Austin Automotive

Dear Jordan Springman of Austin Automotive
I am a recently (past year), a new customer who had come in due to a failed aircare and heard great reviews of your shop. At that time I chose you to inspect and diagnose my failure and it was determined effectively and at what seemed a reasonable cost of $ 745.90. (Catalytic converter and air filter)
I felt I was treated fairly and thus had a great opinion of your shop and decided I would return for future service.
I later (several months) had a concern of a belt squeak under the hood and remembered the service I had received and decided to call you again for the remedy which again I received good response and repair at a cost of $ 539.78.(Tensioner, pulley, belt etc) The only problem was I wasn’t able to pay for my repair with a credit card over the phone as you said was against your policy according to the owner (your dad) so I had to get there during business hours to pay. Not the end of the world but a bit inconvenient for my schedule. moving right along.
I just recently broke down and had my van towed to your shop with confidence. You solved the problem to which I was happy but here is where it gets complicated as I thought I was Your customer? I was in negotiations with another party from out of town to purchase my vehicle. Now I had mentioned to him that you do not take payment by credit card by phone and that he should seek another shop to preform a mechanical inspection but I still wanted to offer you business, I recommended that he contact you about the van inspection. I understand you want to give the clearest picture of the condition of the vehicle to a potential buyer, but I assumed It would be on him to either come in to pay directly or face Finding another shop to inspect it (due to your policy). Now I am aware that he paid (though I don’t know how) and you gave him a list all of the needed repairs. Here is where you could have shared some mechanical information of repairs I could have spent in your shop to improve my selling this vehicle safely. instead you shared with him information including pictures of rust preventing the sale, Rust which I was unaware of. So myself being your customer vs. a person living out of town and potentially never returning to your shop was put first. If you didn’t feel my vehicle was road worthy or was in a serious state of disrepair you should have offered me the chance to repair it at your shop. I have never been made aware of needed repairs with exception to a recent harmonic balancer (based on a historic or common occurance). At this point with this situation, I’m willing to write you off as a shop for a total of $ 85.18 and never returning to your shop along with any other business I may have brought to you. I am very disappointed.
I have been a previous career Service Writer in dealerships for 15 years and I am still disappointed to find that no one has offered me the same service and courtesy that I have offered my previous customers. Call backs /​update during service experience etc
I have since looked at other shops to perform my suspected repairs and hope in the future you realize the damage your shop has done to customer confidence. I will now be taking my hard earned dollars elsewhere rather than Austin Automotive, as will everyone I know.
Regards,
Tristen Snell
Previous Customer

When I had a less than new car, I would bring it here for the various repairs that it required.
This family-​run business is how all family-​run businesses should run. They’re friendly, personable and really try to make you happy.
I found them to be very honest with every diagnosis of my car and their prices very reasonable. Not being a car guy, I did not feel the least bit intimidated by their explanations and they’re happy to elaborate on anything you don’t understand.
Definitely a good place to take your car.