Pain in the Ass

ASS continued to prosper, expanding into Dallas, Austin and Atlanta. There are 33 branches now, 17 in Houston. And all of this is interesting because, as the company grew, so did a file at the Better Business Bureau. No other auto repair business in town currently has more complaints. As one customer wrote, "It is this kind of repair shop that gives auto mechanics their bad name!"

When we called ASS headquarters to inquire, the CEO, a former TGI Friday's man, passed the message to the CFO, a Hooters man, who passed it to the new regional manager, none other than Todd Hayes, back from retirement. Hayes made it clear right away that he was still a company man. Pointing to his bracelet, he said the question written there -- "WWJD?" (What would Jesus do?) -- is the question that guides all decisions at ASS Inc. He was a man of great integrity, he said (a subordinate vigorously agreed), and ASS was a great Christian company, and how 93 customer complaints reached the BBB, he could not precisely explain. But he had a theory: It could be a Better Business Bureau conspiracy to discredit ASS for not becoming a BBB member. ("This is where the investigation should begin, right here.") Then again, the BBB may have collected the complaints, but it certainly did not write them. So Hayes pointed out that the complaints were but the smallest fraction of total ASS customers. This was certainly true, but consider the Firestone file: With 47 full-service centers in Houston, Firestone has just six complaints.

Hayes was soon spewing saliva, emphasizing the good will of ASS and declaring, "We treat every customer like she's our mother." If this is true, the complaints would suggest they are none too kind to their mothers.

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"I am a 78-year-old woman and feel like I was taken advantage of," reads one.

"I knew they were getting to me," reads another, "but I'm handicapped and had no one or no way to defend myself."

There were many complaints about the prices. Most seemed to find ASS's rates about double those elsewhere. Bryan Mackora griped that he was charged essentially three times the street value for an evaporator core. Mary Gordon also found the prices excessive and was told when she inquired that they were due to "the level of service we provide."

"Can you believe this?" Gordon wrote.

The service was the subject of many complaints. Nona Pierce spent $1,147 to have ASS repair her air-conditioning. Then she spent $500 more, and it still didn't work. Kathy Dunn complained that after an estimate of $1,500, she received a $2,800 bill. The suspension still was not repaired, and now the brake lights weren't working. "Is this a regular thing that you do?"

On all repairs, ASS offers a 12-month, 12,000-mile prorated warranty. "That's huge," the text reads, but the warranty is actually below the industry standard and means, in effect, that no repair is ever fully guaranteed. Bill Green learned the value of his "nationwide warranty" after his rebuilt engine broke down 600 miles out of Houston. ASS told him that if he was out of state, he was on his own. Green swallowed the $2,300 he had paid ASS and took the bus home.

Angry customers often found it difficult to get ASS's attention. Calls and e-mails to the company would go unanswered. Kim Juengling didn't receive a response until she stopped payment on her check. The response was the repossession of her vehicle. In the end, she, like so many others, wrote the Better Business Bureau.

When ASS began answering the BBB complaints last fall, its responses seemed to leave something to be desired. "We at America's Service Station have an undying commitment to excellent customer service," wrote Phillip Tringali, but in his replies, Tringali makes it clear ASS doesn't operate on the theory that the customer is always right. Tringali notes frequently when customers were "rude" or "belligerent." Rarely does he acknowledge the frustration that ASS staff led customers to feel. In the case of Kim Bradford, he sided, as usual, with his staff.

Bradford's van was running well until she went to ASS for an oil change. The ASS technician forgot to refill the oil, and the engine was soon ruined. ASS responded by replacing the engine with another of similar mileage, but dissimilar mechanical problems. When Bradford demanded an engine as trouble-free as the one she lost, the manager refused, claiming the problems were the result of mileage. It did not matter that Bradford had not driven these miles. Tringali agreed, and that was that.

And then there is Eric Botts, who took his car to the ASS on Holcombe for a simple state inspection and was surprised to hear he had a power steering leak. When he asked the service representative to show him the leak, the employee could not do it but insisted nonetheless that the leak must be fixed, for about $160, before the car could pass inspection. Botts went elsewhere. He got his inspection without a hitch, and after confirming there was no leak at all, he complained to the BBB of "questionable business practices."