I am giving Northern Auto 2 stars because of the 10 transactions I have done with them the first 8 were perfect at a great price. I wasn't going to even post about this, but I sent them the email that I am about to post below here and they didn't even write back to say, “hey piss off” or “sorry” or anything.
Good day,
My name is Tim Brown. I have been doing business with you guys for the last 6 or 7 years. I wasn't even going to let you guys know this, but I decided that if you at least knew about it, maybe you can prevent something like this in the future for other customers.
I have done about 10 transactions with you guys and the first 8 were absolutely flawless at a price that could not be beat. And I am very grateful for that work. The last 2 times you guys did some work for me though there were some minor oversights that put me in a bad position and wound up costing me dearly after the fact.
I am only really interested in telling you about the latest transaction. I want to be clear about a few things.
– This repair was done 3 months ago on September 11th, 2013
– I am taking about 30% of the blame on all of this.
– I am not asking for you guys to correct it or make it right in anyway. At this point it serves no purpose for anyone to put the amount of time and cost it would take to make it right.
I have a 2002 Nissan Altima you guys have repaired for me a few times. My goal was to make this Altima last until this summer. On September 11th you guys replaced the timing chain system for me. During this repair Jim called me to inform me that they would need to drain my oil and do an oil change. I said fine. The oversight on your guy's part was you never put oil in it after you drained it, but I wasn't sure of that until just Friday. I am not a car guy by any means.
Here is where my 30% of blame comes in. I check that oil religiously. Generally I need to put about a half-quart in every 6 weeks or so. I will also admit it had been a while since I got that oil changed. Another thing that I take blame for (and please keep in mind I am not a car guy at all) is I was under the impression cars only took about 2 and half courts of oil total. But I figured since an oil changed just happened with you guys I didn't need to worry about it for a few weeks. I only drive this car a few times a week anyway. When I checked the oil about a week later it looked like none was on the dipstick. There was tiny remnants of something, but not much. So I put a quart of oil in and I got the same results on my dipstick. Not much of anything. I just thought maybe they did some kind of super clean in there or something. This goes on for a few months. I am not seeing any oil when I check and I am not seeing much when I add a half a quart or so. Then I was worrying I had too much oil.
Finally on Friday I was driving and the car was acting very peculiar. I was getting white smoke out of the exhaust at take-off and it was very rough. Then my oil light came on. In talking to a mechanic on my street he told me that car probably takes about 4 and a half quarts. We put in 3 and finally I saw oil on my dipstick. But at that point it's too late. He says I have probably blown some kind of valve gasket and that would be waaaaaaayyyy to pricey to fix.
So that is the story. Again, much of this is my fault, and I am not looking for anything in return other than for you guys to know this happened to me, and it's put me in a very bad spot going forward. I won't be going to yelp screaming or hollering, but I probably won't be back that way either for repairs despite your amazing prices.
Sincerely yours,
Timothy Brown