I took my car to pep boys quakertown Pa yesterday for an inspection. The day before i had a friend replace the back brake shoes and inspect the front brakes for wear. He told me the front ones were more than ok, that he measured them to be passing over state minimum. My check engine light was also on and i reset it by unhooking the battery in the parking lot.
I get a call from them saying that all FOUR brakes need to be replaced, that they ALL failed. I told them to check again because the back ones were replaced yesterday and the old ones and the box for the new ones were still in my back seat. The guy goes to check and comes back 10 minutes later failing the front brakes and a back tire. They also forced me to pay 25$ for the emissions test even though they said they could not do it since i had recently reset it.
Pep boys saw a woman come in the door and assumed i was a moron.
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I work with the service business at Pep Boys. Please contat me so I can help with your situation. My phone number is 215-430-4460
Greg Russ on July 28th, 2009 at 6:06 am | Link
UPDATE FROM ORIGINAL POSTER:
This is an update on the pep boys in quakertown pa. As i said before, i had a problem with my inspection. After they read my post on this site they called me and told me that they had a similar car in at the same time as mine and there was a mixup..however the mixup was still incorrect.
On the original phone call after i was inspected they told me all 4 brakes failed along with a tire.
I told them i had just changed the back brakes the day before and then they changed their story and said that only the front ones failed.
I went to the store and paid for the inspection and emissions only to get home and realize due to me disconnecting the battery to turn off my chk eng light they couldnt do the emissions test. They did however charge me for the emissions test anyway. everything else passed fine.
After complaint was posted i got a call saying all the brakes were ok but my drums failed..despite the fact that they PASSED on the first receipt i have. After this ridiculous claim (as i had the drums looked at when my back brakes were replaced just a few days earlier) i decided to go to the store along with the person who changed the brakes and a family friend who watched the whole process.
When we arrived at the store, despite an appointment, we waited in line for like 20 minutes. After we finally got someone’s attention they said that i was in for a “reinspect” which was NOT why i was there. I wanted an explanation of why they had now given me 3 varying inspections and then get my money back. The first person we spoke with could not provide many answers and so we asked for a manager. The manager was a young kid who also couldnt provide any answers aside from telling us that they couldnt put an emissions sticker on without inspecting it..which is not what i wanted to begin with.
At this point my friend began to get a bit loud within the store because frankly they were giving us the runaround and it appeared as though no one knew exactly what to offer us. Then the owner comes over to “help” which involved standing there. He then began to get upset at the fact that my friend was getting angry and told him to stop “acting like an idiot.” In my opinion, although my friend was getting loud..he was just simply angry with the incredible amount of crap these people were pulling on me. Whether it was just inexperience or the inability to act professional..or simply that they couldnt do an honest inspection in the first place.
Now for the kicker. After i get all my money back i take it to a local garage for an inspection. Lets recap..
pepboys final failure was: drums, front brakes, and back tire along with emissions from check engine light which i was going to pay them to fix.
local garage inspection: passed inspection, fixing emission light as planned.
Point is, the Quakertown Pep boys does not run an honest business that i will ever shop at again. All of the employees, managers, and EVEN the owner acted unprofessionally with my inspection. Their only honest act was giving me my money back to put towards a garage that actually deserves it.
There’s a state minimum for brake specs?
Generally you just micrometer the parts and check versus the nominal specs in the service manual.
BTW: Out of spec drums are still UNSAFE. Regardless of the status of the shoes.
Personal note: I start making recommendations if the part is within the last 20% of its service life. It’s better to fix it now than to have it fail at an inopportune moment. Some mechanics recommend you fix complimentary parts because if not you’ll be back in after a month because another component failed.
In your example, if your rotors were bad (ie. warped) I would not bother putting new pads on and sending you on your way. It will take a while for the new pads to wear into that warping and the car WILL NOT stop efficiently. I wouldn’t do the inverse either, put pads that were used on a warped rotor onto a new one for the same reason. A good chunk of “unnecessary” repairs are recommended with YOUR best interest in mind. Some repairs can exacerbate other issues if these secondary repairs aren’t made.
Just something to keep in mind when the new shop recommends something.
Most of us aren’t out there to rob you.
Andrew Medina on August 28th, 2009 at 8:15 am | Link
mind boggling why you needed everything checked after the “friend” just replaced the parts…you asked pepboys for their professional opinions…you got them and complain about them?
resetting your check engine light erases the stored codes from the computer. they cannot retrieve anything from a blank memory.
let this just be lesson for you.. you are the one in the wrong here to be honest. they are just doing the job you wanted them to do.
repair shops aren’t going to guarantee your safety and the repair if you want them to use old worn out parts.
brake pads are only 1/4 of a brake system.
I agree that their service lacks most of the time. I still go there though because it is comvenient as they are open late and can usually do same day work. But everytime I go there they get grease all over my floor mats and steering wheel. Everytime. I have complained everytime. And nothing gets done about it. These mechanics don’t care about peoples cars at all. Have some respect and have some respect. Keep our cars clean, how hard is that.
Dave on February 16th, 2010 at 5:44 am | Link