Pep Boys - Houston Review
Locating a good mechanic for your car is a big hassle. One would hope that the big name shops like ‘Pep Boys’ would live up to their names in customer service. This is however a review of my experience with ‘Pep Boys’ located on the feeder of US-59 in Houston. I know that stores like ‘Pep Boys’ are franchised and hence service from one store to another varies. Which is why I’m being specific to this location when I write my review.
What: Automobile Repair
Who: Pep Boys
Address: 7525 Southwest Fwy, Houston, TX - (713) 779-8600
Ever since coming to Houston and I have been going to Pep Boys for all my automotive repairs. Needless to say I’m not a “happy” customer when I come out, but they manage to do a fair job, or so I thought, up until now.
I own a 1999 Pontiac Grand Am and recently my battery lights came on on the dashboard. Being the kinds who doesn’t like things not in working order, I immediately made my way to a nearby Autozone to get it checked out. After a few minutes of checking the battery, the guy at Autozone told me that my battery was fine, but my alternator was close to failing. It wasn’t pushing out the required volts needed in order to charge the battery. Autozone has friendly customer service.
So Pep Boys being my usual auto repair shop, I called them and asked them if they could fix up the alternator if I had bought it elsewhere. They said they would, but only if I’d gotten it from O’Reilly’s or a couple of other places (but NOT from Autozone). Luckily I hadn’t purchased on yet and I did get one from O’Reilly’s. I’m not sure why people do not like Autozone for parts (I’ve heard its because they are no up to the mark in terms of quality, but I have not validated that yet).
Either ways, dropped off my car and the alternator at Pep Boys, after they told me it would cost me $130 for labor alone ($230 if I’d purchased the alternator from them. I picked up the alternator from O’Reilly’s for much cheaper and the whole thing came to $170). I didn’t shop around for prices, and no one else was willing to fit an alternator that was purchased from outside, so I decided to go with it (like I had another choice).
The next day they called me to tell me that there was some ‘pig tail’ like contraption that was broken and they needed to replace it. They also told me that it cost $40 (so there goes all the savings I thought I was making). Having no other choice, I told them to go ahead anyways.
That afternoon while picking up the car, I asked them if I had warranty on everything and they said the parts warranty would be from whom I bought the alternator (O’Reilly), but because I never bought the parts from them they could not give me a warranty on the labor.
Paid up, walked out, drove my car and then about 10 miles out a whole lot of lights came on. The airbag light was the first to come up. I never knew why, but I decided to check that out later. In the evening on the way home, I started the car and shifted it into gear it jerked like crazy. It was almost as though the whole engine shifted. This jerking effect would kick in everytime the automatic gears would shift up.
Besides the airbag lights and the jerking, the next things that gave problem were that the traction control and abs lights switched on. It was as though the car was having a total breakdown and I wasn’t sure why because all I had replaced was the alternator which I figured was relatively easy to replace.
A day or two later I took it back to PepBoys to ask them why thinks were working that way and they told me that it might be a problem with the engine and they would have to take a look, but taking a look would cost $$$’s.
Having screwed up the first time I did NOT want to leave it with them. Who knows what they might do or charge me for next.
So I spent the next week attempting to find a good mechanic. Got info about one through my friend and showed it to him. The moment he looked at it he told me I was ripped off and that was the worst alternator job he’d seen. He couldn’t believe it when I told him ‘Pep Boys’ did this job. He was like “Pep Boys did this!!?!?!”.
According to him, what they charged me $130 bucks to do, should have actually cost me $40. And he didn’t know about no pig tailed crap. By the time the check engine light had come on, so I decided to give it in for an engine tune up as well.
Another $239 bucks later and a fixed alternator job and engine tune up and my car is running like spiffy new :). I asked the mechanic what had happened and apparently the “pig tailed” thing they were refering to was the wires connecting to the alternator (a set of 4 wires). They spliced it up and tried to fix it back together and got all the connections mixed up.
So the reason for all the lights going on and the engine jerks and everything that was happening was because they screwed up fixing in the alternator.
This is not the first time something like this has happened. Previously someone I know had their car fixed up there and everytime it would come back with a new problem until it just totalled almost.
In my opinion, these guys really don’t know what they are doing half the time or get in-experienced staff to work on things and mess them up.
Conclusion: The staff at PepBoys are fairly irresponsible, do not perform a check once they fix things up, probably don’t even fix things up right, overcharge for their services and just make life miserable for the customer. This has been a harrowing experience and has lasted more than a week. I would NOT go back to this Pep Boys store and would NOT recommend that anyone goes there.
I\’m not a commenter to blogs in general, but your article on Pep Boys - Houston Review really caught my eye. I had been looking for information on Automotive Warranty on Ask.com, and was intrigued by the link to here. Good job!
@Automotive warranty
Thanks. Just didn’t want anyone else to get ripped off
Do share where you got the repairs done later - Properly for the right price. Thanks.
There’s a place called Bayport Automotive out at the intersection of Bay Area and Highway 3. They do a really good job at a reasonable price.
Hello Harry and Alexandra,
My name is Angel Nieves and I have been ripped off by PepBoys. I have had a more than 2 year relationship with various PepBoys and loved the quality of service they provided. On May 13th, I brought in a car To store#0317, that had a rattling noise (if I exceeded 60 MPH) but ran well, 3 weeks and $1,500 later, without ever driving it) my wife was asked for an additional $1,000 to now be able to get the car to run at all!
The store manager simply told me “we neglected to pick up the problem at first that’s why WE DIDN”T CHARGE YOU FOR OUR LABOR. Besides, the car ran well when WE drove it for a couple of days”. Fine, but my wife and I rented and borrowed vehicles and never got to drive our own family car again. They drove it not us.; and yet we were told to pay for the additional wear and tear problems. Wear and tear for driving our car 1 mile up the road.
After attempting to reach the manger of store #0317 (Engelbert/”Bert”) several times and always being told he was out on lunch, I filed a complaint over the phone (complaint#142732) and I was told that district manager (James Seamatis) would get back to me within 24 hrs. That never happened!
I am no longer interested in hearing back from (PepBoys). I am only interested raising awareness of the immoral and reprehensible tactics of PepBoys to the entire US population. I knew that mechanic shops could be less than scrupulous, but I believed that a publicly traded company would have stronger ethical inclinations than to rip off and slander their own customers.
I vow to become a viral nuisance and enemy to PepBoys. I will be on YOUTUBE, the internet, on fliers, small claims-court, the better business bureau, consumer affairs, Senators, and Attorney Generals from now until the end of time communicating my horrific ordeal with licensed criminals. My personal goal is to dissuade 10 potential customers from ever going to Pepboys for every one dollar that I was ripped off. With my legal, professional, media, academic, and Wall Street connections (Yes, I spent 6 years on Wall St analyzing publicly traded companies), I guarantee that I will make the company’s financial performance suffer. PepBoys only cares about customer relations if it affects their own wallet, and that is exactly what I’m going for. I guarantee the success of my anti-PepBoys crusade. Game on!!!
PS: It is not about the money; it’s about treating people with decency, honesty, and being able to admit when you are wrong and rectifying it.
My Apologies, I originally addressed this email to Harry and Alexandria at PepBoys who are responsible for Media and Investor relations.
First of all, $hit happens, any one can make a mistake like doing the pig tail and then failing, the problem actually that you brought the WRONG alternator so they had to re-wire it to fit your car, my experience with pep-boys ; they really take care of their costumers and if they make a mistake they will fix it. HOWEVER I think I know the reason why you are angry; it’s because of the price they charged you, I totally agree with you the do charge and sometimes over charge, sometimes even more than the dealer !!!! and you were mad because the mechanic told you he could have done it at half price or less! not because of a simple wire came off and your car had some lights come on . in closing you -and every one like you - can only blame yourselves for going to the “big name” in auto repair shops while looking down on small independent shops.
@Dude1129
Agreed, $hit does happen, but I’ve seen it happen more than once at this location (I am being specific to the location rather than Pep-Boys on a whole). Messing up with a pig tail can happen, however I would think they would fix it without asking me to cough up more cash. As for bringing in the wrong alternator, I had brought the right was as it corresponded to the part number for my vehicle. If it was the wrong part, they should have told me that and asked me to get the right part, not try to make do with the wrong one. Let them be up front about it.
Price for the service is also a concern.
As for looking down on small independent shops, I never “looked down” on any small independent shops. I just never knew of any good one’s until I was recommended one by my friend. I have been to another small independent shop and been ripped off from there as well (not mentioned in the post however).
If you do know any good small independent shops then please let me know, I would love to give them a shot. I’m not biased towards “big name” places.
Also, this is just my opinion. I’m sure there are many people who have had great service and can provide positive feedback to this store location. This is mearly my experience.
Clearly. Thanks!
:))
hmph.. this is just one more of hundreds of complaints I have read and heard about Pep Boys.
Fuck them.
Don’t Go to PEP BOYS, their mechanics and service suck. My check engine light went on and I took it to Pep Boys in Keyprt, NJ to have it serviced. They charged me for an engine drain, oil change and a tune up. The car came back the same only the check engine light was off. After 2 weeks the check light goes back on. I was ready to take it back to PEP BOYS but after speaking with some friends they told me horrible stories after they had their car serviced at this sight. One went their to have their ty rod replaced and the car came back racktling from the chase. He took it back and they stated they forget to bolt in some screws. Another went to have her tires rotated next morning she had a flat with the tires screws missin. I then took my car to Nissan to have the check engine light checked. Let me tell you what they found. Only one spard plug was changed my oil was thick and black. I had to have my engine flushed. I will never take my car to this PEP BOYS location. I don’t know where they got their mechanics from maybe off the street.
Don’t go there unless you want to waste your hard earned money.
It’s a shame that things like this get witten up and then people believe this is a fact. Most of the time when your lights (several of them) come on on the dash, it’s a battery or a Alternator problem. There are a whole bunch of other things that go wired from battery to alternator. One of these might be the cause. The pig tail is the cable that plugs into the alternator. You SPECIFICALLY told pep boys to repair your alternator. AUTOZONE told you that that the alternator was bad, so why blame the company that installed it? Now,they should have given you the three month warranty on LABOR no matter where the part was bought. Why? because they were suppoused to verify everything BEFORE saying that the alternator was bad. This is company policy.
I don’t know, pepboys to me charges a bit more but their service is… adequate. nothing great, gets the job done.