After four visits to Danny's Point S over 11 days, our car was undrivable, and it had to go to a different shop. We took our VW Jetta for new rear brake pads and a master cylinder in Sept. 2018 because we had previously received great mechanical work and customer service from Danny's Point S. They are currently unqualified to work on Volkswagen, and I hope Point S will get additional training before attempting brake work on another VW. We were also highly disappointed in Point S’ customer service. We assumed that they had small town values in regards to customer service. But in the end, they put their bottom line over us as their customer—refusing to pay for the damages they caused to the brake system. We hope Point S never treats another customer this way again.
Background Details:
My husband picked the car up after the initial brake work had been done—upon exiting their parking lot and braking at the stop sign, he almost rear-ended the vehicle in front of him when the brake pedal went to the floor of the car. The car went back to Point S for visit 2.
He picked the car up the second time: the compression on the brakes still wasn't right, and he took it back to Point S. They bled the brakes again.
He picked it up a third time and drove it to Idaho Falls. On the way home, the car started shaking as he got to Rexburg. He pulled off the highway and the brakes were smoking because the calipers were seized. Point S told him to let the brakes cool and to bring the car back in. (Driving it from Rexburg to St. Anthony the brake light was on the entire time.)
When my husband picked up the VW Jetta for the fourth time, Danny (the mechanic at Point S) said he didn't know what else to do if there were still problems with the brake system. My husband drove it four minutes down the highway and pulled over because the brakes were still seized (brake lights lit again the whole time). He called Point S back and talked to Danny. Danny agreed we should take the car to the VW dealership in Idaho Falls and said to let him know what they found.
The dealership found that the calipers had seized because they had been forced open (instead of using a tool to open them) when the new brake pads were installed. The seized calipers needed replaced and the rotors had also been heat damaged and needed replaced. VW also discovered that the master cylinder had been installed wrong causing the air in the brakes.
Our bill for the rear brakes and the master cylinder at Danny’s Point S was $715. Our bill at the VW dealership was $2,100. We asked Point S to cover the bill at the VW dealership because the damage to the rear calipers and rotors were a result of their improper installation. They refused. They said they wouldn’t pay another shop to do the work ‘they could do.’ And that because we chose to take it to another shop, we had to pay the bill.
We disagreed. Point S attempted four times to repair the braking system. After the fourth attempt, the car was undrivable. Point S’ mechanic himself said he didn’t know what else to do. And the additional damage to the rear brakes was a result of their faulty work. In the end, Point S refunded the full $715 of their original work. But Point S refused to pay the $500 for new calipers or additional money for rotors or the installation for new parts. VW ended up reducing their labor cost and eliminating their diagnostic fee so our total was only $1,500 instead of $2,100.
We recognize this is a lose/lose situation. Point S put in labor on our car they weren’t compensated for, as well as parts that they lost money on since they refunded their faulty brake job. But we have had to come up with the additional $800 to get our vehicle drivable again. We have had lost wages, towing costs, and additional expense in gas driving a pickup truck for over a month instead of a car with high mpg. We have also been a one vehicle family for over a month. This should have been a simple repair to the brake system.
Overall we have been so disappointed with and hurt financially by this experience with Danny’s Point S.