PontiacBonnevilleClub.com

So here is my NIGHTMARE. Went to new mechanic that promised to do great work with better rates than the major shops out there. I drilled him a bit and decided to give him a chance. First issue was the replacement of struts. He recommended Monroe Quickstruts. I say to him I am a member of a Pontiac club that says thats not a good idea and he laughed it off and said stop listening to these people that arnt even mechanics, I've been doing this for 35 years and Quickstruts are perfect for this car. So i again trusted in him. I of course get my car back and the front end is jacked up. I start talking to Ryan and Andrew and doing more reading and it comes to my attention thanks to Ryan that Monroe has actually pulled them off the recommended list and they are not to be installed on our cars! I then also noticed my new struts are blue in color and Monroe Quickstruts are black. So I went back to him and he tried telling me all pre assembled complete struts are quick struts!!! ANNNNNNNGGGGG WRONG. People use the term quickstrut way too loosely. There is only one Quickstrut which is a licensed name by Monroe for one product line. If you are selling me a product and you tell me you are putting Monroe Quickstruts on my car, thats the product i expect. Instead he put Monroe Econo matic struts which are not even the same quality of Quickstruts. As Ryan put it so perfectly, its like saying Kleenex, everyone calls facial tissue Kleenex, that is a name brand, all tissue is not Kleenex. If i want Kleenex and I get the Kroger Brand and my snot blows right through the tissue because its cheaper but i was told I was buying Kleenex, I will be mad!!

I also noticed that he has a yellow car lift, hence the yellow scuff and dent new to my car, I now know where it came from. So I went to his shop all guns loaded and we went at it, as much as he wanted to snarl at me and laugh like what a joke this is, I'm sorry but I know I am in the right here! He was even dumb enough to pull out the receipt for the parts from his wholesaler and right in the description was Economatic, not Quickstrut.

Now for the good news, I may have found a way to help any person who just recently had Monroe Quickstruts put on by a shop. I am working this out with Monroe to have them pay to change out the springs back to my OEM springs because NAPA and O'reilly's and I'm sure many other suppliers are still listing these struts as replacement and they should not be. Once I have my situation completed by Monroe I will share my information and the contacts and numbers of the people I dealt with. I just want to make sure I get taken care of first!!!!

ALSO A NOTE, MONROE HAS TOLD ME THEY ARE NOT RECOMMENDED BECAUSE OF THE SPRING HEIGHT, ITS CAUSING BAD CAMBER ON ALIGNMENT AND ALSO THE WRONG ANGLE ON CV JOINTS AND IMPROPER WEAR ON TIRES!!

As I said when we were talking, I just always referred to any complete bolt on assembly as a quick strut. However, that is for my own personal use, going back to the whole kleenex / q tip reference. In your situation where a part is being sold and installed, the part discussed should absolutely be the part installed without question.

Thanks for the vote of confidence Ryan. I just wanted to make sure i'm not being a picky jerk here. I just assumed when he told me Monroe Quickstruts that it would be the product i got instead of Econo Struts.

I'll be watching to see what comes of your dealings with Monroe. Got those installed on my son's 04 sle.

I agree wholeheartedly. I installed the economatic pre-assembled struts on my sister's Taurus because she had a spring break, and a strut nearly rot off the car. However, I feel like replacing perfectly good springs because it's easier is just lazy. Most shops have the compressors anyways, they're just letting Monroe do the work instead, and passing the cost onto the customer either way. I do agree with getting all the parts and replacing the mount, bushing and bearing, but that's not that much more expensive...

Right there is a difference quality and cost wise between economy and quick and it was sketchy he pulled the bait and switch on you. For instance you don't go to a restaurant and order the Porterhouse and get a strip for the porterhouse price and the chef says well they are both steaks.

I wish you the best with everything. Where is the scuff and how bad? If you have the option, turn it in to insurance after the strut issue gets sorted out, and list him as the party to blame for it.

It's all fun and games until you have an insurance company at your throat

The issue here isn't the difference between quality of one vs the other, more of the difference of the part name being thrown around as a general term. The mechanic told him he was going to put quick struts on his car, well there is an actual pre assembled compete strut unit called a quick strut and there is also another complete pre assembled strut unit called the econo strut. The mechanic said he was Installing quick struts on his car and instead installed the econo struts saying they are all quick struts / that any pre assembled unit is a quick strut. We were trying to see what other people thought about this as well, I also always called any pre assembled unit a quick strut.

The mechanic is super shady though in every way...

Yea the actual quick struts are a bit more expensive and supposed to be better quality. Sucks this happened, the mechanic seems to be a real gem...

Thanks to all for the support here guys. Things got nasty, he called me into the shop and we had a one on one. First he went out to my car and measured the height of the underside of the bumper and then measured how high his lift would have had to be and says to me, "we would have had to drive right into the lift to do this?" Really, duh, thats what I'm telling you happened! I just said look forget it, i just want my struts right. So he goes on his computer and pulls up his internal parts side, guess from where??? O'reilly's, and he calls a few parts distributers on speaker phone and ask the girls that answered the order line what a quick strut is and of course one says a pre-assembled strut, when I tried to ask her a question he cut me off and hung up phone. The second one he called i got him to ask her is Quickstrut a specific product line for Monroe, and she said yeah i do believe it is!! So again he didn't want to back down, i reminded him how i was worried about putting Monroe Quickstruts on my car because of the experience from club members and that he had laughed or chuckled about the knowledge base from these clubs, and when I said that he lost it. He blew his top and said " I never laughed about that club, get out of my shop, get out now!" I said no. i'm not leaving i want my car fixed, so he called the Police!! I wanted to stay there so bad, but ultimately its not worth it. I let him have it verbally, I then let him have it over text message on his personal cell phone and i JUST MOVED ON. Thankfully he gave me the receipt for the struts and I went to O'reillys spoke with the manager. I found out his price was $112 each strut and he charged me $195!! So much for his small markup on parts, thats like 70% markup! His cost on Quickstruts was $154, he could have made $50 a strut plus labor and thats still a very nice profit, he charges $50 an hour for shop, but no thats not enough, he wanted to really get over on me. I gave him the chance to return the Economatics, buy the Quickstruts and even charge me the difference and to switch out my springs and Monroe would pay for it but no, his pride was in the way.

Result is O'reillys will refund the $112 each and sell me the Quickstrut for $154 or just sell me the Sensatrac Strut and mounts separate, at cost. I was referred to a great shop that gave me some more stories about Monroe. The shop owner has gone round and round with Monroe for similar situations. Apparently the GMC Envoy (i own one too) Quickstrut had issue that the spring height was too low!! He went through the same thing with Monroe and they did end up pulling all of those off the shelf and I believe were going to correct the spring or just not sell them anymore. So this shop will be exchanging my struts and the springs and I will be billing Monroe.

JUST FOR REFERENCE THE ECONO MATIC STRUT USES OBVIOUSLY A CHEAP STRUT BUT SAME EVERYTHING ELSE AS A QUICKSTRUT. THE QUICKSTRUT PRODUCT USES A SENSATRAC STRUT IN THE ASSEMBLY. I WAS ASSURED BY MONROE IT IS WORKING UP THE CHAIN OF COMMAND AND SOON THOSE WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE ANYMORE FOR BONNEVILLE'S. THEY ARE MAKING SURE DISTRIBUTORS NO LONGER CARRY THOSE FOR OUR VEHICLES!

got any info on who to contact at Monroe or what office to ask for?

jimmmmay wrote: I never laughed about that club, get out of my shop, get out now!" I said no. i'm not leaving i want my car fixed, so he called the Police!!

I would make sure to post reviews on yelp, google, yahoo, and anywhere else that someone may look up his shop. As long as you are as factual in your review as you have been in your posts here, there's nothing he could do to have the bad reviews removed.

Those are the kind of negative reviews I pay lots of attention to when I check that kind. Some reviews, positive and negative, seem written by a friend or enemy. But I like the calm, factual, data-filled review.