Michael was polite in person and over the phone (when he finally did reach out and called me).
I requested his services as a mechanic through Your Mechanic to change out the alternator in my car at my place of residence.
On the day that I scheduled an appointment, 10/15/2020, I did so at 9:30 am and took the morning off work to get this all car trouble taken care of. Two hours late, I had to call Your Mechanic directly to get some answers as to where my mechanic, Michael, was? The operator, Jennifer, that I spoke to said she'd have to track him down and call me back. Ten minutes after hanging up with Jennifer she called me back to inform me that Michael was running behind and that he would have to reschedule for tomorrow.
I told Jennifer "NO! I scheduled my appointment for this morning at 9:30 and I had to take time out of work to get this done today. This needs to get done today. When can Michael come out today to switch out my alternator?" I could tell that Jennifer was a little surprised by my insistent tone with her but OH WELL! This scheduling issue was no fault of mine and my car was going to be fixed. ASAP!
So, Jennifer called Michael back to arrange a time for later that day. She got back to me with a 3 pm service time. I agreed to the new appointment time and told Jennifer that I'd be waiting for Michael.
Shortly after rescheduling over the phone with Jennifer, Michael called me directly. He told me that he had run over on the appointment he had scheduled before mine and that he needed to grab the new alternator for my car. He said he was on his way to pick up the part and that he'd be right over after picking it up. Well, that wasn't exactly true... It was around noon when Michael called me to inform me why he was late to begin with and what he'd have to do just before heading over to my home.
Firstly Michael, if you knew you were going to run over on your time you should have called me to inform me that you'd be late. NOT hours after not showing to the scheduled appointment. I mean, seriously? Do you really think that I have nothing better to do than to wait around all day for you to show up? Communication is KEY in customer service. I would have been okay with how VERY late you were if you had just called me before you ended up running late to our scheduled appointment to begin with.
Second, you told me over the phone, Michael, that you just had to grab the part you needed for my car and that you'd be right over to my place after picking the part up. No matter where you were coming from in this city, driving over to my house after grabbing the part you needed shouldn't have taken over two hours to do. Now, I'm sure you went out and grabbed yourself some lunch. It was that time of day. And, you need to eat. But don't pretend that I am your only priority here and make me wait another two and a half hours for you to show up thinking you could arrive at any minute. Unlike yourself, I didn't get a chance to take a short break and a walk over to the Smith's just down the street to grab myself something for lunch. I had to wait for you to show up to my house at any moment...
Thirdly, and this one really pissed me off, my battery was NOT dead when you arrived, Michael. After you changed out my alternator and showed me that my car was running I didn't think that I'd have to test my radio. First mistake on my part (trusting a company and a mechanic that I knew little to nothing about). After all, the battery was NEVER dead! My radio should have never been reset.
Now, I understand that you had to disconnect the battery in order to safely remove the old alternator and switch it out for the new one. This I already knew! You can't safely work on this part of my car with electricity running through it. However, what you choose NOT to do is place something as simple as a portable battery charger into the cigarette lighter outlet in my car. This keeps a slight charge running through the vehicle. It's not enough to shock a person working on the car or put them in any actual physical danger but it is enough to keep the car awake so that the entire radio system doesn't end up wiped out. Now, I find myself without a radio or low beam headlights. Hmm...
So, I get in the car on Friday morning and realize this issue with my radio. I called Your Mechanic directly again and explained why I was upset. They had Michael come out the following day, Saturday, to my house to check out the problem with my radio and Michael tries to tell me why my radio was reset. Which I then explained to him that I already know why my radio was wiped out. And, that he could have prevented it from being wiped out. Michael then tells me that the ONLY way I can reset my radio is by taking it to the dealership for them to reset it with a code.
That all being said, Michael knows how to work on cars. He'll get your car back on the road. However, his time management and communication skills need work. As do the organizational skills of the company itself. Now I have to have another thing fixed on my car that never had to be an issue for me to deal with in the first place.
I do appreciate the work that was done for removing and replacing my alternator. However, my overall experience with the mechanic, Michael, the staff, and this company was not even satisfactory. My advice to you, consumers, is to shop elsewhere.
