Is anyone else having issues with Howard Engineering Corp. (HEC) of LA, CA not honoring tranny warranties?

My remanufactured HEC tranny in 2001 TL only had about 10K miles on it and it went out. My mechanic couldn't get an answer from them on when the replacment was coming so he invoked the rental car clause. I was sent to Enterprise Rent-a-Car to get a car which was billed to HEC. It took almost a month for them to get the tranny to my mechanic. Now, three months later I have Enterprise telling me they can't get HEC to pay the bill so I owe it because of the way their contract is written and my lawyer agreed. The flip side of this is I still have a tranny with almost 28K miles left on the warranty that I'm pretty sure is worthless and my mechanic hasn't been reimbursed for his labor by HEC either.

 

have YOU contacted the company?
thats different to them than a shop calling- they will put them off for 90 days whenever possible--standard business procedure~
Time for the lawyer to write a letter of demand, if that fails then its small claims court.
ck the internet for other people with complaints- search for the company name + comments or problems or reviews--see what comes up

Hopefully your replacement trans wont need its warranty in the next 28-
keep the fluid changed annually and all will be well

 

Sorry to hear about your mess. One thing I know about enterprise car rental, they are very flaky. I would stay away from them, maybe other car rentals are the same s**t, but I wouldn't want to experience it. The nicer they treated you, the more you should watch out; they gouge you, they suck it until you can't keep it up and fall like a rock, then they will do it from the back, until your s**t comes out.

Bottom line don't deal with enterprise car rental.

 

I did call HEC multiple times and was told I would need to speak with the owner who never would call me back. As for the comments about Enterprise RAC, it was HEC who told me to go Enterprise where they had an account so I had no choice in the matter.

I finally took HEC to court and won a judement against them. Of course, being an out-of-state company I am not holding my breath for payment anytime soon. The battle continues.

 

Glad to hear the judgement is on your favor. Hope you get your final payment soon.

 

with a legal court judgement- you can pursue it to the point of a bank account siezure for payment of judgement--they snatch the cash right from their account!!
ck into that!!

 

start with a certified letter- which they may not accept knowing those contain only bad news to a shop!!
attach copy of judgement and demand for payment in x days per court ruling (hopefully that was included?)
if not complied with, the next step is to the bank
Im sure there are companies that do this for a percentage,,make a good living at it too!!

 

contact the tv stations local to the place, their consumer help desk may get some faster motion of the `pen to check` for you

 

I'm not an attorney, but I work with them daily. I've been in the commercial collections/recovery business for a long time (14 yrs). Did you get a default judgment because they didn't answer the complaint? Did they answer the complaint and you won a Summary Judgment? If they didn't answer or appear then they surely don't care and probably won't respond to your attorney's letters or calls. In that case if they are a foreign corp (they are Incorporated in a different state) you'll want to domesticate the judgment in that state and seek collection remedies there. Also I would speak with your attorney about pursuing the principles of the corporation personally. If they get served at home that'll strike a pretty mighty cord. Right now they are protected by the corporate veil. If you have a savvy attorney he'll know how to pierce that. Anyways going for bank garns is nice if you know who they bank with. You can have information subpoena's issued to all local banks in the area you believe the business is in or the principles are in, those are about $50.00 a pop. Serve the 4 largest banks ($200.00 well spent in a lot of cases). Once you freeze their account(s) you hold the power and you'll get what you want unless they file BK of course. I hope this is somewhart helpful to you.

Go over everything with your attorney, do not go by what I am saying as I am not an attorney. I don't want this to come across as if I'm giving you legal advise. This is meant to be info you can discuss with your attorney to be successful in getting reimbursed.

Good Luck!!

 

Thanks for all the good info. I'll try to update y'all when I get results.

 

Hey grofva How did you take them to court if you are not in the same State as them. I am dealing with same crap wish I would have seen all the bad stuff about HEC b4
I don't want to pay to fly to CAL.

 

that sucks its bad enough your trany is out but I hate dealing with businesses that don't honor there agreements!!! good luck

 

They initially tried to have the case thrown out in VA but the judge cited a precedent case. Because the transmission was ordered by a VA shop and HEC shipped it to VA, they were involved in interstate commerce was the basic premise.

After multiple letters & phone calls and I even sent a letter to the owner's personal home address which I found online. I found a CA lawyer to take up the collection case. Unfortunately, HEC finally sent the check to me & bypassed the lawyer' and his request for the judgement plus his fees. I could have fought for the fees but I just decided that I had made my point and sent the lawyer his half and closed that book on it after such a long exhausting battle.