I was charged $500.00 for new struts on a total bill of $800.00. This shouldn't have happened because just 17 months earlier I paid $351.00 for struts which provided a 25 year transferable warranty. You might conclude Merlins Woodstock had no way of knowing this. But that's not true. Since computer systems are “networked”, which simply means computers talk to each other such as a main system computer, there is no reason Merlins Woodstock IL didn't know of the earlier strut replacement. I know this because I'm in the computer business. Besides, don't they recognize Merlins work when they see it? The Crystal Lake Merlins under the prior manager (honest) always did.

I was expecting Merlins Woodstock to be professional and not need to be told this, so I didn't research my repair archives, rather, I trusted them. Unfortunately, that trust was violated when later I realized the error months later.

What made this worse was the fact that in my 2nd visit I asked them to check the front end steering and that I suspected the thumping I heard was due to the TIE RODS. Yet on that day I was charged $800, for struts, and assured by shop manager Paul Berenger that any other repair shop in town would charge the same. But the problem remained. 6 months later I returned a 3rd time with the SAME PROBLEM (thumping from front end), and once again mentioned my concern for the TIE RODS. This time someone else at Merlins (other than shop manager Paul Berenger) took me seriously and replaced the TIE RODS – for $300.00.

This means on my 2nd visit they misdiagnosed the thumping problem and inappropriately charged me $800 struts that only had 15, 000 miles on them AND if needed to be replaced should have been covered under warranty anyway.

They could not diagnose problems correctly and charged for items already covered by warranty. I needlessly paid $800 for struts that didn't need replacement. This is both gross incompetence and fraud.