Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:06/27/2022

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Description: They had removed a broken spark plug from cylinder 2. They had installed a spark plug insert into cylinder 2 with a JB weld. When removing the cylinder 2 spark plug it came out hard and found the end of the plug had been hit and ceramic was broken off. Pieces of ceramic in the cylinder caused damage to cylinder 2 piston with a small hole near the edge. The insert had been installed to deep into the cylinder head causing the spark plug to be hit by the piston.

  Business Response

  Date: 07/05/2022

  To whom it may concern.
  Auto Allies had spoken with owners’ boyfriends’ father because he wanted advice / opinion about how his Son had started to work on his girlfriend’s Escape because it was running bad and he attempted to change out the spark plugs himself and the spark plug had broken off in the cylinder head. This was the cylinder 2 spark plug. Auto Allies had advised that it would need to be drilled and tapped or replace the cylinder head. Auto Allies also mentioned to boyfriends’ father that this apparently is problem with Ford Escapes and we had another Escape same story the son had tried to do a tune-up and the spark plug broke off in the head. PLEASE NOTE: The spark plug breaking off in the Head…THIS IS NOT A NORMAL THING TO HAPPEN. More than likely there is underlying issue with in the engine that needs to be addressed.
  
  The boyfriend and Dad towed in the Escape to the shop on their own trailer and had stated said that he was able to drive the vehicle onto their trailer and that is does drive. This was driven on the trailer with the broken plug still in the head. We never started the vehicle at all until after the spark plug thread repair was done. We had no way of knowing the condition of the vehicle before it was brought into us. All we were told was it ran bad and a spark plug broke off in the head. We were told by boyfriends’ father to try to get the plug out and rethread it. That is what we did. After the repair was complete, we let boyfriends father know that the vehicle ran and had no power and was still misfiring and noisy. They must have taken it to ******** and now are trying to make Auto Allies responsible for something that I did not break in the first place. This vehicle obviously had issues to begin with and that was known by the owner and the boyfriend because they were trying to fix it themselves and broke off the spark plug in the cylinder head.
  
  The owner had paid us by check ***** in the amount of 407.44 and stopped payment on the check that wrote us. We are not at fault for her vehicle needing a new engine. The next step in this would have been to remove the head and replace it. Again, this was because the boyfriend broke off the spark plug in the head. Not Auto Allies. Again, there is obviously other problems with the vehicle to begin with. We are sorry for her loss and at this point want no more to do with this. Again, this vehicle had a known rough running issue before it was brought to us. It was brought to us because someone else broke off a spark plug in the head. We did not break the spark plug off in the head. Again, the engine had problems to begin with and now they being blamed on Auto Allies.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 07/13/2022

  I am rejecting this response because:We were changing the spark plugs as a tune up before I was going to sell the vehicle, since the market is up so high right now I was wanting to try to come out ahead on my loan. Yes, we broke the spark plug off and that’s why we called Auto Allies to take care of the situation. -an auto repair shop. Little did I know, I was going to get the vehicle back with very severe and costly damage. Auto Allies did the drilling (which is stated on the bill from them) which is where all of the ceramic pieces came from that ended up in the head and pistons. Obviously, the vehicle had to be towed there because the spark plug was broke off. If Auto Allies was not comfortable with removing the spark plug properly and replacing it, I should’ve been informed of that so I could’ve then taken the car elsewhere, instead they made a mistake and now are clearly not trying to make it right, leaving me with absolutely no transportation to my job. I am hoping that we can reach a settlement before I have to take further legal action. Attached are images of the damage caused by Auto Allie’s. Thanks. 
  

  Business Response

  Date: 07/14/2022

  We just want to say this is an unfortunate situation. You were referred to us by a longtime customer of ours to help you out. We extracted one spark plug that got broken off by someone else and we are not going to take responsibility for the vehicle needing an engine. Again, we never heard the vehicle run prior to it being towed in and really have no idea how many hands have touched it before or after it was here.