The Commonwealth of Virginia requires that all vehicles pass a once a year inspection. Due to some circumstances beyond my control I had to take my vehicle to PepBoys as they were the only location doing the required inspection open when I able to take my vehicle in. (I was working very long hours for a start up telco)
The Vehicle: 1969 Ford E300 Van. V-8. Std. Not fancy
Me: former ASE certified Master level mechanic now working in the IT field
The vehicle was working perfectly, steering, brakes, all lights/indicators/fog/driving lights, wipers, etc. (daily driver on I64/I95 40 minute one way.
Pep boys "inspector" and I use that term EXTREMELY loosly tagged my vehicle as 'out of service' unsafe and may not be driven.
This struck me as rather odd as it had been working perfectly when I dropped it off. They indicated that I needed new brakes, new steering components, wipers, a battery amd electrical work.
I paid the 15$ inspection fee (you have to pay whether you pass or not) retrieved my keys, and went to take my van home to work on it. Lo and behold, EVERY SINGLE FUSE was blown, the fog/driving lamp relays were fried, and the the three circuits I had on circuit breakers were UNWIRED! The pitman arm retaining nut was missing it's saftey lock pin, the brake drums HAD NOT been removed as my saftey wire was STILL in PLACE (unless the pepboys mechanic knows how to saftey wire a nut like it was on an airplane, and used the exact same type of wire I still have the roll of in my shed/shop) I had just replaced the wipers the week before along with a new Exide Nascar series battery.
BTW, total undercarriage rebuild three years ago, new kingpins, all bushings, pitman arm, gearbox, drums, shoes, hardware, bearings/seals etc etc etc. You get the idea.
It's big, it's ugly, it gets atrocious gas mileage, but it starts every time (except after I took it pep boys) and it's big enough and tough enough to argue with the horribly bad virginia drivers and win.
I fixed the fuses, tightened up the bolts/nuts that had somehow loosened themselves, replaced my blown relays, drove it by another mechanic and wowsers, it passed the VA state inspection with flying colors. I never did figure out what pepboys did to totally blow out every single fuse/circuit breaker/relay on the vehicle. My personal belief is that pepboys say an old vehicle with a loving owner and thought they'd try to soak me for imaginary, not-neccesary, and un-needed repairs.
I do not pay people to work on my home, car, truck, van, computer, AC, electrical, or plumbing. I have all the neccesary skills, the tools, and the certifications neccesary to make it legal. Pep boys tried the wrong trick on the wrong person that time.
I cannot seriously in any manner recomend that anybody under any circumstances go to pepboys for any reason except to perhaps clean out your car and fill up their dumpster with your personal trash as they have shown blatant disregard for reality and customer service and have instead focused their business aims on monetary and only on monetary gains.
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