Pep Boys Auto Parts & Service

Reviews 3

ST

Stephanie DeVries

I brought my well-serviced, albeit old car in for an oil change and a NYS inspection and ended up paying over $1600 for a slew of work they claimed necessary in order to pass the inspection - new struts, an engine purge valve, etc. Since I am planning some big drives in the coming months, I agreed to the work, even though the car is barely worth that much. Besides, I was already out $90 for the diagnostics. They told me to come back at 4. I did. And I sat there until 7. I asked once for an update that was never provided and as soon as I drove off the lot, it was clear that something was wrong with the new struts. Funny, I couldnt pass inspection with my old struts, but I can with new struts that are clearly not fastened completely and sound like the car is going to rip apart? So now I have to waste more time going back and demanding that they do the work correctly and probably have to fight off additional charges. I know my car is old and no doubt it needed some of these repairs. But have the decency to provide a reasonable timeline so customers dont waste an entire day in your waiting room, provide periodic updates, and for goodness sake, at least get the work done correctly the first time and drive it around the block to make sure that you did. It only took me half a block to know something was wrong with those struts. If I were a smarter person, I would have driven upstate to the Ford Dealership. Upgraded from 2 to 3 stars because they repaired the new struts quickly and without fuss. Feels like a brand new car again. I would have upgraded to 4 stars if my car had not been marked to be towed when I picked it up. I received a message that it was ready at 9 pm on Tuesday and picked up at 2 pm on Wednesday. I even called at 8 am Wednesday to let them know I wouldnt pick up until after work and was told it was no problem. Hardly abandoned. Secod update. Downgrading to one star as I waste another Saturday enduring repairs. I asked pep boys to look at my serpentine belt, which was noisy upon starting the car. They replaced the belt, charged me the labor and parts and it was still noisy. I mentioned that when I returned to have them fix the lousy work on my struts. Didnt look at it and it was getting worse. Today, I went to my regular mechanic (went to pep boys originally out of convenience only) and he found a loose pulley immediately. So now I will pay an additional $350 for work that Pep Boys should have caught the first time so I dont end up burning through another belt. How did that pass the safety inspection? I guess as well as the defective struts that they originally installed. Corporate, over priced, slow, poor customer service, and shoddy workmanship. Never, ever, again. And no, calling me with insincere apologies will not make it better.

JU

Junk Mail

This is by far the worst service mechanics anywhere. This company/service center seems to be legalized to rip you off. I brought in my car to have a wheel alignment after having the car serviced by my mechanic. My mechanic installed, front ball joints and front struts and the only thing needed was a wheel alignment which he couldn’t do because his machine was down. So I brought the car to Pep Boys on 3rd street and 4th Avenue for the alignment and was immediately told that there was an inspection fee to determine if the car can be aligned or not. When I told the attendant that I just came from my mechanic and that he had just serviced the front end, he developed an attitude with me. Being in the need to do this alignment and comfortable at the fact that the car only needed the alignment, I agreed for the service inspection and alignment. Well after about an hour, the mechanic comes out and says that I need about $400 dollars of front end work. That I needed inner and outer tie rods and that the alignment could not be done until this was fixed. When I said that it was impossible they became defensive and said that it had to be done. I was told to go to the car and see for myself. To my amazement, they had loosen the rods to make it appear as they were broken. When I pointed this out to them and I told them that I was a mechanic by trade as well and was not currently working because I was recovering from an injury the, the mechanic just walked away and left my car on the track and never came back. I had to wait about 10 minutes for someone to bring it down and it wasn’t until I threatened to call the police. To add insult to injury I was charged for the 20 dollar front end inspection. I drove the car with the rods loose back to my mechanic and he tightened the rods and re-inspected the car and said that there was nothing wrong with the car. My mechanic made a couple of calls to other colleagues and they recommended that I should take the car to Superior Car Auto Center. He spoke with Frank who said to bring the car right in. Frank inspected the car again and said that there was nothing wrong with the car and that it can be aligned right away. Frank said that it is unfortunate that PepBoys runs their business like this ripping people off. And that I was lucky that I only lost 20 dollars instead of the excess $400 dollars for phantom repairs. I recommend that you do not use Pep Boys for anything. There are reputable mechanics and service centers out there that are vested to providing excellent service and customer service care. Pep Boys is not any apology posted after this comment is simply a farce.

A

Anonymous User

Very bad experience at this Pep Boys. It seemed like their whole goal was to charge me as much as possible, accomplishing this by dishonest means. After failing the state inspection for a stored code, Pep Boys recommended I replace the muffler, catalytic converter and O2 sensors, for an astronomical price. I had to negotiate because they wanted to some specialized parts but when I asked them, the generic parts did the exact same job but were much cheaper. After paying $1500 my car still failed the state inspection! They told me I had to drive the car around for the computer to run self tests before it would pass, but they didnt say how long it would take. I drove it around for a few days (my 7-day temp inspection sticker edging closer to expiration) and brought it back - still no luck. They told me to drive it around some more. I asked them to apply for a waiver since I spent so much money but instead they wanted to tear my whole engine apart ($~1500) just to "inspect" for a leaking head gasket. I was furious and I had had enough of Pep Boys. I took my car across the street to Alba Auto, where Dmiytri first grinned and asked me why I paid so much. He performed the state inspection in 5 minutes. My car passed and he only charged me $10, which is half of the state mandated rate! He said he gave me a discount because I paid so much at Pep Boys. I know where Im taking my car next time. I still go to Pep Boys to buy things from the store (such as the occasional tool) but I will NEVER go back for maintenance. The staff is downright dishonest and just there to make as much money as possible. Im very knowledgeable about cars (having rebuilt an engine before) but nonetheless Pep Boys staff insulted me and tried to make me feel unkowledgable to get me to pay more money. Im not above paying top dollar if a shop gets the job done right the first time. But they kept trying to get more and more money out of me in a dishonest way. Never again.

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