Oceanside Driveline

First and last time I'll ever go there.  I needed my truck by a particular Friday for a road trip the following Monday (Oceanside Driveline is closed on the weekend).  I visited the shop almost two weeks in advance to schedule the work to install a limited-slip differential; something they have done thousands of times in the past.  That's what they do.  I told them I had a wad of hundred dollar bills in my pocket and would pay them cash (this was the truth).

They made an appointment for me to drop it off the following Monday before my departure deadline of close of business that Friday.  I let them know I needed the truck by that Friday and if they couldn't do the work in time, I'd consider other options.   I dropped the truck off Monday morning as planned.

I stopped by Wednesday to see how things were going and because they failed to call with the estimate upon inspection as promised.  When I arrived, I found the the truck in front of the shop, windows open with all my electronic gadgets on the dashboard and a warm hood.  They had time to drive it around, but no time to work on it?  Hmmmmm......  One of those gadgets is a video camera/cockpit voice/GPS location recorder hard-wired to the ignition circuit.  I look forward to watching that video when I finally get possession of my truck.

Now it's departure Friday, and they eventually get around to opening my truck up to discover it requires additional parts.  At least they're not charging me storage fees for the four days before finally working on it.  I wondered how long they would have stored it had I not made the appointment the prior week.  I gave them the OK to proceed and indicated money is not the concern; time is.  They said they should be able to finish the job by late afternoon and that they will call when it's done.  I received a one-ring phone call from them Friday afternoon at 3:37pm.  I assume that's the call to pick it up even though they had blocked caller ID and left no message.  Prior calls from them were blocked ID, so this appeared to be Oceanside Driveline calling.  If that wasn't them calling, then why did they not call?  I returned the call three minutes later at 4:00......  No answer.  I called again and again.  Still no answer.  Now that really screws up the road trip I had planned for first light on Monday plus the packing and logistics I planned to do over the weekend.  I'm meeting someone coming from Canada in Oklahoma, so it screws up his schedule as well.

That's why I walked in your door nearly two weeks ago to schedule an all-cash deal for the kind of work you do on a daily basis.....  So you could get it done on time, without any last-minute surprises.  Thanks for blowing me off!  It must be nice having so many customers coming in the door that you can afford to conduct business like indifferent bureaucrats:  Calling at 3:57, not bothering to leave a message, then refusing to pick up the phone 5 seconds past your 4:00 closing time?  I expect that level of service from the DMV; I didn't expect that from Oceanside Driveline based on the reviews I read.  Obviously. I was wrong.  I won't make that mistake a second time.

I give them one star for being knowledgeable, and presumably doing acceptable work.  I deduct four stars for failure to communicate and being deceptively clueless when it comes to customer service.

I'll update this scathing review after I watch (and listen to) the dash-cam video.