On Tuesday April 23, 2013, I brought my car in for annual Rust Proofing Service at one of the two Krown Rust Protection Dealers in Calgary, Alberta . That Krown Calgary Dealer is Airways Brake & Muffler at 1936 30 Ave NE in Calgary, Alberta. I got my car back and didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary at first.
I have a vehicle dash camera that records video and audio of what is in front of the car. I looked at my video later that night, and to my dismay, the owner Azim Mitha had driven my car up the ramp to the point where he stops after you hear a loud scraping sound of the underside of my car against their ramp. He backs up, and his Guider puts a wood block in front of the ramp in an attempt to raise my car up. On the 2nd attempt driving up there is an even louder impact. He stops, the guider urges him forward and my car scrapes some more. As he exits my car, You can hear him say in the background “Needs another board. Too high. Do you have another board?”.
As any person who values their property, I immediately go outside and look at what damage he has caused. I immediately notice that the front edge of my car’s lip is scraped down to the black plastic through the 3M protection film, silver paint. I also notice scrapes all along the underside of the lip.
The next day, I spoke with the owner, and his defense is that his Diamond plate metal ramp could not have scraped my lip. His odd excuse is that is is not abrasive and anything will just slide across. First, that does not explain the loud impact of the front of my car against the ramp which was what damaged the front edge of my lip, plus the scraping noise audible in the video. He says when I ask him about admitting the shop did something and he responds, "Yeah. You got the video. You got the video. That is what you are telling me, right?" He offers out of admittance of guilt or to make me go away, $50. He says to take him to court as he will not pay me more than that. He also admits that he should not even put my car up on their hoist.
As any business that should act ethical, and do what is right for the customer he should have initially let me know that he damaged my car. He also should have offered to fix the damage in full and own up to full responsibility of his actions when I confronted him. Doing what is right and being an honest shop is NOT what this company values at all. This is why I am giving my review of my experience.
I hope others think about putting themselves in my shoes, and think about how they treat customer’s vehicles, and that they will do nothing when something goes wrong. How would you feel if this was your own car? Do you think about going to this shop or continue to do so?
Is this how you would like to see your car be treated? I attempted to sort things out with the owner of the shop. Here is the audio clip.
I bit my tongue throughout and acted calm as I tried to reach a settlement with the owner for his actions. The video is our audio conversation the next day April 24th, 2013.
Some things in the video that I thought I would highlight in the conversation:
5:42 - I say "so you are admitting your shop did something" and owner responds and says. "Yeah. You got the video. You got the video. That's what you are telling me, right?" Normally, if one does not admit fault, their first response would be "No", and give their reason why. He even says I have the video evidence of it.
8:14 - Owner tries to Explain how the ramp which is the standard diamond plate metal ramp will not cause scratching because it will slide over. I'm sorry but a diamond plate metal ramp used for traction will damage plastic when driven against in close contact.
11:28 -Owner talking about Business Ethics so why did he not mention to me that there was an issue getting the car up the ramp, and there might have been some damage. He then continues saying that driving up something that is contacting the surface won't cause damage because metal diamond plate is not abrasive??
14:03 - I mention posting my experience on-line about this, and he has no issues. I would love to show to everyone of his customer's before they walk into their shop my video, and then see if he cares.
15:09 - I explain to the owner that there should be no touching of the ramp with the bottom of the car of any vehicle, and owner had no answer
15:38 - Owner accepts the fact that he was negligent in assessing that he shouldn't have even attempted putting my car on the lift.
19:39 - I explain that I can show the Video of the noise my car makes as he tries to drive it up the ramp. He does mention that if it is plastic, it will scratch. Ok thank you, then he should pay to fix the scratches he caused.
Owner Has No Money So He Wants Me to Take Him To Court. No Money, No Pay I guess is the Motto at Airways Brake & Muffler Calgary
On May 3rd, 2013, I had another face to face conversation with the owner because I believed he was finally going to own up, apologize, and give me money for the damage he caused.
However, I found out differently.
He won't pay me anything now because he has no money. What a great business owner and manager....
He is ultra paranoid about being recorded like someone who has something to hide. He had seen my other videos, and is angry..."You put the fucking thing on the blog..." However, he even told me in my initial recorded conversation to post my video, but now he cares???
He apparently has proof that he didn't cause the damage though he says that he drove the car, then later says he didn't...
He thinks it is against the law in Alberta to make any recordings without me letting him know. This is not true. Only one party has to consent to any recordings in Alberta. He has an issue with me using his name on the internet. His name is listed on the Krown website. I'm a consumer and I'm posting about his services. There's nothing wrong about that. I am not lying. Anything I have said is not slanderous or libelous. Anything I have said is truthful as backed up by the video, audio recordings and from the owner's own statements.
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