Meineke Car Care Center review: “We can’t figure out the problem.”

In April ‘25, our Ford escort began to stall erratically. We had it towed to Meineke of Roseville, North Carolina. We had previously received good maintenance service from this location, other than one occasion where they had replaced brake sensors incorrectly, which destroyed the rear hub assembly (they repaired and made good on, after admitting the error by their mechanic).
However, in this case, the diagnosis went from a bad key fob to a bad battery to a new catalytic converter to a new turbo and other issues. Each time the car was supposedly repaired the Meineke Team would say “you need to take it to the Ford dealership because we cannot diagnose the problem completely.”
Once the car was taken to Ford, we learned that several brackets were not reinstalled on the vehicle after the installation of the catalytic converter and turbo. Basic frame parts were missing as well as the actual bracket to connect the catalytic converter to the turbo. This was likely due to the service installation being a complicated process requiring removal of the front axles, etc. in order to get the catalytic converter and turbo installed.
Meineke essentially did not reimburse expenses that were made at Ford repairing work done improperly by Meineke. During the repairs made by Ford, it was discovered the axles had been not properly been reinstalled by Meineke. That caused more expense for replacement parts for the axles. Meineke claimed that all work was done properly. Pictures and videos were made that clearly showed the installation originally done by Meineke was not completed properly. Even a video online showed the exact installation of the catalytic converter that was not followed, which led to the missing parts, etc. Meineke essentially once again said “we can’t deal with your car anymore Take it to Ford.”

I was attempting to get Meineke to reimburse me and they said you’ll “have to deal with corporate.”
This was an awful experience. The general manager was let go as well as the mechanic who had originally overseen much of the work at Meineke. Each time, it was a non-professional interaction with the owner, John, who denied everything that was ever done improperly, but acknowledged the prior manager and mechanic had “ shenanigans’ going on. I had to prove the errors back to him via the videos and pictures provided by Ford or taken at Ford by me. The grand total of these repairs has now approached $10,000 and the car is only worth 10,000.

This car was in good shape and had an intermittent install Nearly 6 months ago. That intermittent stall was fixed by Ford, originally following all of the extra work done by Meineke, simply by replacing a crankshaft sensor. I have no idea whether the work that was done to replace the expensive parts was necessary or not - only Meineke’s testimony about these failures.

The Ford Service team basically questioned whether any of the work was done properly. I am now attempting to find the best route to complain and or take like legal action against the Meineke Rolesville team. This is definitely not a good business.