Let me preface this by saying that given others' experience, my terrible experience with Wheelock's…read moreseems to be an outlier. Still, it seems wrong not to share what happened.
TLDR: I trusted Wheelock's to check a car before I bought it, bought it with their word that it was all good, and now will have to spend more than $1000 to fix obvious problems they missed.
On April 12th I test drove a friend's car because I was thinking of buying it. I liked it, but noticed the AC was not working and the check engine light was on. She dropped the car off at Wheelock's to get checked out before I got it, and I had a budget in mind such that if the fixes cost more than that, I wouldn't take the car. We both called them and made sure to list what we wanted to get checked out (she mentioned a couple issues she knew the car had, and I mentioned the stuff you always want to have checked out before buying a car such as the suspension and clutch, plus the AC which was not working). I eventually got a price (~$2000) and told them to go ahead. I then picked up the car on April 23rd, with them telling me it was 100% and all good. Later that day I noticed the AC was still not working and the check engine light was still on. I had some important trips to do in the next few weeks though, so had to drive it like that. This was red flag 1: how can a decent auto shop say the car is 100% without figuring out and fixing the issue with a check engine light? It's literally a light on the panel.
I later checked the error code for that and got that I needed to replace a part. So that's $120 off my pocket. Then I tried replacing the AC freon, since that's usually why the AC doesn't cool, and it didn't work. I'm calling them they said - I kid you not - that "the AC was blowing cool air so we thought it was working but it was a cold day". This was the extent to which they had checked a specific part that both the owner and I had mentioned to not be working. This was red flag 2, and a huge one.
I was hoping they'd understand this issue and give me a discount with the actual AC fix, so I decided to take the car there for these last few fixes, as opposed to finding a better prepared auto shop. This was my first car in the US, though, and I was unaware that I need to make an appointment with the auto shop before taking a car. So I just took it, and they said it might take a while because I didn't have an appointment. That part is fine, 100% understand. What I don't understand is why they told me on 4 separate occasions that they'd call back with a price "later that day"/"right away", if they clearly weren't ready. Just tell me you'll need a couple more days. This was really frustrating and when I complained they told me to pick up the car and forget it, they would not fix my car. So I wasted a week. It was my fault for giving them the second chance, though - now I know that the issue with my AC is the compressor, so that's $700-900 off my pocket. If they had checked it properly as *two people* explicitly asked them to when they had the car in April, I'd never have bought it. Now I need to materialize $1000+ out of nowhere because of their disrespect for my money.
Again, I hope this is an outlier. But I'd recommend you think twice before going here. Any shop that does not check a check engine light and considers checking whether the AC is blowing cold air (ignoring two people's word that it isn't) as properly checking an AC does not seem trustworthy. I'll be down $3000 by the end of this, and who knows which other issues they did not properly check. Very disappointed. Hope they get better in the future.
