Valvoline Instant Oil Change — Local services in Hillsboro

Full service oil changes, which used to be franchised by Valvoline, but now are owned by the corporation. They claim to give their employees a long schooling., of several hundred hours, but their knowledge, or lack thereof, seem to be much worse than when they were privately owned, where the people servicing your car were friendlier, nicer to deal with, and seemed to know more about what they were doing overall. The prices have skyrocketed even higher than they were, and they were always known as expensive to begin with, and unless you have a coupon, the prices are literally astronomical. They are still high and above competition prices normally, even with a coupon . It would be much cheaper to change your oil yourself, or go to literally any other oil change service in the Portland metropolitan area, and get a much cheaper price. And when I say much cheaper, I mean half the price or less, than what this money-grubbing company seems to want. Their products are excellent, but they are not worth the prices they're charging at their service centers. They claim to now have cameras so that you can see what they're doing above and below your car while you wait, which they adopted after buying out Oil Can Henry's, as that was their routine. However, the two locations that I have visited, never had cameras functioning, and always made an excuse as to why they were not working. So therefore, I saw nothing, and did not have the option of observing what the kids, and I mean literally kids, we're doing with my vehicle above or below. They will not let you get out and stand by your car and watch them anymore like they used to, stating that it's a safety hazard, what a crock of baloney. The last time I went to one of these places it was my birthday, and the kid was so cocky and arrogant, that it ruined my whole day. When I called their Corporate Center to complain, which is now where they route you to when you dial their local numbers, they told me they would have a manager call me back, and that never happened. I ended up calling twice, and still never got a call back, so obviously they didn't care what my concerns were. I had been a 20-plus year customer when they were privately owned as franchises, so I had good customer history, and they still didn't seem to be concerned with my opinions or concerns. My advice, go to any other oil change service, you're bound to get better service and...

I went in to get an oil change and thought I'd also have my transmission fluid checked while I was there. When I arrived, I spoke to the team, who were all very friendly. I asked them to check my transmission fluid, and they told me it needed to be changed, so I gave them the go-ahead.

As I waited, I heard someone in the bay ask for help, and since I was the only customer there, I assumed it was about my car. Not long after, the manager approached me and told me they weren’t going to charge me for the oil change, that they hadn’t completed the transmission change, and that I needed to put my car in neutral without starting it up because it would need to be towed.

This caught me completely off guard—I had driven in with a perfectly working car, and now I was being told it wasn’t drivable. Naturally, I became upset, and things escalated to the point where they even called the police. I’m not sure what they told the police, but it added to an already frustrating situation.

Then, another manager named AJ from a nearby location came over to help. He took a look under my car and explained that the oil filter was broken, which meant starting the car could have locked up the engine because it had no oil in it. This didn’t make sense to me since my car had been running fine and had only recently had its oil changed—at this same location. Instead of acknowledging their responsibility, they tried to blame me, saying it was because I hadn’t come in for an oil change sooner.

After more back-and-forth, AJ suggested contacting a mechanic he knew, a guy named Steve, who would try to fix the issue. They towed my car to Steve’s shop, but because he had other customers, I had to wait until the next day for him to work on it.

The following day, AJ kindly apologized and completed the transmission fluid change, while Steve replaced the oil filter and changed the oil. However, now my car has multiple warning lights flashing, including the check engine light and a tire pressure warning.

At this point, I’m unsure what to do. I could take it back to Steve, but I would have to pay for additional repairs, even though this whole issue started with Valvoline’s handling. All I wanted was a simple oil and transmission fluid change, and instead, I’m left with a car that now has more problems...

You lost a customer today. I have a car I rarely drive that I took here a while back for for an oil change. The attendant suggested I also do a transmission flush at the time. It was pretty pricey but he said he will add free windshield wipers if I got the transmission flush. After I left, one of the clips on the blades must have fallen off the wiper blades. My wipers caught when I was driving in a down poor and I almost got into an accident because I instantly couldn’t see. I had to pull off the freeway, but had to change lanes from the fast lane, in 5o’clock traffic, with no visibility. I came back today to get another oil change and I told them about the blades. I was hoping they could put another clip on the blades. The attendant could careless. He said, “I don’t see any blades on your last receipt so I can’t replace them.” I never thought to check the receipt, but when the first attendant threw them in, he must not have listed them. I would have been happy to pay for new wiper blades, but it was the dangerous situation that happened on the freeway and then the complete indifference from the people there. I paid my bill and drove off but I’ll never be back there again. The amount of money I would’ve continued paying to come back there was way more than it would’ve cost them to add another plastic clip to the wiper blades, or to replace the blades that weren’t attached correctly in the first place. I know no one probably cares but they lost my business...