Troubleshooter Charges Up And Gets Battery Refund

Garfield Heights -- Donna Peitrzyk said her usually reliable Olds Delta 88 left her stranded. So she had the car towed to B-Safe Automotive in Garfield Heights where owner David Jergens concluded she had a dead battery. $97 later Peitrzyk was back on the road, but the very next day the car was dead again.

"I started crying, I called him crying and he said it's your fault, you left something on. I'm not stupid you know. I didn't even run the radio, I didn't run anything," said Peitrzyk.

Peitrzyk was upset, so she towed her car to another repair shop. After one test, the mechanics at the other shop concluded the problem wasn't her battery , it was a faulty alternator that wasn't charged properly. So NewsChannel 5 contacted B-Safe Automotive's owner Jergens, but no $97 refund and no returned phone calls. I then decided to try and handle this face to face. When I arived I found the front door locked and the office door locked. I gave a mechanic a message to pass along to Jergens and two days later, I was able to shake Peitrzyk's hand, her $97 was returned.

The lesson here, ask if the repair is guaranteed. If it is, get it in writing, dealing with an ASC Certified mechanic is also a good idea. Peitrzyk's final peice of advice, "get the second opinion on anything, you got to go to 2 or 3 places."

Joe Pagonakis, NewsChannel 5 Troubleshooter.