Pep Boys Auto Parts & Service

Reviews 3

NG

Nghia Vuong

I used to go here. Thought that the service was okay. Until I got scared for my safety. I had to make a long trip. I needed them to check out my car to make sure that it was all ready for a long drive over cliff terrain. I got new brakes installed for the long climb that I was expecting. Thought that I was totally safe. Turns out, they didnt complete the job properly and lost the ability to reverse. Wheels clicked and rumbled. Things went from bad to worse when I heard metal stress sounds, so when we got to the cabin, we all decided to ground my car in the driveway. Still, I had to get this car home somehow. I didnt want to pay for some ridiculous cost to transport the car back from the freakin mountains. Did some quick tests and determined that, at least, I still had the ability to go forward, and adequate breaking (with a thump sound on every braking). No reverse. On the 4~5 hour trip back (what should have been 2 hour), we took it VERY slowly. Had to stop and eat, but parking in a lot was a problem with no ability to reverse the car. Realized that if I put it into neutral, the car could be pushed directly back if wheels are aligned straight with no weird metallic sounds. The whole time on the freeway, I was worried that earlier metal stresses might have damaged my wheel mounts. Since I was blind to what the problem might have been, I took a calculated risk that the odds of my wheels catastrophically failing was small enough to continue. Being on a highway with fear that my wheels could fail at any moment was very scary. Got it back to the city and to this repair shop. They took the vehicle for a day and repaired it. They didnt charge me for the secondary repairs, so in a way they made up for their technical mistake, but it did ruin my trip. Heard that the wheel "wasnt calibrated," whatever that means. I also understand that there was no way for them to help me because I was so far away. I knew that the trip was taking me away from civilization, which is why I had the car checked out in the first place, but the service did cause the trip to be a scary one (albeit memorable). Still, Im sufficiently scared, so I am now having service done at a different place. I used to have all my service done here, but now Im too scared. Sorry! What to take from this? Firstly, be glad that Im not filing a lawsuit and just writing a bad review, I felt that this (perhaps rare) incident needed to matter. Personally, writing this is a way of putting it all behind me with no bodily injury or harm. Secondly, if management is reading this, please add a checkout test to your procedure to protect future customers, driving the car out of the shop will test going forward, but maybe you should back into the parking space outside to test going backwards to see if some weird sounds appear. I was unlucky in that on hindsight, I parked on a curb so I didnt get to test backing up until it was too late. I got the car back from the shop and just went on my trip, a bad idea on my part. Should have checked my own equipment before taking it on a long trip. Thirdly, if a major incident does happen, maybe you should offer a full refund at the very least, as an apology. Its too late now, Im not coming back, so you might as well keep the money. I dunno, maybe improve your customer satisfaction tracking? Lastly, I recommend that shops give realistic time estimates. I understand that your work queue is full often. Your prices are pretty good. Just give real estimates. If its 4 hours then let it be 4 hours or 6, or whatever. Being on-time is better than being late, even if on-time takes longer.

A

Anonymous User

I took my fleet car in with a broken brake light and turn signal. The sales guy at pep boys asked if they could do an entire safety examination instead of just fixing the lights, since I was on a fleet policy, and I agreed. When I got back to get my car, the lights were still out. Not only did they milk my fleet policy for more money, they didnt do the work they charged my company for. The bozo could have at least written down to at least replace the bulbs at the minimum. I wonder if they did anything at all. Do the brakes work? Yup, the story doesnt stop there with these customer centric superstars. So, I go back in after going to my car and realizing that my brake light still doesnt work, I asked if they could take it back in the garage and actually do the work. They said theyd have to get a manager to approve it and Id have to come back in the next day. I complained. of course this went nowhere. I asked for them to call their corporate headquarters, wake up the manager, call his cell, whatever. Id paid to have a very simple item replaced on my car, they milked me for more money and then refused to perform the service after charging me for it. Realizing that this was not going anywhere and not wanting to get a ticket, I finally gave up and asked for a bulb for the brake light. They brought it out, I took it, assuming that I was going to walk out of the store with the item Id already paid for through the charges to my fleet. But nope, he took the part to the front and charged me the $1.50 for the bulb. Said he couldnt comp it without his managers permission. I asked where thh manager was - not here. THEN - the agent told me that we werent allowed to work on cars in the driveway. ugh. i just want my F*$&%($* brake light to work so I dont get a ticket. I just paid nearly $200 + an additional $1.50 to get this done. I keep a cool head, though. So, I asked if you guys cant make any decisions by yourselves and your manager doesnt come to work, whos running this place? The manager should be fired for being negligent and the staff should be fired for just, well, not giving a crap on any level about their customers. Image if something was actually wrong with my car like the transmission. I am not one of those customer that will keep complaining forever. I objected and complained for two hours that night, which is two hours Ill never get back. I am one of those customers, however, that will call my fleet management company with a letter craftily wordsmithed with much more professionalism and convincing documentation than the above writing, not insisting but recommending that we drop Pep Boys from our Fleet program as it is a "safety Hazard" for those of us that drive for a living to be driving around in cars that are not properly taken care of.

SE

Seshu Nukala

Couldnt give anything less than that. This place sucks, and if you need to complain (rather a satisfactory service), goto this place. My experience is as follows: Gave my CR-V for the following maintenance and diagnostics: - Wheel alignment - TPMS check - Oil Change First of all, where in the world they get 2 types of wheel alignments. One with 3month and another with 12month warranties. In a normal word, this is just a binary thing you do a proper alignment or tell the customer, it cant be done. There is no half-way approach here. Pepboys doesnt seem to get that. Its like half pregnant. And that too, they didnt any good job at all, the wheels arent aligned. Next on the TPMS check, they didnt even bother to note this request and when I asked for it while taking the car back, the reply was you didnt ask for it. When I insisted I did, the technician said well we would called you didnt we? My response was no, then his counter was this costs $25 to check and diagnose the problem and that determines the cost of service for fixing it. Lastly, what type of technicians forgets to reset the oil change indicator to 100% back. When I submitted this feedback on their website, I got a call back to get my wheel alignment fixed (AGAIN), but this time they gave me an estimate of $80+ to fix it. What kind of people doesnt get this identified the first time? I dont know. This is my 2nd BAD experience with PepBoys in 9yrs (Ive been there only 2 times). So not RETURNING at all.

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