Should I File A Report With The Better Business Bureau With Pep Boys
Posted in Brake Discs & Pads | Asked on Jun 9, 2011
Below is the question about Should I File A Report With The Better Business Bureau With Pep Boys, So I recently (in the past few weeks) had my back brakes replaced at pep boys. When I was there they mentioned a leaking wheel cylinder. So just today I took it back to get the wheel cylinder replaced and I was told it would be $80 labor for them to replace it… I brought my own wheel cylinder from advance auto as pep boys didn’t have it.
After a while I get a call I thought was possible and it was the guy at the counter saying my new brake pads on that wheel were wet with brake fluid and they need to be replaced. I figured this could possibly happen and accounted in them charging me another 20-30 dollars for the pads.
I asked him how much would that be and he said it would be $130 something. I figured that was a little more than the 20 or 30 I was expecting them to tack on but said ok as I could afford it.
When I get there to pick up my car I go to check out and the cashier tells me my total is something in the $250 ballpark. Puzzled I said that can’t be right. He sends me back to the guy running the desk at the service side and I ask him why my total is $250 instead of the $130 he had told me on the phone.
Then he tells me that it was $130 for them to replace the pads. At this point I start to feel like I’m getting scammed as I realize they have to take the brake pads off to get to the wheel cylinder. ( I was planning to replace it myself but didn’t have a place or all the tools to do it so I studied as much as possible about the process and I used to work in a shop years ago)
Anyway I explain that his mechanic already had them off and was going to have to put them back on to finish the job of replacing my wheel cylinder and he tries to b/s with me saying they don’t have to take them off and I made it take so much longer by him having to replace my pads etc etc. Trying his best to justify the rip off he’s pulling on me.
I explained again that you have to take them off and back on and instead of putting my wet ones back on I had agreed to let him sell me the new pads instead to put on and that shouldn’t be a $130 charge for something he’s already doing. Anyway I was furious.
All I could get him to budge on was knocking 10% off and something else they were trying to charge $12 for.
I’m still very irritated as it cost me around $170 and he was trying to clean me out for 250 something. I’m very close to filing a complaint with the BBB but wanted to hear some other’s opinions as this is clearly bad business on Pep Boys part. What do you think?
Just so everyone knows I’m not so much mad that they had to replace the “shoes” because of the leaky wheel cylinder. It’s the fact that the guy was lying to my face so he could charge me the price of a full brake pad replacement on the rear. I called him on it and he couldn’t say much but he seemed shocked that I knew how a wheel cylinder was replaced.
I’m still mad as hell and from looking around online it looks like I’m not the first pep boys has tried to rip off. I’m no dummy and think I need to file a report with the BBB and maybe get some of my money back.
Also my car is a 1985 Oldsmobile 98 Regency Brougham. Just to let everyone know since some don’t think you have to pull the shoes to get to it. I know some cars have very simple assembly’s in the drums and it’s right there but I do not believe this is the case on my car.
So when I went there the first time they brought the leaking wheel cylinder to my attention and told me that it would need replaced soon but I should be fine.
When the counter service guy called me back to tell me that I’d need to replace the pads again he said the total would be $130… When I got there to pay then I found out that wasn’t the total for the repairs but only a total for the brakes they wanted to put on.
I’ve looked all over the internet reading and watching videos of people replacing wheel cylinders and I have yet to find one that you don’t have to pull the brake shoes off to get to them.
Basically the guy was being sneaky when he said $130 over the phone and I had no clue he meant in addition to because that is insane since they already had them off. I noticed their mechanic was looking puzzled checking the other side as if he couldn’t figure out how to put my drum back together (hence the long time it took) but that’s why theres a set price to do it.
There are 9 Answers for "Should I File A Report With The Better Business Bureau With Pep Boys"
Layers will give you 5 minutes of free phone time
Your first mistake was getting a partial job/if they did not have the part in stock they should have picked up the part locally/its done all the time/ i am a mech for 30+ years and i would not completed this operation especially brakes with apparently bad parts/ the bbb may or may not help but i would be in the store managers face
Exactly how much do you think your life is worth?
Number one you dont have pads in the back if you have wheel cylinders you have shoes and they shouldnt have changed them without doin the wheel cylinders first they knew it would ruin the pads and they opened themselves to a lawsuit by doin it that way, so file a report with the BBB, you are supposed to take of the shoes to replace the wheel cylinders but its not needed if you know how to do it
He did say one true thing that you don’t have to take the pads off all the way to change a wheel cylinder and thats true, just the top springs will get the pads out of the way.
For one thing, cars with wheel cylinders don’t have brake pads. They’re equipped with much less expensive brake shoes. If you indeed have brake pads you’ll find brake calipers. In both cases you’re required to buy matched parts for both rear wheels.
If you’d have listed the year make and model of your car we could have unscrambled exactly what type of braking system is on your car. Personally I wouldn’t trust a box store to work on my car. A few shots of CRC brake clean would have washed off the brake fluid anyway.
I would do more then file a BBB claim, I would call their corporate office and their regional mgr. Yes in some cars you do not have to remove the pads completely to R&R the wheel cylinder, but did they say anything to you about them being wet the first time you took your car there? I don’t know where you live but usually they have more than one location in most areas, so you could have called another one and asked them their process of you repair procedure.
Anyway they could have hit you up for the pads because they need to make their hours for the week. I would not let them get away with what they did to you. If they quoted you a price over the phone and when you got there it was different then what they originally told you, you do not have to pay for the repair. I know this because I use to be a Pep Boys employee. And they will dick you over as much as possible, that is why I left because I don’t believe you should have to screw someone to make a living.
Do not take what they did to you.
Why not? Pep Boys is well known in the area where I live in.
One of my friends told me she saw with her own eyes the guy did not replace her car’s oil filter when changing engine oil.
Another friend said he made a mark on the oil filter and after oil change service, he checked and found his mark on the oil filter still there.
And another friend of mine got engine shut-off suddenly while driving out of driveway on her Chevrolet SUV. I found the problem was the battery hold-down was missing, obvious was not installed at the last battery replacement. So the battery moved left and right, at each turn, etc. thus causing the connecting nut loose resulting bad connection. She showed me the receipt for replacing battery. The GREAT JOB WAS ACCOMPLISHED BY AND AT ONE OF OUR BELOVED Pep Boys less than half years ago. She had to go to a Chevrolet dealer to install a battery hold-down.
Did they explain to you that if you did the shoes without replacing the know leaking wheel cylinder that they would not warranty the rear brakes? I don’t see the wheel cylinder saturating the shoes in that short of time unless totally blown. And its alot quicker to replace the wheel cylinder without removing the shoes. I would call their corporate office, just make sure they didn’t notate the original invoice saying no warranty on the brakes because of the fluid leak .