This story is is not as bad as the one about Fischer's Auto Body. The shop I used to use has a great set of mechanics. There are a few dunces though.

The worst thing this company did was refer me to Fischer's Auto Body. They rated this body shop highly and I trusted them. Well I ended up being wrong. So after the fiasco with the body shop I went back to Merchant's and spoke to my buddy there. I basically told him what happened and that I was mad he recommended such a bad place. In the conversation with my buddy, I told him that if he was to refer anybody there again, I would stop sending him business. Well I found out about a week later he referred a customer to that body shop. Since then I have not sent anybody to him or been there myself.

Merchant's ended up being a bad shop for a few reasons. The first being the recommendation to that body shop. Another reason is the damage cause to by the wife's BMW 325. The idiot rotating the tires was the issue. He went around the whole car and removed all the lugs while the car was in the air. In this process he left each wheel hanging about 5 feet from the concrete floor. When he got to the right front and final tire, the movement caused the left front to fall to the floor and crack the BMW center cap. When I went up front, he denied it even happening, but I saw it fall. The resolution they offered was for me to by a new center cap, bring the receipt, and they will remove that from my next bill. Whatever! In addition to the center cap, the mechanic broke the shocks on the hood trying to close it. We all know that a BMW hood opens to the front. When they went to close the hood they forced it down and bent both hood shocks. How stupid does one have to be. They did fix that for free. Oh well no more Merchant's.

The second reason was when I referred a buddy there with a Toyota MR2 for tires. They put the rear tires on the front and the front tires on the rear. His wheels are different sizes. In addition to this there are pins on the hubs to make sure the wheels are in their correct location. The idiot doing the tires removed them to make the wheels fit. After that fiasco, he looked at the wheels and found that one of them had severe damage, guess what, it fell from the car.

The third reason was on my Camaro. I had a leak coming from the space between the engine block and intake manifold. The estimate to replace the intake manifold gasket was just over $1000.00. They said I needed to replace the intake and the gasket at the same time. Needless to say I ended up taking the car to Taylor Automotive and they did the repair for $330.00.

I want to say sorry to my buddy, but you are the one that works for Merchant's. Sorry, I am not sending anybody there anymore. I have some warranty work available on my cars and I will not take it back to them for that. I have found other shops that are much better with the help. They are Taylor Automotive and Fink's Wheel Shop.