Today was either my 3rd or 4th visit to this establishment. While I've had quite positive experiences in the past, today's was so poor that I'm not only writing a negative review, but I'm not going back. It's rather disheartening because I thought this was my new favorite spot until today.
The young kids that work here are always super friendly and helpful. Today was the first time I've dealt with an older man, and judging by his age and the way the other guys treat him, I presume he's the owner. His customer service skills are very poor and that's pretty much the reason I've crossed this place off my list.
I enter today, and I'm greeted by a friendly young guy. I ask for an oil change, 5W30, and ask him not to adjust my tires. He goes through the usual upselling motions, all of which I deny, except for the license plate light because he's only charging $3. He says ok, no problem, verifies that I want the house blend oil and gets to work. A few minutes later he goes down below my car, and the owner walks over with a new reminder sticker. As he places it on my windshield, I notice he has written down 10W30. I lean out my window and ask politely, "he's putting in 5W30 right?" The owner gives me a snarky reply and says, "Well, if you asked for it he will... but your car calls for 10W30. But I'll put whatever you want in it." I pointed out to him that yes, my car normally requires 10W30, but it also calls for 5W30 for improved cold weather starting. And, with the temps dropping quickly, I'm sure winter will be here before I'm in for my next oil change.
After the oil change is completed, they go to replace the license plate light. The young guy had to run back and forth a couple times to get the right drill bits, and it took them almost 10 minutes to complete it. I appreciate the hard work, but I thought it was very unprofessional that the owner called the young guy out on the price he quoted me while I was still there. As he's entering my services in the computer, he had asked the young guy "what's your price on that light bulb?" and he replied $3. He then told the guy that he was cheap, and that he normally charges $5 because of the hassle involved. While I understand his point of view and I agree $5 is still reasonable considering the amount of work it took, it's completely inappropriate that he reprimanded his employee in the middle of helping a customer.
To top it all off, he comes over and tells me my total is $26.86. I had done the math on my phone's calculator while waiting, and the $19.99 advertised price plus $3 light bulb plus tax came to $24.37. I nicely said to him, "Am I missing something? My math came out to $24.37." Instead of just explaining what he was charging me, he just says "Well I don't know about your math, but your total is $26.86." It turns out they charge a $2.50 shop fee. I'm not disputing that, although I will mention that my receipt from last year has a shop fee of $1.50. Either they raised it quite a bit, or he added onto it to make up for the "cheap" license plate bulb.
I don't have any qualms about their workmanship. I feel that they are quite thorough, and that they are doing the work right. However, part of the oil change business is customer service. It's expected that you treat your customers politely, because they are contributing towards your paycheck and bills. If I can get screamed at all day at my job and still stay polite, this guy can answer a few SIMPLE questions without an attitude or treating customers like they're stupid.
Oil change joints are a dime a dozen... he obviously doesn't care if his customers go elsewhere, so that's exactly what I plan to do. read more
