My wife and I were driving from DC to Boston last December for my grandmother's funeral, and stopped to get gas at the end of the NJ turnpike. When I went to drive away, my car wouldn't move. Although not a car person, I was pretty sure my transmission was cooked.
We limped to a nearby hotel, and the next morning set off in search of an auto repair shop. The first place we went wasn't open, so we happened upon
Quality Transmission. I decided to play it cool, and not let on that we were stranded 4 hours from home, on our way to a funeral (oh, and that we had to be back in DC in three days to close on our first house). Rich, the owner, apologized, said he was really busy, and wouldn't be able to help us for a couple of days. My plan to stay cool went out the window, and I broke down and told him our whole situation. He was super nice about it, and told us he would take a look. He went for a test drive, and came back with the bad news: the transmission needed to be rebuilt. We'd be looking at thousands of dollars, and a couple of weeks (it was days before Christmas).
My wife and I went next door for some donuts and to figure out a plan - we figured the funeral was a bust; our new priority was getting back to DC for closing with enough money left to actually close. A few minutes later, Rich comes into the restaurant and says that one of his mechanics thinks he can fix the car in a day for half the price. Finally a bit of good news - Rich calls a rental car company for us, and we decide to hightail it to Boston for the funeral.
We make it to cheers from my family, and leave immediately after the funeral to head back to NJ to pickup the car, trusting that Rich will come through for us. As we're pulling into Little Ferry, we get the call from him - the car is ready, and it's shifting fine. My wife cries. This man is a saint.
I can honestly say that if I ever needed transmission work again, I would do my damnedest to get my car to Little Ferry, NJ and have Rich work on it again. He was kind, understanding, and fair. We were fish in a barrel, with no other options, and not only did he not take advantage of our situation, he went above an beyond to find a solution that would not only save us money, but that would let us get to both my grandmother's funeral and make it to our closing. -
Steve B. Washington, DC - 5.0 star rating 10/13/2014