Came in pep-boys next to my house yesterday to get two tires on that i ordered the day before. I go in and wait 1hr and half to find out the guy at the shop wants to go home because hes overworked. They ask me if i can come back tomorrow, i say no problem. Now a little backstory is that i have come to this shop maybe over a year ago to check my tire pressure which they do with no charge. Once i asked the guy if i owe him anything he says no but was glaring at my car (the whole time he was complimenting me on it) so i politely tell him sorry but "you driving it is out of the question" to which he responds "well ill be careful" I say "sorry bud" and left it at that and went on my way. Fast forward to today, i came in again after waiting 1hr and half yesterday. Same issue, wait 2 hours just to hear my car start up inside the shop, i go to the front to look, and see my car being pulled out and see the new tires have been put on. I'm used to seeing the employee just take the car out of the garage and park it outside. Guess what? Its the same guy from last time that i told "no" to driving my car. He not only did not park it but took it out of the parking lot and onto a back street where i lost view of the car COMPLETELY. He comes back after a minute or so and pulls it in to the parking lot slightly tapping the accelerator. (i saw the car pull a little bit) so he puts it in the shop again for some "test up" he did and then pulls it again out of the shop to park it as it was finished.. I go to the front desk and bring up the issue to Jim who was at the service desk, he tells me how supposedly they need to test the car in the parking lot to make sure the lugs were on tight. I tell him i have never had any tire shop take my car outside of a parking lot and he agrees to the issue. Thing is, there is no Manager AT ALL to handle my situation, he is out on vacation......All i was left to do was call customer service and leave a complaint..... Absolutely terrible waiting time for two tires... I went to Sears a few months back to get my fronts installed and i was in and out within 35 minutes..... All in all i spent over 2 and a half hours for two tires and an employee driving my car without asking me. Jim provided good service but besides that this is a terrible place! And i am waiting on a call. kids name i believe is Harrell who took my car out without consent! Only reason i went to pep-boys to begin with is because I got a specific all season tire for my fronts from Sears and was waiting for the snow to near to get my rears on. Well i started comparing prices and noticed pep-boys have the same tire but cheaper, (checked discount tire but they don't have that tire at all) I did not want mismatched tires...so i went with pep since they were 60 bucks cheaper. Jim did give me 15% off each tire i got on top which was nice.. What steps should i take and what can i expect upper management to say?
Sucks that it happened, but if you got 15% off, then I'd just leave it at that. That's actually a win in my book. Let it all go, buddy. Learn your lesson about ever going to Pep Boys again, and look forward to the new year!
Well Jim told me about the 15% yesterday for the inconvenience of waiting and being told to come back today.... Nothing was taken off for the car being driven, because a manager was not there...
I lost half a workday waiting for single tire replacement at a Sears AutoCenter, when they finally gave it to me around 8:00 pm it wouldn't start; because they had run out the battery testing the TPS or something, so add that cost on to a routine job that usually takes an hour or so. Whatever your experience at some other places, it's almost a given you'll eventually have a worse one at Sears. Spoiler <iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ii8rC6CPCvM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Never been to Sears but they can't be worse than the auto people at Walmart. And fwiw I've never had any place take my car for a little drive after changing the tires.
Not sure why you'd need to drive a car to make sure the lug nuts were tight. What are you going to do? Wait for a tire to fly off and say "guess it wasn't tight?" Don't they have torque wrenches? The other thing is... take your car to some place other than Pep Boys. Lastly, why are you taking your car somewhere to check tire pressure?
Perhaps the lug nuts excuse is lame, but making sure it is driving OK and giving a sanity check for the alignment and balancing by taking it around the block seems reasonable.
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Cleverly disguised brag-about-my-car-without-saying-what-my-car-is post, but I'll bite. What's your car? And "glaring" is a negative word, not meant for someone looking at your car with the desire to drive it.
Your car should never have to be test driven to make sure your lug nuts are tight enough. That was a lie. They should always torque your lug nuts to factory specs in order prevent having to test drive it.
Once the wheels were installed on the lift, they should have been torqued to spec. Once the full weight of the car is back on the wheels, they should be re-torqued for a final check. No driving is needed to make sure the lugs are tight enough after that. I've never gone to have my tires replaced/repaired where I wasn't the person driving into the bay and then backing it out myself. I don't care if I'm driving a POS or some brand new vehicle. The children they employee at tire shops and quick lubes are absolute morons and should never be trusted with your property. Making a complaint probably won't amount to anything. But being the owner of the car, you can fully dictate what you can allow these people to do with it.
Why would you say this to him? You shouldn't have even brought it up, as this makes the 'desire' even greater. If a child is looking at some candy, and you distinctly tell him "you're never ever going to get this candy," the kid won't forget this, and will do everything in his power to try and get the candy.
