Mavis Discount Tire — Local services in Town of Kinderhook

Idk what happened to this place. Ryan and previously Cory were always so helpful. Been coming here once or twice a year for about 7 years now.

Last time I came here, one of my upgraded tire valve stem caps was "mysteriously" replaced with a cheap one, didnt notice for a couple days but I know they all matched a week or so prior to getting work done here. But I couldn't technically prove it, I just know there was a correlation as valve stem caps dont shapeshift, but I let it go. That said, I have been skeptical of the honesty here since nobody mentioned they lost my upgrade and replaced it with crap.

Today I had an appt for 930 am and arrived a little early to be considerate.

I checked in and just wanted to confirm my appt was definitely for front brakes but I had also asked on the phone if someone could look at the back ones too. The presumed manager, Kyle, was visibly annoyed, rolling his eyes and sighing more than once, telling me that they were looking at my whole suspension and everything underneath and will fix whatever is needed. His tone was very condescending and he was talking over me.

That's not really what I asked, if he'd have let me finish, but I tried to be polite to defuse, and let him know my friend who works on cars looked at it and said it's just pads and rotors, and I have lifetime warranty on the brakepads here - which I also confirmed with the person when I made the appt. That's why I'm here, def for front brakes but not sure about my back brakes yet. Thats all I want done today. He looked even more annoyed, started talking over me again and told me he'd have to look into my warranty and get back to me about it.

After it was 30 min past my appt time, and past our initial discussion, at this point other people had arrived after me and were helped first, and still no word on anything, nobody had even looked at my car yet. I no longer trusted that he was even looking into anything, and felt like i couldnt ask a question without being talked over and treated like i am stupid. So I just got in my car and left without saying anything.

I won't be back here again after these past 2 experiences.

I was able to get an appt up the road with a small business who didn't act like scheduling an appointment at their business was a license to treat customers like a dumbass, simply for confirming the work thats to be done.

They clearly don't value my time and they are dishonest here. If they'd lose my upgrade and replace it with lesser quality without a word, then treat me like this for giving them another chance, I'd say literally any place else is a better option at this point....

Preface: I'm not a mechanic, but I can do general maintenance and have a good friend who helps out with things like brakes and rotors. I took my Honda Civic here for a seized caliper and an inspection.

The Facts: I initially got a call and was told the job would be near $700. I refused. They called back and said it would be $580. I Still refused. I was then told $454. They were trying to sell me BOTH rear calipers, and new rotors and pads in addition to the inspection. I normally do my own brakes and rotors, and the parts that were on there were under warranty. I had to explicitly tell them they could only fix the rear caliper and the associated brake fluid bleed and flush in addition to the inspection. This came to $270. When I took the car back that night and did the brakes myself I found the brake fluid reservoir was completely empty. One of my wheel studs also snapped in half while loosening a lugnut with a hand ratchet.

My Opinion: These people are not servicemen, they are salesmen. These people don't want to help you. They try and take advantage of people who don't know any better. No I'm not a mechanic, but I know that if you have one seized caliper you don't need to replace the one on the other side. Those are not wear items like pads/rotors, and a defect in the one does not cause a defect in the other. Aside from the attempted up-sell, they also are clearly not giving you good labor for their fee because not filling the brake fluid back up is not only careless but also dangerous.

Go to a good mechanic with a reputation, and stay away from these franchises that are salesmen over servicemen and charge you the same rate as an experienced mechanic as they do for the new guy they hired off the street.

In addition: I left my review with their customer feedback survey and I received a call from a regional manager about my experience. I was told it was my fault for not buying their pads (Full disclosure of their explanation of why I was not entitled to decent treatment or service: I did have them put on my warranty replacement pad that wasn't from their shop so I could drive it less than a mile that evening to where I did the brakes myself). Their pads must have magical powers that fill your brake fluid up and keep your wheel studs from snapping in half. If they had told me to buy their stuff or else, maybe I would...

I felt fine with how they mounted my winter tires, but when I came back a month later for an oil change, they tried to charge me $90! The last oil change I had, at a Pit Stop, was $45. When I balked, the desk guy at first said I was being charge extra for them turning off my tire pressure light--which, when they mounted my tires, he had shown me just required holding down a button so that the system and tires could be reconnected with one another--"relearned." When I said that, he said they had to be rebalanced because they hadn't been balanced properly. I pointed out that THEY had been the ones to put the tires on a month ago, so they shouldn't be charging me to rebalance what they did in the first place. He wound up bringing it down to $65, saying he had "applied discounts," which just goes to show that the $90 he at first tried to charge me wasn't a real price at all. I'm sure I looked to him like some "clueless woman" he could take advantage of. He also told me that Honda recommends synthetic oil, which I guess is more expensive, but when I later looked in my Honda owners manual I saw that it didn't recommend synthetic at all. It said you "can also" use synthetic if you want to. Needless to say, I won't be taking my car here again, despite the fact that it is the closest place to where I live for both oil change and tire change.

January, 2020: I'm updating this review to share that Mavis's manager reached out to me and offered to refund my entire oil change, not just the amount I felt they had overcharged me. This was good customer service, though the fact that I had to go there in person to receive the credit mitigated the overall impact of the offer. When I got there, I was told I couldn't receive my refund on a Saturday and had to come back on a weekday. It had taken me over a week to find time in my day to come out there. As I was pulling out, the manager came out to the parking lot and said he could do it that day after all. Perhaps he realized that sending me away was not exactly building on the good will of the offered refund. Though they did the right thing in refunding me, and I would have been satisfied with even $20 back, the trust was already lost, and the way that refund was botched left me less than thrilled. I don't...