Pep Boys Auto Service & Tires — Attraction in New York

So I have had service at this pep boys over the years and never had an issue. Waited hours for service and it was fine because the staff was professional and courteous. Today was not the case. I had a 9am appt for an oil change. I sat in the parking lot from 8:30am waiting for the store to open. The doors opened a little before 9am. Two ladies pushed ahead of me and were first at the service counter. I overheard their conversation, they were walk-ins. When it was my turn, the first thing the service desk/ manager asked was if i had an appointment. I replied yes. I told him I also had a coupon for the oil change. He said, you can give it when service is done. He then asked, how much is it? I said $19.99, he laughed and shook his head and said, no. I pulled the coupon up on my phone, he enlarged the picture to see that it was valid and the expiration date was today, 6/30/2019. He then processed the order, took my key and told me to have a seat.

I watched this service desk/manager, chat up other customers, talk about how he is so tired and they are so busy. Friendly with everyone else. Fast forward an hour and 10 minutes later and I take a look in the garage window and my car isn't even in there yet. Several cars in there tho. When I asked him, is my car going to be ready soon? He proceeded to tell me, yeah they'll do it. I told him, I had the very first appt for today. He advised that they overbooked, had five 9am appts and only 2 mechanics. Okay, but although they had five 9am appts, there were not 5 people ahead of me on line? Meanwhile, other cars were being brought into the garage. I asked him for my car key back, advised that while I could wait a little longer, I had to be somewhere. He looked at me and said okay but made no move to get it.

As I walked over to talk to the store manager, I watched the service desk/manager put his head down and walk to the back. I explained the situation and the store manager said he would check on my car. He looked into the computer and confirmed I had an appt. I saw the computer screen, I was down the list, not next. He went to speak with the service desk/manager and came back and advised the service desk/ manager said he didn't know I had an appt. I advised that I had scheduled appt for a reason and I understand there are delays, but I need to drive out of state and have another appt, that's why I am inquiring. If it would take a while, I'll just cancel my appt. He advised they would put my car in right now and no charge. I advised that it wasn't about paying. I would pay for the service. He seemed to want to rectify the situation. 10 minutes later and my car still not in the garage. The service desk/manager passed by me in the store and said, oh they didn't give you your keys yet? Really?

He went and got the store manager and I told him, please give me my car keys. I explained to him that I have waited for service before but it was the attitude and preferential treatment given to customers who were paying more for service which wasn't okay.

All this because the service desk/manager didn't like I had a coupon? My car is a 2017 model with only 13,000 miles. Maybe they weren't making enough off of a $19.99 oil change? From reading below reviews, it seems as if this behavior and treatment is a regular occurence for the service desk/manager.

As I pulled my car out, one of the mechanics walked over to the other laughing and telling him that I was leaving. When you go into an establishment, you hope to receive a good product or service and professionalism. Maybe it was an off day for the service manager, but it seems this is accepted behavior and practice. You don't treat people like that. All paying customers should receive the same level of professionalism and respect. One day, instead of being the employee, you could be the customer and end up getting unprofessional and unfair treatment...

This is my first and last time dealing with PepBoys at this location. My mechanic told me I have a faulty battery (which was purchased from pepboys) since the car was fine until we installed this battery. He unhooked all the unnecessary wires, we took out the negative feed, and it would still end up being drained at the end of the day, and it was not the alternator or the starter, trust me, my mechanic has been in business for a long time, and he's not a dumbass either, the made sure to check those first.

BUT, as soon as I walk into pepboys, they tell me that they have to check the battery, which is fine with me, I don't mind, my mechanic did it too. However, they did not want to listen to the most important part, that the battery comes up at normal range, but this is the only thing that has been put into this car and ever since then it has not worked. Of course no one listened to me, maybe because I'm a woman and my ovaries impede my ability to understand simple properties of physics and how cars operate, "yes, I know they go vroom-vroom!" But then it got even more complicated as the staff informed me that I had to take the battery out myself, bring it into the store to test it which their fancy $2000 battery tester, then put it back in myself which is a pain in the butt to do with a mercedes benz, and after all this, they would probably have them tell me that it's in normal range again, all for which I would have had to pay for. REALLY!?

Then, of course, me trying to explain my situation thoroughly, no one would listen and the guy who was explaining this to me started speaking to me like I was a 5 -year-old saying "well, we cant come out and test it, if you bought a battery pack. would we come outside and test the battery pack to refund it for you, no!" Started showing me a pack of batteries like I just got off the short bus, like this staff member seemed to think so.

All this because pepboys were not the ones to install the battery. IT doesn't take a rocket scientist to put a battery in, it would be very hard to install it in incorrectly unless I did actually ride the short bus.

So I drove, all the way from saint george, to be talked down to and told that I have to pay for them to test my battery even though I bought it from THEM, and that if it came up as "normal" then I would still have to pay, even though what I was trying to explain was the even though we disconnected the battery from the car, the next day it was drained, and my alternator is in great condition, so it's not that or the starter. No! It's the battery, but I guess pepboys wants to lose more customers by acting this way. My advice is, listen to the customer, not only when they want to purchase something, but also when they need your help and for you to replace the battery because statistics show that when a person has a negative experience somewhere, they will tell an average of 11 people, and you've already had enough bad feedback on google as it is. Also, please don't solicit me to make it better, there is nothing you can do short of replacing this battery like your warranty says, but I will not wait for that, I'm taking my business elsewhere instead of having to deal with these...

DO NOT COME HERE TO HAVE YOUR CAR SERVICED!! I came here on 02/03/25 for a routine oil change, what could go wrong right?? An oil change is the most basic auto service you can have done and the person performing the oil change should have had enough experience to do so. It took over 2 hrs to have oil drained from my vehicle and a new filter and oil put in. After those 2 hrs the gentleman at the front desk said there’s a problem and for some reason oil is leaking after the oil change was completed. And I said well I think that needs to be fixed because it shouldn’t be leaking oil… I’m not sure if the filter was the inappropriate size or what happened but after they seemed to have fixed the issue. After I had left I noticed oil on the interior of my vehicle. On the steering wheel, inside door handle, and gear shifter. I was going to turn around and go back but I had already crossed across the Goethals bridge back to NJ when I noticed the oil smell was still lingering and when I turned the interior light on I saw why.

Then the next morning I noticed it was on the outside of my car as well and under my car oil was leaking.

I called the Manager Alfred the next day and he advised me to have my car towed into Staten Island and I live in NJ. I considered doing this as he pleaded that he wanted to make things right by making sure the oil leak is fixed and my car was appropriately cleaned. I decided not to take my car an hour back to Staten Island and pay the toll to go over into NY and instead took it to a closer PepBoys location in NJ. The PepBoys location in NJ did an outstanding job to assure me that there was no oil leak but instead just an excessive amount of oil spillage from the previous oil change. They apologized for the other location not taking the time to clean up the excessive oil spillage causing me to worry that my car was leaking oil and that they should have never gotten oil on the interior or exterior of my car like it had. I wasted so much of my time dealing with this issue and I feel like this PepBoys location at 1941 Forest Ave Staten Island, NY should compensate me for my time, worry, and oil on the interior/exterior of my car that I requested a refund. Alfred denied my request and said to take it up with corporate. I have written out documentation from the Pep Boys in NJ which proves negligence. It supports that the mechanic performing the oil change displayed lack of proper care and attention when performing the oil change causing an excessive amount of oil to spill all over my car and then the lack of cleaning it after and also getting the oil on the interior/exterior of my car. I would like corporate to reach out to me...