I am writing this on behalf of my daughter.
As she was driving, her car started shaking violently so she had the car towed to Pep Boys on Fallbrook Ave.in Woodland Hills, CA. She paid $89.99 to have a diagnostic run to see what the trouble was.
She was told that her engine was bad. They showed us one of the spark plugs had been smashed was was told it was because the timing belt was bad whicj also damaged the engine.
Initially they said it was going to be $2,000 to fix the problem. When I asked what that 2K covered I was told a new belt, spark plugs, oil and labor. They also needed to have the block sent to a machinist to fix something else (I can't remember right now).
A few days later they said she needed a whole new engine and that it was going to cost $5,600. They said their concern was there is additional damage to the engine below the block that they can't see until the block is removed.
Meanwhile we started looking around for other places to take her car because our gut was saying something was not right. We eventually found a place in Encino that came highly recommended.
At the new garage, we found out that she did not need a new engine at all, she needed a new computer and spark plugs. Her bill came up to less than 1/2 of what Pep Boys said she needed according to their diagnostic report.
To add insult to injury, when the car was towed to the new place the guy couldn't start the car because the battery was drained. There was nothing wrong with the battery when the car was taken to Pep Boys, but it was dead when the car left Pep Boys.
As my title says: At best - incompetent; At worst - blatant liers.
They completely tried to rip my daughter off!
My daughter has kept the diagnostic from Pep Boys and the report from the new mecahnic. If anyone needs to review these documents in a compliation against Pep Boys, you are more than welcome to them.
0 comments