Sunshine Service Brake & Alignment
Early September, I called Sunshine Service Brake & Alignment to make an appointment with them for a front-end alignment on my motorhome. I dropped my motorhome off at 8am on 9/19/17, the date of my appointment. Upon arrival I made sure to inform Kali, the person who took my keys, that this was a different motorhome than I had brought in for repair before (I did not discover until the next day that the estimate had been written up as if the work was for a previous motorhome). When I was provided the paperwork, I questioned the estimate because it seemed to be significantly higher than similar work I had had done previously on motorhomes I owned. I was told that it may be due to the fact that they do not know the extent of the work involved until a mechanic is able to assess what is actually needed. After lunch, Kali called to inform me that the sway bars would need to be adjusted, which I approved because I assumed it was necessary based on their expert assessment. Approximately two house later I was contacted and told the motorhome was ready to be picked up. When I arrived, I questioned the cost of the bill as it seemed excessively high. I was told I was charged a standard price for a front-end alignment on a motorhome so I reluctantly paid the bill. When I got home, I discovered two of the motorhome's wheel covers were damaged, as well as all four valve stem covers and a lug nut were missing. I am certain of the condition of the wheel covers, as well as the stems and the lug nuts, as I had just detailed the motorhome. When I called Kali to inform him of my findings, he told me they had no reason to do anything with the wheel covers, nor did they do anything that involved the tire pressure which would have affected the valve stem covers. I explained that I did not understand how an alignment of all four wheels could have been done without removing the wheel covers and/or checking the tire pressure. Since I was not satisfied with Kali's explanation, I contacted a supervisor who told me there was no way they could have damaged the wheel covers. This is clearly an unreasonable statement to make, considering the work they preformed involving all four wheels. Being Sunshine is the only business in the Reno/Sparks area that performs front-end alignments on motorhomes, I decided to contact three similar businesses in the Auburn/Sacramento area that perform similar work. All three businesses gave me an estimate of $200-$250 for a front-end alignment on a motorhome of my size. Sunshine charged me $375 to "adjust the sway bars", for which I was told definitively by one of the businesses in Auburn there is no such adjustment. In addition, the damaged wheel covers cannot be purchased individually and are powder-coated so the cost for a set of four is in the realm of $800 to $1,200 dollars. I feel that Sunshine not only caused me financial loss due to the damage done to my wheel covers, for which they deny any responsibility even thought they clearly would have had to remove them to perform the work they allegedly performed, they also have significantly overcharged me in what might be considered a malicious manner, perhaps because there is a lack of competition in the area or because I am a senior citizen. Either way, I am a very disgruntled customer and to put is simply, I feel like I was ripped off by Sunshine Service Brake and Alignment! I feel the $912.45 bill was way in excess of the $200-$300 I expected. Kenneth S.