My experience at AAMCO Transmissions
I formerly displayed the AAMCO logo here..however, I was contacted by a lawyer from AAMCO who requested that I remove it.
Apparently they do not want their logo associated with the reports of the occurences that take place in their franchises.
Double A (Beep beep) emm see ohh. Yep, you can trust AAMCO for fine quality transmission work. And they sure stand behind their product.
A good or bad experience?
For me, the experience was definitely bad.
Why I chose AAMCO
I chose AAMCO when I needed transmission repair based on their advertising. They're advertised as being an integrity filled, knowledgeable, competent transmission repair organization.
My experience at AAMCO
I brought my car to AAMCO because my transmission wouldn't shift into 4th gear (overdrive). The main symptom that I saw was that, when I switched the Overdrive switch (located on my shifter) on or off, the corresponding Overdrive on/off light on my dash did nothing.
I mentioned these symptoms when I dropped the car off. I was told they'd be checked out, and that the fee for an external diagnosis was about forty dollars. I had no problem with this. I was happy that I was having a competent service facility look at my car.
I received a call from the service manager later that day. He told me that they'd completed the external diagnosis, had found nothing externally wrong, and that the sole reason for my transmission not being able to shift into overdrive was internal. To find this internal problem, they'd have to remove the transmission. This would cost a minimum of one thousand dollars, more if replacement parts were necessary. I told him that I'd pick up the car, as I couldn't afford that right now.
About a week later, I had some time to make some checks myself. Keep in mind here that I'm not a mechanic, and the checks that I made could be made by anyone that could read a Chilton's Repair manual.
I took the console covers off around my shifter, and I checked the overdrive on/off switch. The switch tested bad. I wired around the bad contact, and lo and behold, the transmission shifts perfectly.
AAMCO's Response to my complaint
When I returned to the Merrillville, Indiana AAMCO Service Center to register my complaint about the service that I'd received, the basic answer that I got was that my transmission still needs to be rebuilt, as they said they found the fluid low and "burnt". The fact that it now shifts smoothly into each gear is irrelevant. The fact that I was specifically told that this switch and the associated wiring was all ok was also deemed to be irrelevant. The only relevant fact that the AAMCO manager seemed to see was that his technician recommended $1,000 dollars worth of work, and that's the story they're going to stick to. I filed a complaint with their regional management, and they did refund half of my money in the end. But to all that need transmission repair, I say this: Use extreme caution, and seek several opinions from different shops before committing to a major repair. It may very well not be necessary.