Hyattsville Auto Service

I previously had work done by Hyattsville Auto Service in the past and they did a decent job. I brought my Honda Civic in to them in order to diagnose a rattling sound in the rear suspension. The one mechanic simpy looked under the rear wheel well and said I needed a new strut. I told them to go ahead and replace it. At first it seemed to fix the problem, but after a week the sound was sitll there and it was getting worse. I brought my car into a Honda dealership a few weeks later for its required maintenance check and asked them to take a look at the rear passenger side suspension as it was still making a rumbling and sometimes sharp sound when I would go over bumps or holes in the road. They took a look and diagnosed the problem as the strut having been improperly installed. I told them to reinstall it correctly and it fixed the problem. I called Hyattsville auto service asking for a reimbursement of the cost for reinstalling the strut properly. They said that I should've brought it back to them and I explained that I didn't bring the car to the Honda dealership to have the suspension fixed, but to have its required maintenace done and that once I learned that it had been installed improperly my faith in Hyattsville auto to correctly install it was diminished and that I had no guarantee that it would be installed correctly by them. I argued for the full amount of the labor cost it took to fix the problem by the Honda dealership, but was denied, then I asked for the original amount I paid Hyattsville, which was less than the amount to fix it properly) but was denied, I than said the orignal labor to install the strut should be reimbursed because I paid for a complete job but did not get it, as the labor was faulty, that was also denied. I offered to bring in the paper work from the Honda dealership documenting that it had been installed improperly, but they didn't want to even take a look at it. In the end I found the lack of effort to work with what I consider a resonable request, was rather frustrating and that in the end I ended up having to pay to have the work done twice. Though this may be an anomally in their work quality I will not be going back to Hyattsville auto for any car repairs in the future. The fact that this was a simple install (a strut) and that they did not install it correctly leaves me with little hope that they would be able to fix anythign more severe.