KILLEEN, Texas — Gabriel Davis told 6 News he took his 2018 Honda Civic to a Take 5 Oil Change on Jan. 5 of this year. Two and a half weeks later, he said his car lost power and he had it towed to Track Ready Performance in Killeen.
Davis said there appeared to be water in the oil. 6 News contacted Mechanic Jonathan Mireles at the shop who also said there seemed to be water in the oil. Davis said a manager from Take 5 Oil Change came to the shop to watch them drain the oil and that manager agreed his company caused the issue.
"That's the conclusion the store manager and the mechanic came to and they said they would take care of it," Davis said. "He called me after they drained the oil and said 'I'm sorry this happened, we'll take responsibility. I'm going to send the claim to my district manager.'"
Davis showed 6 News text messages from that manager where the manager asked for rental car invoices and an invoice for the cost of repairs. In a later text the manager wrote, "I sent that over to my DM that day and they should be contacting you."
The texts continued until March with the manager claiming he didn't know what the holdup was on the claim. Around the first week of March the manager stopped responding.
Davis then went back to Take 5 Oil Change to find out what was going on. He was in for a surprise.
"I went up to the store location and that's when they told me that the district manager and the store manager had recently been fired," Davis said.
Davis said a new district manager eventually contacted Davis' father. He said the new district manager didn't take the claim any further.
"It was really frustrating. They got a new manager in and denied responsibility," Davis said.
Meanwhile, the family found out a new engine was going to cost around $9,000 and had also been paying thousands of dollars for a rental car while they had waited on the first manager.
The family called 6 News.
6 News reached out to Take 5 Oil Change and their parent company, Driven Brands, on April 11. Driven Brands' spokeswoman Taylor Blanchard contacted 6 News back that afternoon.
It was unclear if Driven Brands had any of the information the Davis family had been trying to provide to the previous manager, so 6 News forwarded Blanchard the invoices needed for the claim, a video of the oil being checked and text messages showing the initial manager telling the family he had started a claim.
In a follow up call, Blanchard told 6 News it still wasn't clear if the oil change had actually caused the motor issue but they would be assisting the family because the way the former manager handled the situation.
Blanchard later sent 6 News the following statement:
"Customer satisfaction is of the utmost importance to us at Take 5 Oil Change and we take all customer claims seriously. We have offered to reimburse costs incurred by the customer to make up for the inconvenience experienced with this issue."
On Monday, Davis confirmed that Driven Brands had, in fact, provided them a check to cover both the rental car fees and the engine repair. After two months of uncertainty over what was happening, it was a huge relief. The family could now move forward with repairs.
"The engine should be here hopefully today and he is going to work on it as soon as he gets here," Davis said.
Davis said they had needed answers for two months but Driven Brands followed through less than a week after 6 News made contact.
"As soon as I got in contact with you guys it was like the light at the end of the tunnel appeared," Davis said.
Davis said the family had previous planned to take the money for repairs out of savings if they couldn't get any help. Now Davis will be able to use the saved money for college when he starts his freshman year this fall.
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