In Which Manny, Moe and Jack Attempt To Anally Rape Me

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

or Getting My Car Inspected at Pep Boys

I was planning on putting this in the Pit but looked it over after writing it and realized there are no bad words, and not really all that much vitriol, other than general outrage at the cost of car repairs, so meh…
So it’s that time again (yes, Virginia, I’m lucky enough to have my auto inspection due the same month as my taxes. Yay!) and, proving that I am Teh Samrt, I decide to go to Pep Boys to get it done even after having gone through waiting room hell last year with them on this same operation.

I stop off beforehand to get blood drawn for testing at doctor’s orders, so I’m already in a wonderful mood before I even get there. Drop the car off, trek over to Barnes & Noble in the same shopping center and browse a while. I come late to the party and get Al Franken’s Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them finally, then walk over to Old Country Buffet (in the same shopping center) to grab breakfast (it’s about 10ish at this point). So, point to the paragraph of exposition, I’m gone for about an hour and a half.

I return to Pep Boys and take up my position in the waiting room. At this point, they’ve taken my car back to the bay, so I know it’s at least in line for attention. Let me fast forward for everyone watching at home…

3 hours later (at which point my car has been in Pep Boys’ possession for 4 1/2 hours), I’m starting to get impatient. It is 1:30 PM. I begin the “get up every 15 minutes to look through the little window and go smoke” phase of waiting room hell.

Another 45 minutes later, I go to ask when the car will be done. Oh! There’s the itemized work order on the desk! Seems they’ve been done for at least 30 minutes, but the clerk who took my information (who was still on duty and could clearly see me over the 3-foot waiting room “wall”) apparently didn’t recognize me as the man who brought in that car, so they’d called the house. :smack:

My emissions inspection passed, but they have some things they need to fix before they can pass the safety inspection. “What things?” I ask. I figure I have $300 in the bank, with possibly another $300 on deck if I need it from supervenusfreak, so I’m not too worried about it.

“You need a new tire, new rear brake lining, and a new manifold gasket, as well as a couple of lamps replaced. It’s gonna cost you $930.”

:eek:

I told them to put everything back on. There’s no way I’m paying $930 to Pep Boys without getting a second opinion. I’m visiting my mom in Altoona next weekend and I’m making an appointment to get it inspected again up there. I’d rather pay an extra $25 for a new inspection and the possibility that Pep Boys is dunning me for things that aren’t bad enough to need fixed for passing than $930 just on the say-so of one mechanic…

2

I’ve not had to deal with the inspection thing, but once my husband took my van to a PepBoys in FL to get a once-over before we went on a driving vacation. Now, maybe it really did need all the stuff they said, but I usually take care of my own maintenance (not doing the work - taking it in myself) and I had this gut feeling that they were selling him a bill of goods. Of course, by the time I saw the paperwork, he was home and it was paid for. Personally, I’d never go there myself.

Lucky for me, there’s a Ford dealership about 7 miles from here that proved itself to me last year, and they’ve got my loyalty. I drove in with an obvious malfunction and they could have taken me for a ride (I still had Florida tags on my van) - in fact, I almost expected it when halfway through the repair process, a problem came up that could have been an easy fix or an expensive one, depending on how good the mechanic was. As it happened, he was able to do the easy fix, and I got out of there for under $200, having arrived without an appointment or a local address. So once I moved up here, I planned to keep going there, and when we bought this house, it was just a bonus having them so close.

Yeah, in this part of the county, 7 miles is close.

Hope your other inspection comes out better for you!

3

*Once you’re inside
They wont take you for a ride
They got a good deal for you and your automobile
For the right price
They will sell you fuzzy dice
And leather hand grips for your steering whee-al

Manny Moe and Jack
They know what I’m after
Manny Moe and Jack
They Know what I’m after
They’re Manny Moe and Jack*

Hey, it’s the first thing I thought of when I saw the title. Anyway, how often do you get to post part of a Dickies song? :smiley:

4

If the tire has less than 2/32 on two adjacent tread grooves, then it fails in PA. Other issues may rule the tire impassible. The brake lining failure determination should be quoted by Pep Boys, as in: You have x/32 of riveted/bonded lining on your rear brakes, and as such we cannot pass the safety inspection. That’s how I wrote service orders when holding an inspection certificate in PA.

5

I just have to speak up for my local Manny, Moe and Jack. They are the only ones I trust not to take advantage of me. (Being a girl and blonde these things happen) I took my Jeep in there once with a noise coming from the rear wheel that they could have charged me hundreds to eliminate and I wouldn’t have blinked. They took my cell number and promised to call me at the adjacent mall when they figured out the problem. I was pretty nervous when the phone rang till the guy said it would be seventeen dollars and change. I said “No. Mine is the black Jeep with the Og awful screeching coming from the back.” When I went to pick it up, he laughed and showed me the tiny little piece that had been making all the racket. They have had my business ever since, not to mention countless other people I have recomended them to.

6

My local Pep Boys certainly didn’t add anything extra to my list of reccomended repairs and it ended up costing me 1500 dollars. I had them do my scheduled tune up when I was in for a new battery and even asked them if anything needed fixing, but my sweet little car was such a champ, and once again didn’t need a thing. Ha!

I picked up my car (after sitting in the waiting room for twenty minutes past when it was ready because they never check here, either), which was parked way over on the end, backed into the space which seemed odd. The next morning I found out why; they’d put three dents in the passenger side trunk when they installed the battery and didn’t want me to see it when I walked up to get it. It took me ten minutes to get the manager to agree it was unlikely I had done the damage and that it wasn’t there when I brought it in. Five hundred dollars to repair and that was the *cheap * part of my last visit to Pep Boys.

A week later I was driving home in afternoon glare, down a steep, windy road and had my eyes peeled for idiot tourists and slow moving semis. I never noticed when my hoses blew and the gauges started jumping, so I did some lovely damage.

I know I’m not guilt free in this situation, but c’mon! If they’d spared a moment during the tune up to check my hoses they could have picked up some money, legitimately. Instead I spent the next month in extreme car repair stress-- begging people for rides, tow trucks, paying big bills and worried I’d end up having to buy a new car anyway.
So yeah, I hate those guys.

7

Oh, I know it’s entirely PLAUSIBLE that I really am going to end up paying $930 to be allowed to continue driving the car, but I really want to get a second opinion on it before I lay out that kind of money.

8

Either Manny, Moe or Jack felt up my Mom when she was a teenager, but I don’t think any of them tried to anally rape her.

(My grandfather did their printing, and Mom met them several times–she said they “gave her the creeps”).

9

That’s why I urge people to pre-inspect their vehicles such that they are less likely to be taken advantage of by unscrupulous persons. Checking your lights is a “duh” fix, yet how many operators perform it? :wink:

10

They charged you to fix the dents that they put in your car? :eek: If anyone tried that on me and my car (which doesn’t actually exist but may soon), then they’d be dealing with a very angry former customer and, if that didn’t resolve it, a lawyer.

11

Those big huge heads and little tiny bodies - :shudder: Yeah, they give *me *the creeps too.

12

Go to Sears/NAPA. Buy a GOOD FULL set of sockets, and oil filter wrench, and a container for your oil. A good Car jack and jack stands.

Start with rotating your tires and changing the oil yourself.

the second time you change your oil look around under there. See anything leaking? Amiss? Google is your friend.

Then change your brake pads. All modern brakes are TRIVIALLY easy to work on.

Every time you need a part, go to NAPA first, then go to the dealership. Only THEN do you go to a Pep/Advance/Checker/Zone.

Every time you bit off a little more repairing your own car, call around to see what it would have cost to have someone else fix it.

Gradually, you’ll start seeing your car as an assemblage of parts instead of a magic box o’ fear.

13

I know how to change my oil, and my brake pads. I did both of those things, along with the odd generator/alternator, belt, and miscellaneous replacements when I was younger. It is worth it for me to go to the local oil change place and pay them $25 to do it faster (and cleaner for me) than I can.

14

While I’ll agree it’s more convenient to have someone else do it, you miss out on seeing what condition your car is truely in. You ALSO ensure you won’t be able to remove the oil filter if you decide to do it yoru self next time. I believe a forearm strength test is required for all grease monkeys. Which is stupidly funny as you only need to turn the filter snug + a quarter turn.

99% of the population doesn’t KNOW what the underside of their car looks like…that makes it extremely easy to get taken for a ride.

15

My husband use to rebuild all kinds of cars in his younger days. He has decided that these days, the best tool for the job is a checkbook. I’m pretty much the same way, minus the car rebuilding part. Lucky for me, I have a dealer nearby who I trust, and I think I know my van well enough not to be cheated.

16

The Pep Boys lost my business when I was seventeen and getting tires for my Gremlin.
.
.
.
please, control your laughter… May I continue?..
.
.
.
.
two tires
on sale
good price.

until…
You want 'em mounted? That costs extra.
You want 'em balanced? That costs extra.
You want 'em on the car? That costs extra.

Jeez… I was beginning to think they were gonna charge me for air to inflate them.

17

For those who are angry at M,M,&J-take some vicarious joy in the knowledge that I bought one set of brake pads and shoes from Pep Boys back in 1990 when my van had 48K miles on it. They were lifetime warranted-I’ve still got the same truck with 393K on it. Ditto for the water pump, fuel pump, muffler, starter and alternator. The local radiator shop is on the hook for that part, but Pep Boys has lost their shirts on this doper.

When I moved and went to the local store for another set of brake pads, the counter guy gave me a song and dance. A letter to Pep Boys HQ resulted in an apology-that local store now gives me brake pads without a problem. :smiley: