Pep Boys Auto Service & Tires — Local services in Austin

i never make reviews, but i feel that this is necessary to write before you think of coming here. i walked in and had to wait a bit for someone to even come to the front. there were people in front of me too that were waiting longer. minor issue, not that important. it was a sunday so i had no choice but to go to them because they were the only ones open. at first he told me they might not be able to finish the job, no issue there i didn’t have any thing to do the next day. it was a bit weird while i was checking in but i didn’t think anything of it. the man was old, so i just assumed he was a little slow. monday comes around and they call me to tell me my car is ready around 1/2pm. i live in central austin so you can imagine how expensive these ubers are. 20$+ each time. i am a student who works, and i very much need a car with my schedule. as i am about to pull out i get a “charging malfunction. stop car immediately in safe place” on my screen. i realize that its the alternator (what they just fixed & we paid almost 1000$ for). i go back inside and tell them. the older man was very confused and told his coworker to take a look. i believe this man’s name is richard, i could be wrong. he has brown hair and wears glasses. he immediately seemed uninterested (as most of their staff does) and made it seem like this situation was an inconvenience to him. after looking at my car for 5 seconds he took a deeper look. i’m sitting in the waiting room for about 5 minutes before another man comes in. he tells me that the alternator that they just put in, is a bad one. idek what that means. so i explain that i need a car, this that and the 3rd, and he tells me he can MAYBE fix it today. i say “so im being pushed to the back of the line?” he begins to sit down next to me and say “i dont like that your putting it that way” mind you, im a young woman that many men think they can treat like a dumb vulnerable girl. not me. i get a little frustrated and explain AGAIN that i need a car. i understand a faulty alternator is not their fault, however i did not appreciate the way that they continued to try and make me feel bad about their mistakes, and try to gaslight me into thinking that i was the issue because of my attitude. then, the man that sat with me went to the manager and the richard guy and was like “she needs a car blah blah blah” and i very much appreciated that. thank you if ur reading this. i then got my uber that was another 25$ (3rd uber so far) and while i was waiting to get my house key from my car key chain, the old man tries to mansplain how getting an alternator works. i don’t care, i want you to please stop talking and fix my car. i didn’t say that, but it’s how i felt. finally, the next day on tuesday my car is supposedly ready. on the phone, someone again began to mansplain everything going on, and then basically told me his entire life story when i just asked for an update. trying to make me feel bad again for idk what. i finally get there again, now on my fourth uber in prime traffic hour. this time it was 45$. as i walk in they immediately know who i am. as they should. i think this is richard again, he began to mansplain the issue. again, gaslighting me into thinking that this was my fault to begin with. he then says “if this happens again, im done. i don’t know what else i’d be able to do.” i thought this was insanely unprofessional to say to a client. that you’re done… well maybe richard if it was done the correct way the first time, i wouldn’t have been such an inconvenience for you. i have read almost every review from this place (obviously after i came) and i know that its not your vendors issue, its a staff, laziness, and white man misogyny issue. i hope that things get better, but i dont see that happening. i will happily never come here again, and i will...

I went in for two separate occasions, first for service and second for sales.

I needed to get my timing belt replaced and not wanting to pay $1000+ like what other shops/dealerships were wanting, I decided to go with Pep Boys because with the discount, the total came out to about $800.

When I walked in to the service area thinking I'd get serviced fairly quickly due to the appointment that I had made, they had one employee (Don) working the desk, talking to another customer on the phone and it took about 30 minutes before he finally got to me. I understand that there may be a walk-in customer or someone calling in but it completely defeats the purpose of making an appointment if there's only going to be one person trying to get to everyone. Not only that but they had originally told me that they could get it done by that evening--which ended up taking 2 whole days before I got my car back. At least I saved $200 or so...or so I thought. I recently had to go to a highly-respected, well-reviewed dealership to fix a problem and they had inform me that they noticed that someone had recently replaced the timing belt and that they (Pep Boys) had left a few screws loose or took out entirely and never replaced it. They also mounted something in the timing belt region incorrectly so that was gonna have to be taken care of it immediately. And before you say "maybe the screws weren't there/loose in the first place", I had the dealership inspect my car a few weeks back so they knew that that wasn't the case.

The second incident occurred in the sales department when I had ordered about 7 items online and wanted to pick them up. I ordered it in the morning and received an email shortly after saying that my order was ready for pick-up. I went into the store around noon, thinking I'd quickly go in, grab my stuff, and come out. But guess again. Turns out they didn't have any of my stuff ready to be picked up and I had an employee who's been working there for only 3 days help me pick it out around the store. Not only that but they made me swipe my card all over again which COMPLETELY defeated the purpose of buying it online and inputting my credit card number. The whole process of picking up my order took about an hour and a half. And when they brought me the items, some of them weren't even the right item. I voiced this and they either said it's the old packaging (it wasn't) or they didn't have it in stock (they did). So they were not only irresponsible in not having my things ready as they sent out the email for the pick-up, they try to make me pay more for the items that I didn't even order. I tried telling all this to Herman the Retail Manager and he simply dismissed me saying things like "What can we do about it?" or "Sometimes these things happen." and simply walked away.

This had got to be the worst customer service that I had ever received from an auto shop, both sales and servicing. Until Herman gets removed or some drastic changes are implemented, I'm going to be staying away from this specific Pep Boys, and...

I've grown up to trust Manny, Moe, and Jack and have taken my cars to this particular location for years. In the past, it's always been a friendly environment and I've always felt I could trust them. Yesterday, it felt like I had walked into a used car dealership.

By way of background, I drive a beat up old corolla. The engine started knocking and the check engine light came on. As always, this happened on the weekend when all mechanics were closed. I took it to oreillys and they told me, correctly, that the number 3 cylinder was misfiring and that it needed a new ignition coil or new spark plugs. I tried changing the spark plug, but it didn't help. Although I live in Round Rock, I had it towed to the place I trust in Austin, Pep Boys.

I called on Monday and was told it would be 475 to fix it (with no real explanation of what was wrong). It turned out the 475 was for a set of spark plugs, an ignition coil, and a fuel cleaning (that it didnt need). I couldnt get them back on the phone (when I called, I was told they'd call back. . .turned out they took my number down wrong) to talk about the estimate, so I went down there.

Enter the Service Tech, "Travis." He was extremely rude, cocky, and flippant and acted like he was put out by having to go over the estimate. He told me there was only one kind of spark plug that would work, an iridium 18.75 a piece spark plug (this isn't a race car, it's a beat up corolla. . .Ive bought spark plugs before and wasnt born yesterday). He refused to consider cheaper alternatives and said, very flippantly, if he used the spark plugs I bought at oreillys, he wouldn't warranty any of the work. For the ignition coil, it was 140 just for the part, which is more than twice what a fancy ignition coil costs online. When I mentioned this, he said sarcastically, "This isn't the internet." I got them to not do the fuel cleaning, so the price was 380. When I indicated I was thinking of taking my car elsewhere, he was like "fine!" It was more than I wanted to pay, but they kind of had me over a barrel with the 90 diagnostic fee.

The service manager was standing there the whole time and didn't do anything to intervene. I complained about the Service Tech's attitude and he offered nothing but a very weak apology.

To their credit, the car runs now and the work was...