Stay away from ATEB

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neoworm

neoworm

10 Year 15 Year
Joined
May 14, 2006
Threads
89
Messages
1,334
Location
Canada
John and his brother are a couple of hacks. Had them do the timing belt and water pump on my 100. They were recommended by various members.

Well after getting 20km from their shop I was wondering why I had smoke coming out of my hood. Turns out they forgot to reinstall the clamps on my radiotor hoses.

Seriously not impressed. Made me wonder what else they neglected to do that I can't readily see.
Well today I found out. Brand ne w water pump I had them install is now leaking just over a year later. Only 8000 mi.

Steer clear of this place.
 
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Sorry to hear worm about the loose hose clamp. Glad you caught that in time before anything else happened. Can't believe the new water pump has failed within 20 km. They only use oem pumps I thought. I'm sure that's a warranty thing if only for the parts cause it sounds like you won't be going back to them either.
Oops just reread your post they did your pump a year ago then you only got 8000 miles out of it and you had to put in another one and only got 20 km out of it before it's leaking again . Did you supply the parts?
 
Ya and I forgot to mention the water bypass fitting I had to replace as well. They broke that as well in the process of doing my t-belt and water pump.

I gave those idiots $2500 cause I didn't have time to do all this stuff and just over a year later I am going to have to redo everything myself.

Parts were all brand new oem. Supplied by ATEB. Thats if they actually did replace them. I'm not so sure anymore.
 
I thought you were a little more diplomatic than this. I'm guessing you won't be camping with them either. Somethings are better left in house and thought something like this is one of those.. so I'm still a little confused . Was this a year ago ? Or is this still within the at least good faith warranty time.
 
Diplomacy? This isn't a negotiation. It's a rant!!! And a warning. No I won't be camping with them either.
You do seem easily confused I will give you that.
 
Please don't use the club forum for rants about businesses who are also members of our club. The whole 'internet is forever' thing is kind of a stain on the spirit of our club when we have threads like this.

There is a place on MUD for voicing dissatisfaction with sellers and service providers:

Bad Sellers - Buyer Beware


Thanks.
:beer:
 
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Just a couple thoughts for 'neoworm' to consider.

That is really harsh and excessive. In fact, I couldn't agree more with Rob S., don't use this forum to trash businesses or someone's reputation. If you can't help yourself, and you aren't able to exercise some measure of self-restraint, perhaps you can post in the 'bad vender' section.

Second, I suppose it's possible that people make mistakes now and again. Speaking from personal experience and listening to what others have to say about John and his brother, they are top shelf mechanics and really good people. Once again, you may want to be a little more careful as "good news travels fast, whereas bad news travels faster" in the world of business. Clearly, there is an impact when someone (yourself) calls workmanship or service into question. I am left wondering why you didn't just address your concern with the business operator directly and intentionally, and he may have helped you out in good faith. Why is there a need to 'warn' others here, most of whom have had really good experiences with John and ATEB.

I recently had a clutch slave fail after a year and a half, it wasn't OEM and Steve sold it to me. I wasn't about to make a rash judgment and forewarn others. So I didn't blame him. I kinda realized that I had a bad part, and I was too 'Dutch' to buy a Toyota genuine part. He actually offered to get the rep. to have a look at the part and see if it can still be warrantied.

This is not a rant, just a response for the sake of defending honest and hard-working guys.

Calling them a "couple of hacks" wasn't necessary, fair or helpful, so I can safely say that I'll scrutinize any and all of your future posts.
 
Even though I have not personally had anything done at ATEB (since I do everything myself) but most of my friends have had work done there, and they have been in business for a very long time. I have seen the quality of their work though and it has always been very good. I have spent many times talking to John and him offering advice and helping me out even though he was not going to be working on my truck. He has always been very helpful, knowledgeable and a good friend.

Now I don't know if you have done this or not, you don't mention it so I am assuming you have not. Before posting up rants about any business (or any person) it would probably be a good idea to contact them and see if the situation can be resolved. We all make mistakes, it is possible ATEB made one or the part that failed just out of warranty can still be covered and the business is willing to make it work. Did you even contact them? did they try to resolve the issue for you?
Regardless, name calling is not very constructive nor does it benefit anyone. Especially since many people here know ATEB and John personally, can vouch for his craftsmanship as well as his level of service. So this raises a few questions as to the entire situation.

Like that saying about not writing when you're drunk or angry ;)

Edit: Oh, and that shot at George is totally out of line as well, what the hell man?!
 
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Well said, jvanhove. I won't bother with the 'reply with quote'.
As a customer it's up to Neoworm to diplomatically approach John and Phillip if a problem arises. As a pilot,
I can print a litany of really frightening post mechanical errors. But we all make mistakes.
I have had major surgery done to my 12HT by Phillip and other minor work done by John. I left my
truck there for 2 months as I was out of the country. I then drove my truck over 5000 miles untested
to Inuvik and Yukon and back. My confidence in their work is absolute. I found as I went along that
John had repaired a number of little 'snags' without my knowing, and without charging me. He had a few
minutes and found little things that needed to be done.
That level of care and commitment is rare, and I've never encountered it before.

I'm sorry for your misfortune, a mistake was made. You are handling it wrong.
 
You guys are the reason businesses like Johns can stay in business.

Society has become way to soft and polite. Standards need to be set higher and people need to be held accountable. FYI the first two issues I had were brought up quietly with ATEB and they were promptly shrugged off without so much as an apology.

Now I'm really pissed and I don't really give a s*** whether any of you approve of my rant or not.

With that I will leave you all to your web wheeling.

I have to get back to redoing everything I paid ATEB to "fix" for me.
 
My opinion might seem bias, but John and Philip have always had my back and gone out of their way to help me and other people. Sorry you had an unfortunate experience.
 
You can't keep everyone happy, that is what I have learned growing up, try as I might, there is always the odd one or two that gets by that just can't be satisfied, sometimes it's my fault, sometimes theirs, and sometimes s*** just happens. ;)
 
ATEB - Yeah - I was going to keep my mouth shut but hell- they just rebuilt my 1HDT and encountered a problem that was not really their fault. in the spring of 2015 what was supposed to be a simple cylinder head refurbishment with the engine in the truck became a complete motor teardown, removal, block machining, replacement and re assembly. John and Phillip provided all of the extra underlined work above FREE OF CHARGE to me because they felt responsible for not catching a dimensional variance that was so small it was unnoticeable with normal workshop measuring equipment. There was no way I would have known about that issue and they could have just passed on the enormous additional charge to me but there is that little thing called integrity...

So maybe I am biased about the way they look after people.

Oh yeah - I picked up the truck from them and a week later loaded it up to the hilt with camping gear, tent trailer and boat and put 3000 km on it going back and forth on the Coquihalla, Osoyoos, etc in blistering heat with the A/C on. No issues.
 
Staying close to ATEB. My JDM has been good to me because of trustworthy ATEB.
 
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