Merlin 200,000 Miles Shop - Elgin W.

unknown

Extremely well...very professional and blew the price away from their competitors. Sometimes, it isn't always, you get what you pay for. VERY honest and timely with everything...never tried to upsell me with any additional work or service. Very happy, and will continue going back. Work was done and car runs like new...can't speak highly enough for Ace and his team.

Within a few days of Merlins replacing our muffler, there was some rattling with the muffler/tail pipe. Within a week it became really loud. We took our van back to them on 4/16/2011. They worked on it for an hour. The owner told us it was fixed and we could go, no charge. We were happy. Right after that, we took it to another shop to have the air-conditioning looked at. While we were there getting the a/c checked out, the owner called us in to look at our van underneath. He said, "I am not sure who recently replaced your exhaust, but they did a rather odd job and it looks like they broke your pipe." Sure enough the pipe coming from the front of the van to the muffler was broken. Also, the muffler was pushed up at an odd angle against the body of the van and then rigged several times with brackets and welding so it would stop rattling. By pushing the muffler up so high and at such an odd angle, it caused the pipe in front of it to break. He looked up some information on the muffler and discovered that the muffler/tailpipe Merlins put on is for a 2001 van and newer. Our van is 1999. We asked this shop to fix it and they did for $92.00. He printed out information on the part we should have had installed and also information on the part they gave us. We thanked the gentleman and went right away to Merlins to speak with Ace, the owner. First he denied anything was wrong. He told us there is no certain muffler for our van and what they did was fine. After some discussion and showing him the prinout from the other shop, he told us they did not have the actual part they needed in stock, but that they were able to take one they had in stock and bend it and cut it so it would fit. He said that he gave us a "custom muffler" for a good price. I said he should have called us if they did not have the correct part and let us decide whether we want it "custom" or not. He finally agreed to order the part and replace it for us, however I told him I did not want them doing any more work on our vehicle. I wanted a refund instead. He would only offer to replace with the correct muffler, not any type of refund. I said no, but that I was not done complaining. In my opinion, they tried to pull a fast one, by putting on the wrong part. Once he was caught, he tried to cover it by telling us it was "custom". C'mon really! They specialize in mufflers, yet they put the wrong part on. It was too big for our van and the pipes are larger in diameter too. The large pipes mean of course that my vehicle is louder. Overall, I am very dissapointed and will never recommend this shop to anyone!