Received: from SPEECH2.CS.CMU.EDU by K.CS.CMU.EDU; 31 Jan 87 22:33:00 EST
Date: 31 Jan 1987 22:22-EST 
From: Kai-Fu.Lee@speech2.cs.cmu.edu
To: bovik@k
Subject: Car tune-up/Dynamic Service Center
Message-Id: <539148177/kfl@speech2.cs.cmu.edu>

There are two letters recommending Dynamic Service Center in Bovik's mail.
Also, according to Bill Dobransky, its manager, a lot of people from CMU go
there.  However, we recently had two bad experiences with this place, and I
would recommend its current and potential customers to give it a second
thought before going back.

If you don't wish to read all the details, here is a summary of what
we learned:
	o They replace far more parts than is needed.
	o They make up very strange reasons for repairs.
	o They are either incompetent or dishonest.

I brought my '78 Toyota Corolla for a tune-up.  I was told that it
was time for an oil change and coolant system cleaning.  When I went
to pick up my car, I was handed a bill for about $240.  They replaced 
all kinds of parts in my car, all of which were in reasonable shape as 
my mechanic had just checked my car last month.

At the same time, Hsiao-wuen Hon brought his '79 Ford Mustang for a tune-up,
and asked them to take a look at a warm-up problem (it used to take 15
minutes for the car to warm up in the morning).  They said they needed to
rebuild the carburetor, which would cost around $120.  He told them to go
ahead.  The next day they said there was no thermostat, and they put one in
($60 or so).  But the next day they said the reason that there was no
thermostat is that the heater core was bad and the previous owner had
removed the thermostat to avoid fixing the heater core.  They wanted to
replace that for about $300.  Also, they said that until they could fix the
heater core, they cannot re-adjust the carburetor.  They said if he doesn't
have it replaced, the car is unusable because the window would get fogged up
without heat.  They claimed that the car never had heat, which is false.  So
we told them we don't want them to do any more work on the car.  Hon ended
up paying $340 for an excessive tune-up, and "service" that non only
did not fix the warm-up problem, but also removed heat from the interior.

We took the Mustang to a mechanic, who in turn asked three other mechanics.
They all agreed that the bill was ridiculous, and that Dynamic Service
is either incompetent or fraudulent.  This mechanic suggested that we
take it to a Ford dealer.  We took it to the one in Forest Hills, who
fixed both the warm-up problem and the no-heat problem for $80.  The
Ford mechanics agreed with the other four mechanics' assessment about
Dynamic Service.

We strongly recommend that you avoid Dynamic Service Center.