Duncan’s Auto Service

My partner and I have been going to Duncan’s for years. It started as «they’re friendly people to work with» and «they’ve never done us wrong,» and then we stuck around due to loyalty cred. They work quickly and thoroughly, plus they’ve done us some solids, like fitting us in on a busy day and dropping whatever they’re working on to take the two minutes to fill up our underpressurized tires.
This last week, though, they earned our total loyalty for life.
Our Hyundai’s engine had died in a spectacularly bizarre manner. When Shawn (Sean?) called to explain, his voice was filled with bafflement over the failure and feeling awful that he was giving us such bad news. Our options were to put $ 3000 into a new-​to-​us engine (worth almost twice what the car was) or let her go up to the big junkyard in the sky. Duncan’s put no pressure on us, telling us to think about it for as long as we liked, and that there was no rush on getting the car out.
We ended up deciding the new engine wasn’t worth it. Yesterday, I dropped by Duncan’s to settle up — they’d put a lot of time into figuring out what had happened to the car, into researching replacement parts, plus the fact that she’s been parked here for almost two weeks. By all rights, we probably owe them at least $ 100.
But they waved us away. We owed them nothing, they said.
Personal investment in clients is a rare gem. The folks working here are helpful, thoughtful, know what they’re doing, do it well, and care about the customers who care about Duncan’s.
We’re customers for life.

I had four new tires installed about a month ago only to find Duncan’s put three of them on backwards. I brought it back a couple days later so they could get it right and, after leaving it in the early AM (no after-​hours key dropbox?), I came back that afternoon to find they hadn’t touched it. They got confused about whose car it was even though I left a clear voicemail and the registration matched my name, not to mention I had been in only two days prior and interacted with the same employees both times. An annoyance, but forgivable.
Just hearsay, but a coworker mentioned she had brought her car there and had the wheel fall off after picking it up (they hadn’t tightened the lugs) but even after my experience up to that point, I was still willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Well, what do you know, I was at my dealer today for unrelated service only to discover one of the wheels was loose and missing a lug nut. Fortunately, no damage to rims or tires after all of this. They seem like friendly folk, if a little absent-​minded, but I won’t be back.

The service is wonderful. Mechanics are great. I have always been contacted when things were found over and above what was expected as well as when the car is finished. The estimate is almost always higher than the ending bill. I can trust Duncan’s with my car to not be taken advantage of.