Monro Auto Service and Tire Centers — Attraction in Town of Saugerties

I used to go to the Monro upstate in Herkimer NY all the time. Soon after moving to Ulster county I leased an Audi and took my vehicle there (audi service center), but when my lease expired and I got a used vehicle (that I thought could use some muffler work) it was a no brainer to bring it to Monro..... Or so I thought.

The vehicle I brought in had a thrusher muffler on it. The muffler was hidden entirely and had a custom tip that came out of a custom cut hole in the rear bumper. I requested that muffler be replaced so to make it quieter. I was told that this would be no problem and cost $350.

When i went to pick it up the SUV was parked facing the road (so I didnt see thw back end). I picked up my keys, paid the man and drove home. After I parked and walked to the house I turned around and saw that they completly messed up my muffler system. Instead of seeing a chrome custom tip coming out of the side of the rear bumper, I now saw a giant generic muffler hanging off the back. The custom tip was cut off and tossed in my trunk leaving a now empty hole in my bumper.

I called Monroe and asked what happened. They said instead of replacing the thrusher muffler they just added a new muffler to the back of the exhaust system. I asked why and they said it would have cost alot to do it the way I asked.

Oh they were trying to save me money, how noble. I asked how much it would cost to put it back the way that it was before I brought into them. They said it wasnt recommended. At which point so as not to freak out and start screaming I said thank you and got off the phone.

I then brought my SUV to TDC for an oil change and to take a look at my muffler system. The mechanic there came into the waiting area shaking his head and genuinely angry. Saying its stuff like this that gives mechanics a bad name. Not only was it ugly (as I could easily see), but it wasnt the proper muffler for the SUV (just some generic all purpose muffler), nor was it even attached properly (apparently they welded it to multiple points on the frame, so it would need to be cut off). I told him what i wanted, which was replace the thrusher muffler with a quieter muffler, remove what monroe did and put the custom tip back on and have it fit into the bumpers hole so it doesnt look like someone kicked a whole in my bumper. He quoted me $50 less than what monroe charged me. $50 less to do what Monroe said it couldnt do because it would just be way too expensive (plus removing what Monroe had already done). I believe that deserves a 1 star rating and 10 minutes to...

This shop is not even close to being honest. I went in this for a wheel assignment and a NYS inspection. They said that both the inner and outer tie rods ends needed replacement on the passenger side before they can do the wheel alignment. The parts were over $100 each and the labor was for 6 hours. 6 hours to change tie rod ends? They said that they needed to remove the rack and pinion steering assembly first. What nonsense. What did I do? I did exactly what I didn't want to do--I changed out the tie rods myself in my freezing driveway. The total time it took me was just over an hour. I didn't have to remove anything but the tie rods. And the outer tie rod end was fine. The only reason I changed both was because it was easier that way and both tie rod ends cost me a total of $65. They used scared tactics to try to convince me that I should change the tie rods right now as the tire can fall off on my way home. Of course that could happen and so can my window fall out for no apparent reason. Total garbage. NYS will not be happy when I report this use of scare tactics to them. They told me that one of my headlight beams was out and that was another reason why I couldn't pass inspection. They wanted to charge me $135 to replace the headlight. At least that included the bulb! In the end when I checked out the headlight bulb I found that the connector was loose and fixed the issue in under two minutes. $135 for a $8 light bulb plus 2 minutes of labor. Now they said based on my mileage I needed a tune up for a cost of over $200. How can they quote a price if they didn't check out to see what needed to be replaced first?

The total cost was well over $1200. Let's see what the actual cost should have been. Less than an hour for the tie rods installation ($90), a wheel alignment ($135), fixing the light bulb ($0) and $21 for a NYS inspection. This total to $246 far from the quote which they gave me. At least I got a laugh out of how they need to remove the steering assembly to change the tie rod ends and $135 to replace a headlight...

It was a dark and cold night in January. Literally my birthday when I noticed my tire was low, it was about 430pm and I was in Hunter when the gas station air compressor broke my tire stem. UGH. I could only watch in despair as my tire went from being a little deflated to completely flat. The parking lot was gross and by the time I got my tire changed all the local mechanics were closed. Google maps said this place was open until 7 so I called and talked to the nicest guy in the world named Brian. He told me that he only had one tech there and that he already told him that he could go home early at 6pm tonight. I told him I would try to get there by 530. We arrived around 545. As we arrived we could see the tech whose name I didn't get was visibly annoyed at our late arrival. He finished working on the car he was working on and brought our car in.10 minutes and $200 later he brought out the car and went and started what I assume was his car, possibly the loudest car in Saugerties. Since he wouldn't help me put the spare back under my car I found myself again under my car in the gross wet dirt of yet another parking lot and when he started his car it started us all. I can't blame him for me hurting myself but that is what happened. Im guessing his exhaust is technically illegal. For two hundred dollars and ten minutes off service I would expect at least a little help putting my spare back under the vehicle. Ate least moral support if they say that since my mount was hem they could do it. My tires and entire vehicle isn't ohm either and they did work on that. Suffice to say I won't be returning to this place. Eod $200 for 10m of work and a valve stem left a pretty bad taste in my mouth and I hurt my finger when this guy started his car....