Bo's Auto Repair

Bo's Auto Repair Inc. company owned by Bo Williams My Car Overheated Because of Their Negligence Hattiesburg, Mississippi

20th of Sep, 2011 by User115521

My car had overheated on the way to Austin on July 29. I had to return to work on Monday, so thankfully I was able to find a weekend mechanic. The mechanic in Austin told me that my radiator went out because whoever installed the fan had placed wires through the radiator in such a way as to damage the radiator from vibrations. I then had the mechanic in Austin replace my radiator and coolant for approximately $250, and I took the old radiator with me to show Bo since his shop had placed the wires through my radiator when I got my fan replaced. Although I made it back to Hattiesburg just fine, on Monday morning before work (8/1/2011) my car overheated again. Given my long history (5+ years) of going to Bo's shop, I had it towed to his shop. When I arrived at his shop at 10 AM, no one was there (shop hours are advertised as 9 AM to 6 PM). Finally, Bo arrived at 10:30 AM, and I told him what the mechanic in Austin had said and what had happened. Bo looked at the old radiator and told me that the Austin mechanic was wrong, that the radiator had given out because of age (which was believable since it was the original radiator). Bo also said that the new radiator had given out because the fan shroud had been broken by the mechanic in Austin, which caused it to hit against the radiator. All of this made sense to me, so I asked Bo to replace the radiator, water pump, thermostat, and coolant because I was tired of my car overheating after it had overheated twice in the past week. I specifically told Bo, "Just please do what's necessary to make sure my car does not overheat again anytime soon." Bo's Auto Repair completed the work on my car on August 4 for a cost of approximately $400, and I thought that was the last of my car problems (at least anytime soon). On September 12 while I was at work, my car overheated once again. I had to leave it in a parking lot overnight because it was already the evening time. I called Bo on his cell phone and let him know about it, and he said he would go to the parking lot and check it out. I left my car unlocked and the key in the ignition so he could have a look at it. He said he would call me at work after he had a look at it. After waiting a couple of hours, I called Bo to see if he had gotten the chance to look at it, just to make sure I had not missed his call while I was working. Bo sounded irritated and told me he had not had the chance yet. I then gave him my cell phone number because previously I had given him my work number, and I was soon going to leave work and go home. As of noon the next day, Bo never called me to let me know he had looked at the car. I tired of waiting and had the car towed to another mechanic shop in Hattiesburg. The mechanic at that shop told me that the reason my car overheated was that whoever replaced the radiator had not properly clamped the hose going to the radiator inlet tank. The cost of getting it properly clamped and having my coolant refilled was $70. To give some background, I have noticed that during the past few years, he has an increasing number of younger men working for him, individuals with whom I am not familiar. I also have noticed that he is at his shop less and less, making it more difficult to find a time to speak with him face-to-face. Prior to the overheating incident I just detailed, my female companion had brought her car to his shop to fix her power window on the front passenger side. Bo initially said he would charge $120 for the job. After waiting several days, we returned to pick her car up sometime after 9 AM, and no one was at the shop. We had to wait close to an hour before one of Bo's workers showed up. I spoke with Bo over the phone, and he said he was going to charge $60 as a favor to us because he had figured out a way to fix the windows without replacing the motor. However, my companion's front passenger power window stopped working the same day. Then her rear passenger window also stopped working, and we noticed that there was a white substance that had been spilled on the inside and outside of the front passenger door. In addition, the inside of her front passenger door is somewhat loose, as if it has not been reconnected properly. Because the job had not costed us much, we initially shrugged it off and said we would just go elsewhere for that particular job. Given the latest incident, however, a pattern of shabby work and negligence has been established. For those reasons, neither one of us will be returning to Bo's shop, nor will we be recommending that anyone go there. If Bo himself were doing all the work, and if there were greater accountability for the work done at his shop, then it would be much better. Unfortunately, that does not appear to be the case.

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