Crooked, overpriced service.
The bottom line
- Slow service: took A-1 Transmission 7 days before they even took my transmission apart
- Expensive: charged $810 for a job that takes approximately 5-6 hours. Other shops quoted $350-$550 for an 8 hour job of similar scope (old transmission out, new transmission in).
- Evident lack of expertise: A-1 Transmission’s solution to any problem is to buy a rebuild kit and swap parts, even if the rebuild kit is not required.
The experience
I rebuilt the transmission on my truck myself but was having an issue with one of the clutch packs. I called their shop, per a friend’s recommendation, and asked if they would mind taking a look at my issue. The shop happily sent over their "free" towing service, for which I was later charged $50. Jeff, the owner of A-1 Transmission, said that he would have one of his mechanics take the transmission apart to see if they could find the issue. For the next 7 days, I never received an update call. I called the shop every day, and every day, Jeff told me that they had not yet disassembled the transmission.
On the 7th day, the owner told me that they had finally taken the transmission apart and it needed a full rebuild. He said that they would need to purchase a full rebuild kit and that the repairs would cost $2800. I knew this was unnecessary since I had just rebuilt the transmission and the clutches and steels had 0 miles on them (I later found that my problems were because I had put a reaction plate in the place of a pressure plate. The fix was very easy, took 5 minutes, and required no additional parts.).
By this point, I was not comfortable with the shop's competence. I told the owner to stop all work, pack up the parts, and that I would pick the truck up and do the repairs myself. I asked Jeff to figure out how much I owed him for their work so that I could pay him before I picked up the truck. He told me that I owed $810 for the work and the "free" tow. Knowing that the amount of work his shop performed could not be more than 5-6 hours, I asked the owner how much time they had spent on my truck. He said that they did not keep track but that he estimated 10 hours: 6 hours to pull the transmission, 2 hours to take the transmission apart, and 2 hours to box up my parts. I know from experience (backed up by many internet sites) that it takes approximately 4 hours to pull a transmission, 30 minutes to an hour to disassemble a transmission, and less than 10 minutes to place a few items in a box. To confirm my suspicions that I was being grossly overcharged, I called a few shops in the area and asked how much they charge to remove a transmission and then install a new transmission. This is approximately an 8 hour job - 4 hours to take out the transmission, 4 hours to put in the new transmission. Panhandle Transmission quoted me $350 and Bill's Transmission quoted my $550. This means that A-1 was charging me 370% of the local rate. I brought this information to Jeff’s attention but he refused to drop the price. Since the truck is my daily driver, I had no choice but to pay the excessive $810. On the day that I scheduled to pick up my truck, I contacted the shop to make sure my vehicle would be ready when I arrived. Jeff assured me many times that the truck would be ready. Of course, when I showed up, my truck was still in the back and my parts had not been boxed up. I was made to wait an hour before one of the shop's employees was free and could retrieve my vehicle.
In all, I was extremely dissatisfied with the quality of the service provided and the outrageously high prices. I will never take any of my vehicles back to A-1 Transmission and I strongly discourage others from making the same mistake.
