Sonomatic

In any established business, one should have visibility of what they are getting when they pay for something. In retail, there are receipts — in business-​to-​business, invoices. Visibility is required in order to gain the best possible understanding of what one pays for. Unfortunately, for me, Sonomatic was unable/​unwilling to accommodate what is a generally accepted business practice.
Although things have changed since John S. from La Grange went there (i.e. — they’ll conduct a diagnostic for free now), the fact that they were quoting $ 1880 for a leaking solenoid pack on a transmission was extreme. Where did Sonematic get this $ 1880 from?
(NOTE: I would later go to Mike Zoppa at Odgen Car Care. He quoted a little over $ 400 for the exact same service. And I only told him about the «Check Engine» light!)
I asked to see an invoice showing those charges by line item (e.g. «Cost of Parts», «Services rendered», «Labor» and «Taxes»). All I wanted was justification, by specifics, of how they came to that number — as would be expected from any other established business. The associate shrugged off my direct question, referring instead to their 60 year tenure. Okay, congratulations, that still doesn’t answer my question!
Drifting away from the poor customer service, I would have never known about the leaking solenoid pack had I not recorded the discussions on my work phone — again, this information is not on their quote papers! A breakdown of their charges was something that I had requested prior to picking up my car. They didn’t object to it at the time. However, when I went to pick up the car, they didn’t have that paper ready, and were generally dismissive about not having it ready. No apologies offered, or explanations given!
If a fair question about a customer concern shakes one up so, then I’m frankly surprised that Sonomatic remains in business.
Props:
* Free diagnostic
Slops:
* Outrageous quote ($ 1880)
* No visibility
* A poor attitude towards questions concerning the aforementioned problems

My poor POS car has gone through just as many bumps and bruises as I did growing up, but yet it somehow has gotten me over 140,000 miles…
When I ran into a curb last week and managed to tear open the transmission fluid line and gasket, and massive amounts of red liquid started pouring out of my car, I thought for sure the repairs were going to be expensive and it would be time to part ways.
Fortunately .7 blocks away was a local repair shop that I managed to drive (at 20 mph) my car to.
When I got there I felt like I was sitting in a 70s car shop with the wood panel walls and black and white tv and a few older gentlemen behind the counter. It seemed to be a busy location — the phone was constantly ringing — which I’m assuming is good?
When I was unable to get ahold of anyone to pick me up from the repair shop, one of the men offered to call his wife so she could drive me home — how sweet!
Repairs were done next day and the price was affordable. Thank you Sonomatic, I’m back to racking up another 10,000 on my POS car!

Brought my car in today and couldn’t be happier, what a great experience! John the owner was great, I brought my car in for a transmission service and flush. While they had it on the rack they inspected my exhaust and told me it was a broken tube coming off of the converter, $ 29 to fix! I had been quoted $ 600 at a local «big name muffler» shop, I won’t name them. Great customer service is alive and well at Sonomatic!!!
Thanks John!!!

Yes Virginia, there still is great customer service still available, call John here. I love my car, don’t want a new one. Mine needed struts, tie rod and ball joints. Got it here at a great price, great turn around. Totally satisfied, bring your car here!

How do you except a business to run, especially a auto repair shop with all evaluations are free? Cars nowadays are some of the most hard to diagnose the problems, they have always charged that fee. Because it takes actual work to find the problem! Plus they will not do the work less you agree to it. Sorry you had a bad experience, but see what happens when you take your car to the dealer!

BEWARE! Unbeliveably horrible service! I went in for an estimate to repair an emissions problems on my car. Without mentioning that there’s a charge for simply looking at the car they charged me $ 88.50 without doing any actual work! When I got back to the shop I checked for a sign that said minimum charge or if a minimum fee was listed on the paperwork I signed. There was no notice anywhere. Then they told me that it would cost nearly $ 1000 to replace the catalytic convertor. I checked online and the original equipment replacement costs only $ 74! They claimed that they HAD to buy theirs through the dealership and that their COST was $ 900! Unbelieveable lies! Unbelievable ripoff! If you’re smart you’ll NEVER be dumb enough to put your car in the hands of these crooks. BEWARE!

I go here when others have told me a repair is needed (oil change place, etc) and they have shown me no work needed to be done, more than once, saving me from unnecessary repair expenses.