I had an air conditioner replaced on my 1999 Chevrolet Blazer at 108,000 miles. This was done at Patriot Motors, Hopkinsville, KY under the Mr. Goodwrench program under General Motors customer service department.
This program warranted repair to several major items, including the air conditioning system, where as long as you owned the vehicle any repair would be made to correct a problem with GM furnishing the parts and the dealer furnishing the labor.
At about 210,000 miles, the air conditioner went out and Patriot Motors and GM made the repairs without any cost to me. In early summer, 2015 with the vehicle showing 370,000 miles, the air conditioner went back out.
I contacted Patriot Motors to have the air conditioner repaired under the Mr. Goodwrench lifetime warranty, but was told their records for the dates I had the repair had been done had been purged, and without me furnishing proof that the repair had be done that they were sorry, but could not do anything for me.
My records that old were in a storage building, but after searching several boxes of records, I found the original repairs, which Patriot has a copy of that I furnished. Patriot replaced part of the original repair items but not all because the repairman felt some had been damaged since the last repair.
Patriot Chevrolet had been the only repairman that had ever worked in that area and the vehicle had never had any damage to that area or in the engine compartment. The vehicle has never had any covers replaced and the only repair other than replacing fluids & filters were the replacement of two sparkplugs and two sparkplug wires at the rear of the engine and this was on the other side of the engine from the dryer & evaporator which the repairman said was damaged.
I heard the repairman tell my service tech that he did not think the repair would last long and showed her a filter that I say which was about 3 inches long and black.
I asked what I should do, but all I was told the air condition would be around longer than the car. After a couple weeks. I lost my cold air and on my own I went to a top a/c repairman and spent $322 to replace parts. After this I had cold air. The compressor locked up after about 400 miles. Patriot replaced the compressor, but it locked up.
They replaced that one because there was no oil at the orifice. After that one went out I took the vehicle back in to the local a/c man and had the system cleaned and put on a new condenser. Patriot replaced that compressor and I was able to go 87 miles before the compressor locked up. I was told it was their fault due to no oil had been put in the compressor.
Now with 382,000 miles I have been without air for over a month. Finally, I was told if I got the system cleaned up with new parts, they would put on a new compressor. I got a price from the local a/c repairman because after getting two compressors without oil and one that lasted 87 miles, I did not want Patriot's repairman trying again to find the oil for the compressor.
I have been told by two other a/c repairmen that with the noise the compressor makes with it off, that my problem definitely is that there is insufficient oil in the compressor and it will probably lock up, even without using the a/c now. I contacted the service manager today.
I was told the repair to the entire system would have to be done by Patriot with me paying for the dryer, evaporator, condenser and line. I have paid for all of this myself. I was told they would not make repairs, unless I paid for the repairs and they had to be at Patriot.
They are to give me a price by Monday, October 12. I have asked today and a couple times before whether they would furnish a compressor and orifice and a couple hundred dollars and I would sign a release or waiver on the warranty and be able to use those parts and money to pay toward making the repair and that would let Patriot & GM off the hook.
This would be a few hundred dollars less for me than Patriot doing the work. After spending well over $600 already to replace and clean up the system, the system is contaminated and does need fixing for a new compressor to work. I feel that I have not contaminated the system, but Patriot, by their own admission, not putting oil in the compressor contaminated the system after I had paid to clean it on my own.
The Goodwrench warranty was to put me back whole as long as I owned this vehicle. With the money I have spent, plus the miles and hours getting multiple compressors put on the vehicle, I am being asked to pay out over $2,000 if I do the work with Patriot and about $1,500 if I do it with a qualified shop I trust (that's without being furnished a compressor or some help toward the labor.)
This is some reward for having purchased 6 cars and truck and having my employer furnish 4 GM company cars and trucks since 1986. I have spent over $8,000 plus a warranty repair to my LTZ's transmission with Patriot. I have been a loyal customer to GM and to Patriot for many years and I doubt whoever reads this could disagree.
I wanted nothing more than the warranty to work as it stated. I don't want to find out whether changing the terms of the warranty by requiring me to make other repairs after 4 attempts to comply with the warranty in what I feel is nothing more than an effort to have me go away. I just want the warranty applied to the repair of my vehicle.
Now I have a final few complaints from previous cities I have lived in. This is in regard to the Chevy dealership in Romney, WV. But, here goes. My 1999 Chevy truck’s brake lines rusted out (again) and I entrusted the truck to these folks. The mechanic did a proper job, except he neglected to reinstall the speed sensor plug on the transmission.
When I placed the transmission in 4WD the “service” light came on. This morning I went under truck and reconnected the Speed Sensor and now it works fine. I Talked to “Joe” this am and told him what happened. Of course, Joe had no explanation and apologized. I only gave Joe two words of advice; “quality control”.
Appearances matter and from what I saw at this Chevy dealership you the same old tired faces as the previous owner of this dealership. The mechanics are either a bunch of young squirts, or old men from the old folk’s home. The only personnel with uniforms were Joe and another guy. I know you will respond with “gobble-de-gook”, or not at all. My next truck will not be a Chevy.
After that I bought a brand new 2014 Encore which is well still under warranty. At 25,000 started burning oil like crazy. Your people had me do an oil consumption test for 2,000 miles. What a joke. Was burning 31/2 quarts every 200 miles. After 2 months you finally decided it was time to tear the engine down. After 7 days got the car back and the check engine light went on driving home. In 4 months have not driven it much because it's in the shop.
Really pisses me off that I paid $30,000 on this vehicle that most of the time I can't drive. Ready to use the lemon law as this is bull! Writing the check every month for almost $500 makes me sick! Will never ever buy a GM product again! And I will tell my friends my lousy experience.
