Veenstra's Garage

"Member, I appreciate your response and letting us know your thoughts but as you will see if you read our responses, the customers that have written about us running up their bill are writing that based on a lack of understanding. We explain our repairs to our customers but if they have more questions, it is their job to ask or else we don’t know that they still don’t truly understand. We are here to serve and have nothing to hide but the communication aspect goes both ways. Customers don’t know what they don’t know about cars and our job is to explain; but we don’t know what we don’t know, in regards to if they still don’t understand unless they ask questions. We have never run a bill up on a customer, we only recommend what needs to be done on a vehicle and whether a customer chooses to have the work completed is their choice. What you were quoted is actually from a labor guide, not just some fictitious number. Reality is, if we are going to look at your battery, and going to give you a realistic answer about your battery, it needs to be trickle charged, which takes several hours and then be load tested. Between the equipment costs, how long the equipment will be tied up and then having an ASE certified technician due the final test, there is a cost and what you were quoted is not running up the bill. What you were quoted is a fair and reasonable price based on the previous factors. Thank you again for your response and I hope you will reconsider giving us a chance to serve you."

"Member, thank you for your response, it is appreciated. I am sorry for the lack of customer service you received and the attitude that was perceived. This one is hard to follow up with because I do not know what happened but will do my best to find out and correct the issue. If what you have stated is truly both sides to the story, then I am appalled and again greatly apologize. Thank you for the opportunity to serve you and ask that you give us another chance even though we may not deserve it. Thank you again."

"Member, thank you so much for taking the time to respond and give us your thoughts. I apologize for any miscommunication that you experienced in your visit. We strive continually to keep our customers informed within their time lines but I understand and accept that we are not perfect and I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience we caused you. Your concern in regards to price is disconcerting to me. You stated, “upon going to pick up the car the price was ridiculous.” There are several problems with this statement, one is that you approved the repair and knew what the price would be before we even did the work. We do not perform work without giving the customer a price and getting approval. Second, on a Ford escape, the upper plenum has to come off in order to replace the spark plugs, which adds a lot more labor. The common misconception of customers these days is that the tune-ups of today are the same as the tune-ups of 20 years ago, but people forget that cars are a lot more complicated today. What this means is that since cars are much more advanced you can’t use the old school spark plugs of yester years. Third, you didn’t just approve a tune up; you approved replacement of a fuel filter and performing a fuel system service, which is a wise thing to do when performing a tune-up. A fuel system service cleans all the carbon out of the engine from having old spark plugs. Fourth, if I go to a commonly used website by customers today and look up what the cost of replacing spark plugs (tune-up) should be, their range is above what we charged you. In all of this, what these facts point towards is a misrepresentation of the facts by you. Yes, we very well may of not done a good job of communication with you as a whole but we certainly didn’t overcharge or not give you a price before we even worked on your car. Reality is, we may have tried to get ahold of you and left a message and you didn’t get it. This actually happens a lot with customers and that is why we now track the times we call customers so we know if we have or haven’t spoken with a customer. In regards to your last comment about the brakes, just because we worked on a system, does not mean we caused another part of the system to fail but we took care of it for free in order to take care of you. What you don’t realize, is that we don’t shy away from our mistakes, we own up to them and then make it right. The thought that is laid out in your review is just because we did something for free must mean we did something wrong, even though we won’t admit it. Is that really what the world has come to? So little trust that we can’t even do something to take care of a customer without being accused of doing it only because we did something wrong? We still choose customer service, which isn’t just based on a dollar bill, we enjoy serving people and we commonly help our customers out, that is who we are. People serving people in a way we would want to be served. Again, I truly apologize that you feel that we didn’t serve you and I would hope you would take the time to review what you wrote, but again I thank you for your response and the opportunity to serve you, even though it has turned out in a way that we would not want and I would assume you either."

"Thank you for your comments, we are always trying to improve as our goal is to be the best customer service repair shop in Grand Rapids. We know we are not perfect but we do know that we are honest and our integrity is something that means everything to us. In regards to your comments, we did not sell you a battery you didn't need; in fact, your battery failed the load test or else we would not have replaced it. We told you we could not duplicate your concern, but that the battery failed the load test and needs to be replaced (not being able to duplicate the concern is actually noted on your receipt). The snippy concern is another perception thing, one that can be easily misconstrued. It is easy to call someone snippy when you tell them they did something wrong and they are merely trying respond to your concern. If someone responds with passion, doesn’t mean they are trying to be rude but that they believe in what they are saying; so please know, no one was trying to be snippy but we are passionate about what we do and that is serving customers both in telling them what is wrong and the why behind it. In regards to the antenna, we go based on book time and then if there is anything (ex. age of vehicle) that will cause a problem, that time may change. Reality is of course you can replace it cheaper yourself; you don't have any of the costs related to being in business. We try to keep our costs as low as possible but just like your employer or even if you are self-employed, you need to make money in order to pay those that are employed by you. Our prices are fair and reasonable if you look at in regards to paying someone to do the work and not doing it in your garage. Again, Fred we truly appreciate your comments and thank you for the chance to serve you."

"Thank you for your kind words!!"