MARTY'S MOBILE MECHANICS

JW

Joan Wistinghausen

2 Nov 2025

Seemed good BUT NOT DEPENDABLE!

I called Marty the first time to come out over a week ago on a same day mobile assessment for a car I wanted to buy. He said he could come that same day and estimated his arrival time as 2:30. It was a long extra 2.5 hours waiting at the Hitchcock car lot with multiple new arrival times in between until he arrived around 5:00. I texted and called him in between with no pickups and sparse text answers.

Despite his (traffic?) delays, I liked him. His assessment was very thorough and he said that the car needed major work starting with a new alternator, and obviously advised against buying it.

As I paid him the $250 trip fee (in cash with an additional tip despite his lateness) he said his policy was that if you don’t buy a car because of his assessment the first time, he’d do the next one for half price. I told him thanks but I felt he shouldn’t discount his service just because this car he assessed was a pig with lipstick and he was well worth the $250 because he saved me thousands. So I was willing to pay him the full fee to do the next assessment. I liked him and thought I’d found a great mobile mechanic. If I’d have reviewed him at that point, I’d have given him 5 stars.

Six days later (two days ago on Friday), I called him around 10 am in the morning to come do another prepurchase assessment at a major car dealership across from Reliant stadium on the 610 South Loop. I told him about the car and my few concerns that I was willing to fix if he determined they were minor. I told him I needed to leave the dealership to go to a doctor’s appointment across town but I would be back. We discussed him sending me his pay link. When I asked for a general eta, he hemmed and hawed a bit but said he could be there about 1:30 - by that answer, and the week before, I expected him to be late again. (I’m generally not a fan of lateness but he’s so good, I could overlook it. Also, this dealership is open til 9 pm. So I said no problem, just call me when you’re here and please send me your pay link since even if I’m not back yet, you can still do the assessment since I trust whatever you find. I texted him the salesman’s information. It was a huge dealership and very professional establishment and I trusted him to show up and do the job.

He never sent me his pay link and that was the last time I ever talked to Marty - it’s now 48 hours later. I called him around 2:30 but no answer, then at 3, no answer, and 5 then at 6 but he never answered! One of those cals, I could tell he rejected because it only rang once then went to voicemail. I texted him four times in between those calls asking for a new eta, the last text around 6 simply saying “hey are you ok? Please just let me know SOMETHING.” In between that, I was in contact with the salesman multiple times to ask if he’d heard anything from Marty but he hadn’t. I didn’t bother to call him from my husband’s phone to see if he’d pick up because my patience was pretty much toast at that point. If you’re gonna avoid calls from my phone, that’s all I need to know.

So Marty completely GHOSTED ME. And on Halloween. I thought I might hear from him yesterday saying there was an issue with his phone - because there is no way you don’t lose your phone as a mobile mechanic and not go take care of that immediately - and we all know your recent stuff is stored in the cloud these days so… zero excuses. I came to look at his Google reviews and lo and behold, I see he did the same thing to another woman spread out over a week a month earlier.

To sum it up, SADLY, if you do hire Marty, he will likely show up late IF he ever shows up. IF he shows up, he’ll be thorough - so there’s that. But how long is someone really expected to wait these days?? Showing up and good communication is already half the battle. Not doing that is wholly unacceptable for ANY business model, much less one that provides mobile services where people are waiting for you to arrive.

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