Horrific service experience on 7/3/09 to Roto Lincoln Mercury:

Bottom Line: They charged me $300 for an entire day of work where they did "diagnostics, " fixed nothing, and sent me on my way in a car that wasn't safe to drive. I believe they intentionally didn't fix a valve body gasket problem in my transmission so that I would have to bring it back a few days later and spend $3500 on a new transmission (instead of $500 or so to fix it in the first place).

They also offered to charge me $400 to replace an entire CD/Radio system that was working perfectly except for the fact that the LED screen was fading in and out. Stay away from Roto!! Read on for more details: On Thursday July 2nd, while I was driving about 45mph the “o/d off” light began flashing and the car seemed to downshift by itself. At the next stoplight, I turned the car off and then on and the light went off. I was scheduled to drive to Wisconsin that evening, and elected to postpone the trip to have the car checked out. I made an appointment for 7:30 AM Friday July 3rd at Roto Lincoln Mercury just a few blocks from my house. I told them about the transmission issue and asked that they also check the LED screen on the radio. Is it was not working despite the fact that the radio, CD players, and cassette were all operating normally. I arrived at 7:15 AM and was 9th in line. When I checked in. I asked about how long it would be before I heard something. I was told that I should hear something by about 9:00 or so. At 10:15 AM. I hadn’t been contacted, so I called to see what was going on. I was told the car was in “diagnostics” and I should hear something in 45 minutes to an hour. At 12:15 AM I called again (not having heard anything) and I was told that the car was still in “diagnostics, ” but they had registered the problem had occurred via the computer. Print This Page Print Email This Review Email Link To This Page Link/Share

They said they wanted to “drop the pan” and investigate further and then they would get back to me. It was at this time, that they also told me that in order to fix the LED screen, I would need to replace the entire radio at a cost of $400, (which I declined). At 2:30 PM I called yet again, only to be told that the car was still in “diagnostics, ” that they found no debris in the pan and that they were inspecting the bands and would get back to me as soon as they found something. At 4:15 I called for the 4th time and was told that the car was just returning from it’s “test drive” and they had changed 5 quarts of the fluid and that it was ready for pick up. I arrived at 4:30 PM and was told that they couldn’t reproduce the problem. I asked if they took the car onto 53 to get it up to 4th gear and was told no, but that they could go 45 to 50 mph on Rand Road. I asked “So it’s safe to drive?” and was told “We hope so.” I then waited for 10 minutes for the porter to go retrieve my car from outside somewhere. Meanwhile, I watched numerous freshly washed cars being pulled up for other customers. My car was pulled up outside, the only one not washed. So in essence, it didn’t appear they ever found the problem, they never contacted me all day long, and they didn’t “fix” anything, and I was charged $297.68, and wasted an entire day of vacation only to be sent on my way in a car that was potentially unsafe to drive. I immediately drove a few blocks up the road and took it on 53 to test it and it “skipped” while accelerating up the ramp (meaning that the RPM”s shot up to over 5000 and then came back down when the gear “caught”). How can a Mercury dealer service department do such a substandard job of finding and fixing a problem on one of its own cars? Did they ever really test drive it? Needless to say, I was completely dissatisfied with my entire experience over at Roto Lincoln Mercury. I drove to Wisconsin that night (the transmission “skipped” 3 times when accelerating from a stop, but seemed OK as long as the speed ‐65mph‐ was maintained). I did not drive the car anywhere but to a grocery store 3 miles away during the trip). I dropped the car off with my mechanic and 1) He found that the heat shield on the catalytic converter had been bent 2) The oil pan for the transmission had also been bent 3) Damage done while “dropping the pan” unprofessional or unqualified (a porter?) 4) The next step which would have been to drop the valve body cover (another 30 minutes), revealed a blown out gasket that could’ve been replaced for about $30 5) Instead, now the entire transmission would need to be rebuilt at a cost of about $2200. I subsequently tried to get my money back (at the very least) by talking to the service manager, the Regional Service Manager for Ford Motor Company, and the Better Business Bureau...but got nowhere. The only option left would be to sue, which would cost more than I would get back even if I won.