I think the time has come to start a whole entire category that contains nothing but tales of poor customer service, consumer horror stores, and just accounts of general bad business. Cleverly enough, the new category will called “Bad Business“. I know, I should write professionally…it really is ingenious.
Today’s offender, in case you didn’t catch the post title, is Advance Auto Center on Watertown Street here in Newton. This one has dragged on for about 4 months, and I think that it is time to out them for what I would consider to be one of the worst offenses that a business such as Advance Auto Center can commit. Specifically, butting heads with me over something that would cost them $35 to fix, and ultimately losing hundreds of dollars in future business. Thousands perhaps if anyone stumbles across this post while looking for auto service in the West Newton area, and decides to go elsewhere based on my anti-recommendation.
As I mentioned, It started about 4 months back, when I noticed that the brakes on my 1999 Subaru Impreza Outback Sport had gotten a little too squeaky and soft for my liking. In addition, there was an odd, unidentified rattling coming from under the car that turned into a much louder unidentified rattling whenever I accelerated. I bit the bullet, and decided it was time to take it into the shop for what I presumed would not be a cheap set of repairs.
In the past, while living in central Mass, I would take my car into the local Subaru dealer for everything. Oil changes, tires, repairs, whatever. They treated me right, and always got shit done quickly and properly. Plus, they gave me free loaners, and even washed my car after every service…no matter how minor. Point being, they did the little things to make sure that I left happy every time, and knew (or at least hoped) that by doing so, I would become a loyal customer. This is exactly what happened, as I trekked out to Shrewsbury anytime I needed so much as an oil change.
This time around, I decided I would try something more local to my new digs here in Newton. I had nothing but great experiences at Patrick’s, but it would be much more convenient to have a trusted garage right between work and home, which were only 2 miles apart. Enter Advance Auto Center.
Things started out smoothly. I went in and spoke to the receptionist who was very pleasant as I awkwardly tried to do a Michael Winslow and mimic the noise that my car was making and explain what I needed to have done. She humored me and my attempt at an explanation, and took down my information. About three days later, I dropped the car off first thing in the AM.
As promised, the car was ready to rock at 5pm. I went in, paid the $375 or so for the repairs, thanked the gentleman behind the counter, and took off on my 1.7 mile drive home with my fancy new brakes.
The rest of the night was uneventful as the car stayed parked on the street as per the usual. My fancy new brakes would have to wait until morning to get their next workout.
When I got up to go to work the next morning, for some reason, I approached the car from the passenger side and noticed that the front, passenger side hubcap was missing. Having had the car for three years without a single hubcap related incident, I assumed immediately that Advanced Auto Center simply forgot to put it back on when I had the repairs done. After all, this was one of the same two wheels that they had taken off less than 18 hours earlier. No big deal I thought, I will just pop back by in the morning and pick it up. To be safe I will drive slowly and scan the road that I take to and from work to see if it may have popped off on the drive home. Either way, it seemed rather clear cut that AAC was to blame. Either they hadn’t put it back on and it was laying in the garage someplace, or they had not properly secured it to the wheel when they finished up, and as a result, it had popped off into the darkness sometime the night before.
When I got to AAC in the morning, two things became instantly clear. One was that the latter scenario was the one that did my hubcap in, and two was that they were not really to keen on admitting any fault or caring too much about making this right. I reminded them that as a first time customer, I had just spent $375 and would likely continue to come back for future repairs if they could help me rectify my hubcap situation. Basically, order me a new one for $35 and all will be good in the world. I explained how I had no issues with hubcaps ever, and that they had just taken them off the day before, and now it is gone. It was pretty open and shut as to who owed me a new hubcap. Or so I thought.
The man behind the counter begrudgingly took down my name and number and gave me what I would later learn to be a very sarcastic “I’ll call you as soon as it comes in”.
Three weeks pass. And I stop back in to see if they had gotten the hubcap in. I mean, after all, when I needed new brakes and they had to order the parts, it took all of two hours from diagnosis to delivery. Surely three weeks is enough time to track down an Impreza hubcap, no?
Apparently not. The same gentleman who had initially taken my order explained that “They were back-ordered everywhere” and that he “even tried the junkyard with no luck”. I suspiciously took his word for it, and told him I would be back.
Three more weeks passed, and I became resigned to the fact that my hubcap order had most likely found itself in the old “circular file” shortly after he had scribbled it on the order sheet. Real nice, screwing me over a $35 hubcap. Good business Advance Auto Center, real good.
I had no real interest in continuing my hubcap standoff with Advance Auto Center, who clearly had no interest in neither customer service nor customer retention, so I decided to just cut bait. I called up Patrick Subaru in Shrewsbury and asked if they had the hubcap in stock. The woman on the other end said “of course”, and offered to UPS one to my office for $5 on top of the purchase price of $35. “Are these ever back-ordered?” I asked. “Not that I know of.” she said. Didn’t think so.
As promised, the hubcap arrived from Patrick’s two days later. Done and done.
Now I know this is a long post, and it may seem petty to gripe over such a small item and a small expense, but it isn’t about the cost, it is about the principle. It is about how thousands of dollars in business can be lost when companies (both large and small) play hardball, or simply mistreat customers, over tiny things like this. I don’t expect my whining to have a huge impact on the business of Advance Auto Center in Newton, but if three people read this, and tell three others, and so on and so forth…maybe it will. Maybe someone will think twice about dealing with these clowns based on my experience, and maybe next time they will just get the damn hubcap for whomever may need it.
October 21st, 2005 at 3:17 pm
Sure Andrew, writing about your corporate woes is nice, and maybe you’ll even save others the grief you went through. But wouldn’t it have felt better to just go down to Advance Auto Center in the dark of night and steal every hubbie off their lot?
You could sell them on eBay, or give them away as door prizes at a friend’s kid’s bat mitzvah.
January 16th, 2006 at 3:22 pm
Advance Auto Center has worked on 3 of my cars over the past 7 years. The service and workmanship has always been excellent and reasonably priced. They run a professional operation, far better than most independent garages and far cheaper than a dealership. If they simply forgot to replace your hubcap, I’m feel certain they would have owned up and replaced it. Ask yourself, what makes more sense: the hubcap came off while the car was in your possession, or Advance Auto Center decided to piss off a new customer and give up your future business in order to steal a $35 hubcap from a 7 year old Subaru? Yeah, right.
January 16th, 2006 at 6:28 pm
Greg,
I get your angle, but I think you missed mine. The workmanship and everything else was fine, it was the little things (and those are the things that matter to me) that put me off. The hubcap being that little thing.
As stated above:
- Had the car for nearly 3 years without losing a hubcap
- They had the hubcaps off that day
- Hubcap went missing that day
Could it be a coincidence? I suppose, but not likely. I dont think they stole the hubcap (clearly your reading comprehension needs some work), and I don’t accuse them of stealing it. I accused them of not affixing it properly, having it come off instantly in the sub 2 mile ride home due to it not being affixed properly, and then giving me a bunch of bullshit about it being backordered when I tried to have them order me a new one. At the time, I didnt even insist they pay for it, I just asked that they order me a new one. He took the order down begrudgingly, was vaguely rude, and then told me repeatedly over the course of 2 months or so, that it was backordered and it wasnt. He wasted my time, was rude, and lied to me over a god damned hub cap. To me, that is supremely weak.
So to answer your point. Yes, apparently they DID want to nickel and dime me over something simple and sacrifice longer term business. And that is exactly what they did.
February 15th, 2006 at 7:09 pm
Advance Auto is awesome. I take my car there all they time and they bend over backwards to make sure my car is done quickly and inexpensively. ALways a positive attitude and a pleasure to deal with everyone there.
As long as I have been going there, I would never in a million years imagine they would bs you about a silly hubcap.
I know for a fact if they lost it, they would be the first ones to admit and take care of the problem
Get over it.
February 23rd, 2006 at 8:55 pm
Andrew, I have been a customer of Advance Auto for a some time now. Since I recently moving to the area some 3 years ago. I have found them to be nothing short of excellent in service and workmanship. Having spent some time speaking with several of the employees there, I find it really hard to believe that they would lie to you.
Also, it says something about your character that simply because you felt slighted over a minor incident you would try and hurt a small business. Seriously these guys are human and everyone makes mistakes. If you weren’t treated exactly the way you wanted to be why be so vendictive? Why not just decide not to give them future business and go your own way.
Hopefully people reading these posts will realize that this incident was probably more a factor of you being a difficult customer and less about Advance Auto being anything but a great place to get your car looked at.
I agree with Sydney on this one, “Get over it.”
January 21st, 2007 at 5:21 pm
Andrew:
Get over your whatever it is your parents did to you to make you such a whiny little person. My wife and I have been going to the Solari brothers since they were literally a one-bay repair shop, which is well over 15 years ago, and due to their honesty, we knew they’d be successful. They have always been fair, honest, and upfront with us, even refusing at times to either do a requested repair (because, as it turned out, there really wasn’t a problem), or doing some minor follow up adjustments without an appointment or a bill. When we first began going to Advance, we lived right down the street. Now, we live quite a few towns away, but I still go out of my way to bring my cars and truck there, regardless of minor the issue. For $35, I hope the Solari brothers think it was worth the price to get rid of a ‘customer’ like you …
January 23rd, 2007 at 2:14 pm
My first visit to Advance Auto was November 2004. The work was satisfactory and the cost reasonable. I continued to have my car serviced at Advance Auto. However, I noticed a deterioration in the quality of their work, beginning in early 2006. Perhaps the shop acquired more work than it could handle. I had to return the car several times in order to fix a problem that should have been fixed at the initial appointment. The Solaris were always courteous and kind, but I saw them in order to have my car serviced, not to make new friends. The check engine light came on in April 2006, starting a long-running problem that culminated in an overheated engine the day after Thanksgiving.
I do not intend to have Advance Auto service any other car I will own. I sense the business has to sort through its growing pains.
September 6th, 2007 at 10:59 am
I just starting Advance a few months and have been very pleased. My one compliant is they say it will be ready at a certain time but occasionally I have to wait on the repairs beyond the stated time. They explain the problem thoroughly and make suggestions so I can decide if it is truly worth the cost.
After having spent quite a bit of money at other repair shops on phantom problems (or the same repair made six months ago), I would recommend Advance Auto.
September 10th, 2007 at 10:15 am
Andrew,
I couldn’t agree more! I brought my car to Advanced Auto Care last week for a regular tune up: plugs, wires, an oil change, and a rattle in the exhaust. I go to pick it up and they give me the usual, everything is fixed and we even blew out the air flow meter for you at no charge and put a new bracket on the rattle in the exhaust at no charge. I’m thinking wow, that’s awesome, I knew a local garage would work out better than making the trek back up to NH to my dealership.
WRONG. I didn’t even make it into traffic without it bogging down and me almost gettig TBoned. Still thinking it can’t be that bad, probably just need to drive it off for a few, I take a spin around town. My boyfriend comes home that night and opens the hood, immediately spots the plug wires aren’t even placed in the factory clips - basically laziness and shotty work. I bring it back the next day, go over the problems and they keep it for a few hours and find something else wrong: that air flow meter that they kindly blew out for me at no charge needs to be replaced.
After a kind approach at discussing this and how it could happen overnight and only after they worked on it, it escalated. It ended with the mechanic telling my boyfriend “to meet him outback at 4 when we close” in a challenge to fight.
Yeah…real professional and nice work guys. LOST CUSTOMER.
November 29th, 2007 at 9:37 pm
Elizebeth
I happened to be at Advance Auto when you and your boy friend came back on saturday morning in your vw cabrio, you forgot to say that your boy friend told advance auto that the tune up would fix the bogging problem and that you brought your own parts, the wires were a generic set and would not clip into the factory clips, when you pick the car up you were told that the car still bogged and it need and air flow meter, if your boy friend would get it they would install it for you at no charge, if i was a male i would of taken your boyfriend out back the way he spoke to them, so my question is what did Advance auto do wrong? NOTHING
customer like you they certainly don’t need!!!!!
Now the real reason for me writing this is they are great, I been going there for over ten years, they bend over backwares for thier customers
March 6th, 2008 at 11:32 am
I have been very pleased with Advanced Auto since I first started using them this year. I find my experience to be totally different from the one posted here.
A shop can be 99% excellent and there will be one person in a hundred who will have a bad experience…. and whine about it.
I can wholeheartedly recomend Advance as 1) honest 2) excellent and 3) reasonably priced.
Coincidently, I just dropped my wife’s car of there this morning and have no doubts that they will continue to satisfy me.
I am not saying that the blogger is lying or being disingenuous. However, it does not paint an accurate picture of their usual care. Additionally, it is naturally very one-sided.