and the date of the Alternator repair was 1/12/24 for reference (nearly 6 months after purchase) We did try to help Ms. Allen in every way possible. At the time of this failure, she had owned her vehicle for 6 months and she was well out of any guarantee or service contract we provided with her purchase, and she refused to purchase any extended warranty beyond the ones we provided. I am not sure why she expected us to fix her car for free. We do repairs free of charge for the first 30 days after purchase with our guarantee. We then cover power train issues for 90 days/3,000 miles which she was aware of and told at the time of purchase 6 months prior. Alternators do not fall under that category of repair even if she was within the 3 month time frame. We told her that her vehicle was going to take just under $500 to repair with replacement of the alternator with a new Napa part and she said she did not have that kind of money and went into her family story of what was going on etc. She asked if there was any way to get her back up and running. We informed her to get her up and running we could get a used Alternator from a salvage yard, and to help out we would charge her only for the cost of the part to us and put it in for free. We did inform her that used parts are not guaranteed though especially electrical components. They were tested by the salvage yard and proven to work but for how long can't be guaranteed because it is coming out of a car the same year/make/ model as yours. She accepted this, we did the repair, and she paid $106 total with the tax and left. When she called back almost 3 weeks later saying she was having issues and took it to a shop who told her the alternator was overcharging (which was a different issue than she came to us with), needed replaced and wanted to charge her over $500( which is the initial cost of the repair from us with new parts) I had wished the used alternator would have lasted her longer but unfortunately it didn't so we offered her a refund of the $106 she paid and she happily accepted so she essentially paid nothing for the repair she has filed this complaint about. We immediately mailed her a check for refund which she cashed. I am not sure what triggered this review almost 8 months after her acceptance of the full refund we made her on this repair. I wish we could have done more but unfortunately; Ms. Allen accepted the level of service contract we offered at the time of purchase of her used vehicle and did not want to upgrade or extend and then was unhappy when 3 months after the expiration of that contract that we didn't do her repairs to her vehicle for free. Even though she couldn't afford the cost of repairs, we discounted her repair and performed it with her at cost, got her in immediately for those repairs, explained the possibility of issues using used parts and then refunded her money when that part failed. I felt that the matter was resolved 8 months ago. I wish I knew what triggered her to review us 8 months later so poorly after happily accepting the outcome at the time.