Fine auto work, but their policies and customer service are off-putting and troubling for other aspects of their work. They charge $50 per night that your car is housed in their garage after they have completed work on it, which they didn't tell me, though it is on the invoice you sign. Read on to see if you think 2 stars is fair.
I've come here twice, once just for lightbulbs and another time dropping off my car for actual work done. The actual work done to the car - fixing the emergency break, cleaning the headlight case, and diagnosing the problem with the A/C - were fine. They were fair and honest, if maybe a little pricier than I had wanted to pay, but that's car maintenance and repair for you.
What I took issue with was their $50 per night charge and unwillingness to negotiate with a first time customer. I had dropped off the car on a monday morning, then received a call about work to be done to the car around 11 AM, which I confirmed I wanted to be done to the car. At around 5 pm, I had a missed call from Henry Chin's auto care, but no voice mail, but didn't call back b/c it was after hours.
The next morning, as I was catching BART at 8:00 AM, I called them to see if they had finished work on the car. The car was done, and he asked when I would be picking it up. Working in the city, I said I would pick it up Wednesday/Thursday. That was when he informed me that there was a $50/night charge to keep it in the garage.
It's great that they are open at 7:30 AM to go pick up the car before work, but closing at 5 means that working people will have to leave work early to go pick up their car to avoid the $50 charge. I think it's a fine policy, especially for a small garage, but I asked him if he'd be willing to waive the charge for the first night, considering that A) he hadn't mentioned it when I first came into the garage and B) I had had to call him to find out when the car would be ready - he hadn't informed me with a phone call. He seemed annoyed because I hadn't read the fine print of the invoice, which when I went back and read it, was fairly confusing about when the $50 charge was supposed to happen.
It's within his rights to not want to waive the $50 charge, but it was frustrating to me as a customer to have him not even be willing to see from my perspective why the policy felt unfair. That kind of customer service doesn't bode well to me for the rest of the services they offer.
So, just a warning to yelpers - know that there is a $50 charge for every night your car is in the garage, even if you had to call them that day to find out the car was ready. read more
