Cottman Transmission & Total Auto Care review: terrible experience

The long and short of it is that I believe Cottman Transmission tried to rip me off by having me agree to a complete transmission replacement when all that was needed was a fluid change/transmission service. I was driving along when my car started having some driving issues and the light came on. I pulled over, turned off the car and restarted it without incident. I went somewhere to have them check the code, which came up that the transmission fluid was dirty.

I went to Cottman with the intention of using their special and having my transmission serviced via fluid change, etc. I was taken into the shop and shown the car transmission pan, which did indeed look to have dirty fluid. The guy explained to me that although it may not be much or hard to see, there were some small bits of metal in the fluid and that meant the transmission needed to be replaced. I started to panic. What I thought was going to be the cost of a simple service, turned out to be a major transmission job to the tune of $1600 min.

The guy seemed real nice while explaining all the financial aid/payment options, etc., but his tune seemed to change after I called my husband. My husband told me that it did not sound right and we would get a second opinion. I informed the Cottman representative of what we intended to do and then it started.

He apparently tried to warn me that my transmission could go out at any time, leaving me and my children stranded, and that I may be taking a huge risk unnecessarily when they had it on the rack and could have it done for me in a few days. I insisted that my husband was now going to be handling it and I asked that they put my car back together so that I might leave. They told me that they would clean the pan and would add some fluid so that it might help make it less likely that it would go out on me within the next few days but no guarantees.

I left devastated and panicked. My husband and I went to another shop that we trusted and we were told the pan had not been cleaned, it was low on fluid, but more importantly all that was needed was a transmission service. We had the transmission serviced (and regularly since then) and have not had any issues out of our transmission nearly 3 YEARS/ over 100k mi. later.

Based on my own perceived experience, I would never go back to nor advise anyone to go to Cottman transmission for any automotive repair service. I truly hope this saves someone the same bad experience I had or could have really had. Thank you and GOD Bless!