Tom Wilson auto repair stands by the quality of their work … Not really.

I was the owner of a Chrysler Sebring Convertible. It was an older model. It caught fire! Here is a story about how  Tom Wilson Auto Shop in Sarasota, FL stands by the quality of their work… well not really.

I brought my car in for service July 30th. It had been smoking under the hood. I had them come out to look at the car while it was smoking and I asked if there was a risk of fire. I said “Where there is smoke there is fire.” To which the reply was “I have never heard of one of these catching fire before.” (oh boy) They kept my car for a day and a half and replaced my valve cover gasket.  I picked it up and the car smoked worse then it did before. I called Tom WIlson’s auto and they said that the oil would need to burn off the engine block and if it did not stop smoking by the end of the week to bring it back. It was smoking so badly I could not imagine that it was just burn off so I brought it back in on August 2nd, two days later, I mean there were clouds coming from this thing. I had taken pictures of oil leaks under the car. Other mechanics had asked me to do this in the past.

Method: If you center the car over a piece of white paper you can see where the droplet is. You can use this to get a rough estimate of what part in the engine is leaking and repair it.  I showed my picture to one of the mechanics at Tom WIlson’s auto. He an insulting sarcastic tone he said “I have never heard of anyone putting white paper under their car before, an old car is going to leek oil” It was not so much what he said but the tone of his voice and attitude. He did not understand, and did not care to understand why I had put white paper under the car, I was showing him a picture of an oil leek and he simply thought I must be insane. I had brought the car in because it was smoking, the smoking was presumed to be caused by an oil leak with droplets hitting the exhaust or some other hot part of the engine block.  After looking at the car the mechanic said a bolt associated with the power steering needed to be replaced and the belts were frayed. What this had to do with my engine smoking.. I am not sure, I trusted him to know what he was doing, even though he had an attitude problem… (Big mistake) They finished the repair same day. They were closed when I picked up the car and they had left my key in the ignition where anyone could have stolen it. I had talked to them on the phone 20 minutes earlier and they might have mentioned they were about to close and would be leaving my car vulnerable to theft.

Now here is where is gets tricky and tragic. After they replaced a few belts, the power steering pump, and replaced a bolt. The car was still smoking slightly, since it was a small amount compared to before, I thought this might in fact be oil burn off from earlier repair. After two days, and a long drive, it was no longer visibly smoking. I called Tom Wilson’s auto and said that it seemed the problem was fixed and thanked them.

I do not drive my car very often I mostly run local errands to nearby stores. From the 5th to the 20th, of August I might have made half a dozen of these short trips with little to no smoke. On the 20th the car started to smoke again, BADLY! I had decided to call Tom Wilson a 3rd time. On the 21st I went to a local restaurant and while it was parked outside, and ironically, when I was minutes away from calling Tom Wilson to arrange bringing my car in. It caught fire. The fire dept. responded within 30 minutes. However the car was a total loss.

I called Tom Wilson to ask them for a full or partial refund. The mechanic told me that the fire could have been a result of something unrelated to the repairs and they would not issue a refund. OK, I agree that it may not have been something they did that caused the fire, but it was darn sure something they didn’t do. In other words they did not find the source of the problem, they thought I was silly for asking about an associated oil leak, and they downplayed the smoking under the hood and risk of fire. Leading me to believe it was not the very serious problem that it was.

After filing a complaint with the Dept. of agriculture. Tom Wilson responded with what would best be described as misleading and erroneous information. They sighted economic circumstances for their decision to not properly service the car, they also mentioned age of the vehicle. Neither of these were discussed with me. They were not thorough in repairing the vehicle nor did they apologize for what may have been their mistake. Instead they made pointed statements about my economic status (which was very misinformed, some of which came out of thin air) Then they went on to say I should not have freedom of speech to voice my opinions on the internet when they have been in business so long. Somehow managing to imply that they can do no wrong because they are so expert. Expert enough to judge a vehicle that is 15 years old as junk and not worthy of their precious time. Do not take your cars here folks!