Zucson -What Tucson Looks Like Online

Saturday, November 18, 2006

SOUND OFF

Two Saturdays ago my husband took our car in for an oil change at Wal-Mart. The automotive techs at Wal-Mart told him that we had a major oil leak and that we should get that fixed before changing the oil. My husband took the car directly to the Pepboys on Ina Rd about 10am. They gave him an estimate of nearly $700 for a job that takes about 4-5 hours. Since he drives this car to work, we had no real choice but to get it fixed. The manager from Pepboys called us about 5:30 to tell us that they had broken a part on our car and that the part to fix it would not be in until Monday. He offered to supply my husband with a rental car because of an arrangement that Pepboys has with Enterprise rental cars, but my husband declined because he would still have to spend time going through the car rental process and spend money refilling the rental car. My husband got the store manager to reduce the price of the bill by roughly $100 because it would put my husband through unnecessary changes for getting to work. The manager promised that our car would be ready by 5pm on Monday. At 4:30 on Monday, the manager of Pepboys called to tell us that our car was not fixed and that the part was not in. He said that we should expect to have the car by 5pm Tuesday. Needless to say, by this point we were more than a little upset. When we arrived at Pepboys on Tuesday at 5pm to pickup the car, the manager was conveniently at lunch. We were expecting an additional discount because they had kept our car 4 days for an expensive 4 hour procedure. The Pepboys employee told us that only the manager could approve additional discounts. We asked the employee to contact the manager by phone. The manager told us that he was not giving us additional discounts for keeping our car longer than he told us several times. My husband asked for the name of his manager, who he quickly said was out of town. When my husband asked for the name of his managers' supervisor, he responded that there was not a supervisor for his manager. My husband replied that unless his supervisor was one of the Pepboys', then he had a supervisor. The store manager then told my husband to contact his supervisor when he returned in a week or call the 1-800 number for Pepboys. The manager then said that all that would happen is that they would ask him his side of the story and that would essentially be the end of it. It made me extremely upset when businesses or the employees feel that they can take advantage of customers and the customers have no real recourse. Before you think that my husband and I are greedy disgruntled people, consider two things. The labor for the original $700 estimate was $488 for a 4 hour job. That is $122 an hour. If Pepboy mechanics make that much off of their labor, being a mechanic is just as lucrative as going to law school or medical school. I doubt that the mechanics are actually paid the amount that Pepboys charges for their labor. The second thing to consider, is that while we were in the store another customer had come in to complain that the tire that he had brought in the day before to have a piece of metal removed, had in fact not been repaired and the original metal was still there. The piece of metal was still visible, but the Pepboys employee that "repaired" the tire looked the customer in the face and told him that he fixed the tire. On that note, our mistrust of Pepboys was validated and we decided that this would be the last time that we would give any business to Pepboys. Anyone know of an honest mechanic?

C. Rodriguez

posted by ZUCSON @ 10:08 PM

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