Pep Boys

Unexperienced mechanics It says they have ASE certified mechanics Fuck that bullshit. I’ve seen some people working inside who I know from high school they’re not no ASE certified lol.

About a year ago in an emergency I had my car brought here to fix a tire rod and get an alignment. Since their horrible «service» I have had nothing but PROBLEMS. I have had to replace 6 tires in a year! Apparently they «did an alignment» on a loose ball joint so the alignment never took and has been destroying my tires and making the other tire rod go bad from the stress. When I called the location a «manager» named Eric told me that I would have to wait until the mechanic who worked on it came in to see if they remembered it, from a year ago! As if I have time to work his schedule into mine when they are the ones who screwed up! He was completely rude claiming it was from after their work, when really it was from their laziness and doing an alignment they knew would not stick just so they can scam more money out of people.

A couple of months ago, I was told by the dealer that I needed brakes, pad, and rotors. It was going to be a quite expensive, and I don’t have a lot of miles on my car.
I stopped into the Pep boy at 1008 Central Avenue. I explained the situation to the parts manager, Bill Lindenbaum, who was extremely helpful. Bought the parts in his dept. and saved a lot of money. Had the work done and even had a 10% coupon.
I had never been to Pep Boys before, I was quite impressed with the great customer service. thanks again to Bill L, Joe Ellen, Gil, Juan, and Gene.
Suzanne T

Spoke with someone on the phone to get a quote and an appointment then when i showed up they told me a totally different amount, almost twice the cost. Wouldn’t lower the cost even when I found other places that would do it for cheaper. Went somewhere else and will never go back. Dealership ended up being cheaper AND gave me a free rental.

I normally get service done at Mohawk Honda, but they were booked, so I decided to go to Pep Boys. I needed my snow tires taken off and my summer tires put on. It took them 2.5 hours to do it while I had to suffer through a marathon of Gilligan’s Island on their TV. Two weeks later I went to Mohawk Honda for my brakes and they told me that Pep Boys put my tires on backward! So I had to pay an extra $ 80 to fix their mistake. Never again!

I drive a 1997 Mitsubishi 3000GT with 86k miles on it. One day the brakes felt like they just we’rent there anymore. Quite a problem. I assumed it was pads and was hoping it wasn’t calipers. It was also about time for an oil change so I added that.
I brought it in… staff was friendly… had to wait a second to be helped, but they were pretty busy at the time so can’t hold that against them customer service wise.
It was a caliper fluid leak and they said they had to replace the calipers as well to fix the problem. It ended up being $ 690 which seemed very pricey…
The reason I’m giving ⁴⁄₅ stars is multifaceted.
The manager ended up knocking the price down to $ 520 after talking to him a bit and expressing my confusion with the price. Additionally they let me leave my car there for the better part of 3 weeks (post them doing the work) before I came back to pick it up/​pay without charging me a dime for it.
They have a rewards program as well which seems decent. I’ll be going back to them for future car issues. (Knock on wood)

First, this review is about the way Pep Boys’ service department treats customers. I walked out without leaving my car, so I can’t comment on the quality of their work.
I needed an oil change and tire rotation and saw online that they offered this at a good price compared with the oil change shops I usually take my car, so I made an appointment online. When I got there I had to wait in their service line for 15 minutes. When I finally got to the desk, they found my reservation, but said it would still take them an hour and a half. I’m not sure what the point of their reservation system is.
Also, they refused to perform the tire rotation as I requested. The tire store I bought the tires from and websites I looked at recommend crossing two of the tires (which are not unidirectional) when rotating. The person at the desk said they never cross tires «because they have wires in them.» I don’t even know what that means.
Anyway, I suggest going elsewhere unless you have a lot of extra time on your hands.

Went in for a windshield wiper blade and got just that, fair price and they popped it on for me. All pleasant staff so I’ll be going back if I have more car needs.

As I started to write this review I began thinking just how long we have been using this Pep Boys for service. We started many years ago when DeAnna used to work at Friendly’s on Central Avenue. She was able to walk to pick up a car if she had something serviced. It started out as simply a convenient place for work to be done.
Then I started thinking about how much trust we have developed over the years. Times were tough when we started out, we had some pretty awesomely awful cars back then. Through the years we’ve had some serious discussions on what repairs were simply not worth it. Sure, when the gas tank dropped off the Plymouth Caravelle or the Taurus with 173,000 miles started billowing black smoke through the streets it was easy to decide. But they could really have raked me over the coals after I was facing $ 5000+ to repair the ’85 Cougar I had bought for $ 1500 less than a month before I smacked it up. I loved that car and actually started trying to figure out how to make it work. Looking back the guy could easily have waited until I came up with the cash and added a little here and there and milked me for everything I could beg, borrow or steal. But they were honest with me and flat out set me straight.
And don’t think that because we’re doing better these days that we’re still not dense. We just donated DeAnna’s 12 year old Cavalier which had just about everything under the sun repaired. We started kidding ourselves that we could just put in a little and keep it running for emergencies. Just one more repair so we could sell the car and not feel like bad people to whomever drove away with it. Pep Boys did what they could to help, but made certain to let us know when we were being foolish.
Yesterday I brought the Honda in after the engine light went off and for the first time in the eight years I have owned her she didn’t start on the first turn of the key. They diagnosed the issue immediately, but made it clear they were unable to read all of the codes the computer was providing. They can charge for connecting your car to the diagnostic machine, but they declined to do so.
There are so many people I know who get taken advantage of when it comes to auto repairs, it is important to have people you can trust. Granted, these days it is harder and harder for a repair shop like Pep Boys to fix everything, so many things are tied to proprietary systems. But why pay twice as much to replace a headlight or get a yearly tune-​up at a dealership when you know you can trust the person you’re working with to do an honest job.

I should start by saying my overall impression of the Pep Boys franchise may have been tainted by a different location. Because of this, I hesitate to give this location more than 3 stars. I was forced to use Pep Boys again, after several bad experiences, due to a warrantied item, and I refused to go back to the Pep Boys I originally used (1795 Central Ave, Albany! STAY AWAY!).
I came in, immediately explained my reluctance to even be there and was somewhat relieved to hear that I was not the only customer who had come in to this particular location after having a bad experience with the location further up Central. The man who took care of me from the get-​go (I believe his name was Kyle) was more than understanding and, as far as I could tell, honest on all accounts. He even pointed out several areas where the other location had dropped the ball.
I was very pleased with my overall experience. While I would hesitate to use Pep Boys again in general, I wouldn’t mind having to go back to this particular branch. They were able to get everything taken care of quickly and efficiently.