The Jeep ran fine until it started
to over-heat in the summer of 2010. I look under the hood to find coolant
gushing out through the thermostat housing and a bolt from the housing had
fallen out. The thermostat housing was literally hanging by a thread onto the
head of the engine. I had the Jeep towed back to the shop and was told by a
different manager that the holes on the head were still stripped out and that
the job before was not done correctly. He went on to tell me that the other
manager would never guarantee that type of work because he knew it would
fail.&nbspNow to fix the issue properly, it
would cost me $1200.

This included taking the head to a machine shop, fluxing
the holes and installing threaded inserts into the stripped out bolt holes on
the head on top of a list of parts to properly reassemble the top half of the
engine including gaskets, seals, and a new thermostat housing from the
dealership. Desperate to have my Jeep back, we finally came to an agreement of
$600 for all of the work and a written guarantee of 12,000 miles or 12 months
on October 8, 2010. Gordon also went on to tell me that the guarantee was only
valid at their shop.

Friday, the 7th of January
2011, at around 4:30PM while driving the Jeep, I noticed that the coolant
temperature of the vehicle was in the 100-120 range; too cool for the engine
function properly. I noticed decreased fuel economy and rougher starts. &nbspIt was working fine in the morning at about
32 while driving to work.&nbspI immediately
rushed home and let the Jeep sit in the garage and after about 20 minutes the
Jeep was still too cold to operate normally. I called Big O and Eric answered
my call and told me that they wouldn't be able to take a look at the Jeep until
Tuesday, when Hank would be back. Desperate, I agreed and set up an appointment
for Tuesday.

The technician, Hank, which has
been working on the vehicle, told me that they restricted the air flow of the
radiator and the coolant temperature was rising to over 210. I witnessed this
at the shop. They refused to pull the thermostat out of the engine to properly
test it and assured me that being this cold, it was perfectly normal for the
engine to be running this cool and tried to convince me that it was perfectly
normal to have to put a piece of cardboard in front of my Jeep's grill to
prevent it from getting too cold and to allow the engine to heat up. One
technician even suggested putting an accessory bra on the hood of the vehicle
to help it stay warm; which at this point was ridiculous and insulting to me.

After speaking with another
Manager at a different location, she informed me that the warranty was valid at
any Big O store nationwide. I then proceeded to take the vehicle over to her
shop. At this point, she called a district manager, Frank, and I spoke with him
on the phone. Frank assured me that his master mechanic that was ASE certified
and himself had diagnosed the problem to NOT be the thermostat and that it the
inclement weather we were having is to blame for my non-issue. Frank also told
me that if I did instruct them to replace the thermostat anyway, that my
warranty would be void and to my understanding the reason for the voiding of
the warranty would be because I've had to bring back my Jeep too many times
now.

To me this means that I'm a problem customer and they didn't want to deal
with me anymore. Frank told me that the reason why they did not want to pull
the thermostat housing off of the Jeep to diagnose the thermostat was because
they were unsure whether or not, after removing the housing with the fixed bolt
holes on the head, they'd be able to reattached the housing to the head because
it might be stripped out again. Again, this was alarming for me to believe
that the original job that I paid $600 for was not done properly.

I instructed Jill, the manager at
the other location, to go ahead and change the thermostat out. I was called
back by her a few moments later and she told me that Frank, from Corporate, had
instructed her shop not to perform the service on my vehicle; just for her
shop's safety. Very unsatisfied, I called the 1800 Customer Relations number
and filed another complaint about this company's practices. After speaking with
a very nice lady, she informed me that Big O has blacklisted my complaints,
that it would no longer be hearing any of my issues with Big O, that they would
not be servicing my vehicle at any Big O location going forward, and that my
warranty was now void.

It's disgusting to me the business
practices that the people at this store and even the District Manager are being
allowed to use. It is down-right insulting how unprofessional their staff is at
dealing with issues that might arise from their mistakes.