Absolute rip off artists. My daughter and her boyfriend were stranded with what seemed like a broken engine in their getaway van as travelling across Canada. I looked up this place due to their many good ratings. What a mistake. My daughter had her vehicle towed there and they said it was a $200-300 diagnostic fee. ($50 at Canadian Tire but oh well.) As it turns out... It was a faulty alternator, idler pulley and a serpentine belt. The bill came to $1022 for that work... And they did nothing else. I asked the guy his shop rate... He said $156 per hour. Even though that is ridiculous enough... The parts alone at retail are less than $200. It's a 2 hour job at best... Ok I'll even give them 3 hours on the outside chance they are sloth like....but do the math...ripoff. Glenwood should be ashamed of themselves.
Brent, thanks for taking the time to review our business. Our diagnostic fee was $179.95 as billed on the invoice. Aaron assumed he had damaged the engine. Some disassembly was needed during the diagnostic process in order to fully understand what went wrong. The drive belt had come apart causing the popping sound, and the next step was to find out why the belt came apart, was to test the pully's and bearings. We found the idler pulley bearing had failed (very noisey when you spin it), and the alternator was out of round when spinning the pulley (had a hop to it). The vehicle also had multiple oil leaks that were leaking onto the belt and pulley's. All of these parts were replaced, and if the oil leaks are not repaired, the same thing will happen again down the road. The repair that we did, ended up coming to $718.33 as billed on your invoice (after the diagnostic charge). There was also time spent to degrease and clean the oil off of that part of the engine. The parts alone at retail are definitely not available for less than $200, even if you try and find the cheapest white box parts out there. As Aaron had to get back to B.C. with this van, we would not install cheap inexpensive parts that cannot be trusted within city driving, let alone a trip through the mountains. We won't install cheap parts as it is our policy anyway. If we repair your vehicle, we intend for it to stay repaired. The cheap inexpensive parts cannot be relied on, and we absolutely refuse to use them. How upset would you be if we did fix it for $200-300 less, and the alternator failed again 300km from here in the middle of nowhere (that is definitely a Google review, that I do not want). Most of Glenwood's negative review's always seem to revolve around price. Can we do it cheaper? YES. Will we do it cheaper? NO. The safety and reliability of your vehicle is front and center in our minds when we decide which brand of part is chosen to install in your vehicle. We have a lot of choices, and a ton of experience in knowing which brands are always reliable, and which brands usually fail prematurely. We are well aware, that because of this we are usually not the lowest cost option for vehicle repairs. I am sorry that you are not happy Brent, and I am also sorry for the delayed response to your review. Please feel free to call me anytime to discuss. Robert Scott, Glenwood Auto Service, 306-374-3551.
- Glenwood Auto Service