Chapel Hill Tire - Carrboro — Attraction in Carrboro

I’m having a hard time with Chapel Hill Tire - Carrboro. Every time I’ve used their services, the customer service to fix whatever they’ve done wrong is great. But I’ve encountered an issue every time I’ve gone to them for service.

The first time I went here was to replace my tires, they sold me a mid grade set which was great, exactly what I was looking for. But it turned out they actually sold me tires the shop didn’t have. No biggie, they said. We just put a more expensive set of tires on. A great way to solve the issue for the customer, but I would have rather not encountered the issue.

I went for an inspection and the report came back saying I should replace some things based on mileage. That’s standard. But it also said that I should replace my drive belt specifically because it appeared original, not because of the mileage. Problem being that I replaced my drive belt recently and it only had 2k miles on it. When I asked the technician why they suggested that the drive belt was original, they said “oh I don’t know, it’s the default comment.” But why did none of the other suggestions have a default comment? Whether that’s true or not, it’s shady and probably fools people into spending hundreds of dollars on a service they don’t need.

The most egregious is their detailing service. I paid $165 for them to vacuum my car. Barely wiped it down. They apologized, had the mobile detailed come out and redo the service for free. Again, great customer service. But the detail I paid for includes an interior shampoo which I did not receive either time the interior was worked on. I know because the seats were never wet after the service, they were still stained, and because they were cleaned with a spray bottle. The detailer, who was very nice and apologetic, said they couldn’t clean my seats. They need an extractor. Respectfully, that’s what I’m paying a detail premium for. They’re clearly lying about services to up charge customers for work they aren’t doing. Don’t get a detail here. You’ll pay almost $200 for a vacuum and maybe they’ll wipe it down. Vacuum and wipe it down yourself at an automatic wash for $10. You’ll probably do a better job.

The people are great. The service is not.

Edit after the response from the owner: Do you all see what I mean? They're patting themselves on the back for going through what apparently was the gargantuan task of vacuuming a few cat hairs off of my seats. That's considered a difficult "removal?" Why offer detail services if you don't even have a vacuum that can handle some pet hair? And for reference, it's not like my car was furry. It was the "sometimes I get in my car after petting my cat" hair, a few pieces that I had to have them come out and specifically vacuum up because they didn't bother to do it the first time. $165. The seats were not "impossible" to clean. I know that because I took the car to Carolina Car Wash and they didn't seem to have an issue. HIGHLY recommend them for detail services, by the way. "We don't leave the seats wet" seats are wet after a shampoo. That's just how it is. And your technicians know that, because the first time I complained the person I talked to put his hand on the seat to check if it was wet and said to me that I was correct that they must not have been shampooed. The Chapel Hill Tire detail shop just isn't shampooing them. They're lying and not providing the services they're charging you for, and they aren't denying it. They're just hoping no one reads this. It's true that they did redo the detail, and they still didn't provide me with the services I paid for the second time. "You said it looked great," I said the cat hair being gone was great and thanked the kind person who came out to vacuum my car. It isn't their fault that the business they work for advertises services the detailer is not...

Long story short, not trustworthy.

Full story: I moved to this area about a year ago and have been looking for a trustworthy auto shop. According to my colleagues, Chapel Hill Tire is expensive but reliable. Well, it's hard to say if they are expensive since there are multiple factors, but you should not fully trust them.

Because my annual inspection date was coming up, I went to visit this shop for the state inspection. Before I visited this store, I assumed my car had some cat converter issue. It was pretty obvious, even to me, because the car was making an abnormal noise. But it's not new anyways, so I decided to go with it as long as my car passes the inspection. Unfortunately, it failed the exhaust test.

After they found this exhaust leak issue, they said my car may need to get further diagnosis (~$150). Since I’m not a car mechanic, honestly I was not 100% sure if it was a cat converter issue. However, I know cat converter issue may not require any further diagnoses. So I asked them back if they could check the car really quick and find what was the issue. And the mechanic said no and told me I should make another appointment for that diagnosis. I didn’t think it was a must, but I thought they could probably find other potential issues with the diagnosis. So I made another appointment and visited the shop once again.

After that “diagnosis”, I got a phone call from this mechanic that the total to repair everything would be about $3,200. He said I need to replace exhaust gasket, center exhaust pipe, cat converter, AND exhaust manifold which costs $1600. I understood I had to replace cat converter and probably exhaust pipe as well, because I drove my car in a snowy state before I moved to NC. But I know exhaust manifold is not easily broken or leads to leak issue, so I asked him back if there was a cheaper way to fix this issue. He said no and my car would not pass the test without this entire exhaust system replacement. At this point, I realized I cannot trust this store anymore so I said I would think about it more and hung up the phone. When I picked up my car, the mechanic guy was on a phone call but stopped the staff trying to hand me over my car key. After the phone call, he asked me if I had made a decision, so I just said I would probably say goodbye to my car and left the store.

Of course I was not 100% sure if my decision was correct, so I visited an independent shop to see if I was misunderstanding something. When I was driving into this second shop, they heard my exhaust noise and told me my car may have cat converter issues, even without any “diagnosis”. Upon their suggestion, cat converter and center pipe were replaced, and this second shop charged me about $800, including labor. And then my car passed the state inspection, of course at a different place.

I do believe Chapel Hill Tire sticks to using expensive and high-quality parts. Unless, my colleagues would never recommend Chapel Hill Tire to me. So I fully understand the part price can be different. Also, I assume Chapel Hill Tire may have a high standard for preventive maintenance. However, adding unnecessary charges for unnecessary service (replacement of exhaust manifold, in my case) is definitely not acceptable. So yes, I wasted my time and money for state inspection and the “diagnosis”. It’s obviously time to tell my colleagues about my experience at Chapel Hill Tire, at least...

I am sad to have to write this review because when I first started using CHT for my Prius service and new tires a couple of years ago, I was very impressed and pleased with the promptness, communication, and fair charges. However, this had changed lately. For my last two services (Jan 20th and April 21st), I scheduled appointment times well in advance because I live over an hour away. I schedule service to minimize the waiting time, and I typically schedule other appointments (e.g., doctor) the same day. Two visits ago, my appointment was at 09:30, and my car was not finished until around 5:00 pm. Staff explained that there had been a mix-up because two customers with the same name (Teresa) had checked in at the same time, both with silver Priuses. They took $20 off my bill, and I was OK with that. Mistakes happen. However, yesterday it happened again. My appointment was for 1:00. When I received a text at 2:58, I expected that the car was ready, and I had other errands that needed doing. Sadly, the text was telling me that a technician had just checked my car in—two hours after my appointment time! At 3:27, I received a phone call to go over the inspection and charges—despite the fact that I left clear instructions when I checked in that the car needed a 12-volt battery and to go ahead and install it, they had not done that yet. (In fact, last week when I made the appointment, I verified that the battery would be in stock so that I would not have to wait or return later.) First of all, the quote included a charge for tire rotation, which should have been free because I bought the tires at CHT. The technician apologized and took the charge off—but I should not have had to tell them that; they see my complete service history on the computer screen at check-in. The check-in tech also informed me that my name was misspelled in the system, and this annoyed me because after the previous mix-up (with the other Teresa who had a Prius), I had them correct my name and update my address in the computer. I was also dismayed by the price quoted for replacement of the 12-volt battery, but at this point, 2 ½-hours had passed. I didn’t want to risk being stranded, so I told them to go ahead and install it. CHT charged me $316.97 for a batter that should have sold for about $275 (based on internet quotes) and another $59.92 to install it (which took about 15 minutes). I know the rule of thumbs is to give 3 strikes before calling “out,” but I don’t think I’ll be...