NORMAN'S RADIATOR SVC

As a female, I don't typically know how to resolve an issue with my vehicle other than to take it to a professional. So when my car started having issues overheating I took it to Norman's Radiator. I was given a quote of $478.74 to "completely resolve my issue".The repair included patching a crack in the radiator and a standard flush and refill.

Three days later, I started having the exact same issue again. I took my vehicle back to the technician at Norman's Radiator who then told me that it looked like my water pump is what was actually causing my car to leak, and to fix the problem, it would cost me $175. After consulting another mechanic, he felt that I was being overcharged for the work done so far, so I confronted the manager, Kenny about the excessive charges and started to ask,
"Why should I have to pay an additional $175 when you diagnosed my vehicle and told me that the ~$478 would completely resolve my issue?"
He wouldn't budge on the price and insisted on doing the additional repair. I then implied that I felt like I was being overcharged because I am a female and don't know much about cars. BAM! Just like that, wouldn't you know that Kenny asked to see my receipt and started recalculating the charges. The next words out of his mouth were,
"Ma'am, I am so sorry. It looks like there was a miscalculation on your bill (he calculated it originally)." 
After the recalculation, it turns out my bill should have only been $309.08. So I was overcharged by nearly $170.

So I call my husband to tell him what is going on. He informs me that a water pump retails for less than $20 and that he can find someone to put it on much cheaper. So I inform Kenny that his services are no longer required and ask for him to credit the difference of $169.66 back to my debit card. Kenny's response was priceless.
"Well Ma'am, you see this is a slow time of the year for us, and if I were to give you your money back, that check would bounce."

I have no idea how this place is a business, but he made it pretty apparent, even after I made it pretty plain to him that I could care less about his finances and poor planning, that he would be holding my money hostage until I agreed to let him work on my car. Kenny and I finally came to an arrangement, so I thought, that if I would buy a water pump he would put it on for $40. Having little choice, I agreed.

So today, I took my car to Norman's Radiator for what I am truly hoping is the last time. I picked it up this afternoon where Kenny greeted me and then stepped behind the counter. Just when the story wasn't bad enough, Kenny looked at me with a straight face and said,
"We got your car all fixed up. It doesn't seem to be overheating anymore. All you owe me today is $40."
I replied very curiously,
"Wouldn't that $40 come off of what you already owe me?"
"Oh no. You see I went over the the ticket with Don and it turns out we didn't overcharge you because we had to use some extra brackets and there was some additional labor."
Don from the background then says,
"If anything we undercharged you."
I was literally so shocked, I could not muster up a single word. All that was running through my head was I have no idea how this happened, but I just got ripped off twice by the same people in less than a two month period. Oh, and that the extra brackets they put in the car must have been made out of 24k gold.

Needless to say, once I regained my composure, I fought with them for some time trying to understand how they had the audacity to charge me after they failed to repair my car and admitted to overcharging me. My husband brought this to my attention after the fact, but this is really messed up. If they would have installed a new water pump that they provided, it was going to be $175, right? I provided my own water pump and they just charged me $40 + the $169.66 they owed me, which = $209.66.

I know this is a long story, but for those of you that are still with me up to this point, you're going to love this. I drove the car home this evening - it still overheats.

The moral of this story is if you deal with Norman's Radiator, you end up $518.74 in the hole, your vehicle still isn't fixed, and you end up writing letters to the better business bureau while you wait for your day in small claims court.