DON'T DISMISS THIS REVIEW!!! I know that you probably saw that Auto Care Experts has 38(+) GREAT reviews, but if something sounds too good to be true, it often is. All of the reviews are paid for marketing.
The firest review right now (as of 12/11/11) isn't even for a repair shop but for a fricking car wash. The company that they hired to write reviews messed up and put the wrong review in for Auto Care Experts. The review is titled Luxury Lathering and brags about how spotless their car is and the ""massaging chairs"" in the waiting area!!!!
Click on the name of each reviewer, you will see that they leave 5 or more reviews a day for locations in San Diego, Sacramento, Freemont, NYC, San Jose, and more. One reviewer bragged about bringing their car to Purrfect auto service the same day as this place and said how wonderful each one was. If that was true, why go to 2 shops the same day??? Don't be fooled into going here. As for my service, I took my truck there for an oil change. I actually got a voucher in the mail for a free oil change (valued up to $29.95 with 4 quarts of oil) and thought I would try this place out. I have a wor van that needs serious engine work as of 2 days ago, so I need to find a shop to bring it too. I figured this voucher would be a good way for me to try out a new shop and see if I felt good bringing my van there for whay will probably be a $1,000 or more repair. For my oil change, Mark let me know that the voucher was only for a regular passenger car and that a full size truck like mine would cost more money. I understand that they take more oil, so I understand. When he gave me the work order to sign, it listed the oil change as $44,95 plus $6.00 for the extra oil. WTF?? An increase of 50% over the original labor? I asked him why it was more money (knowing that it is the same amount of labor to do a car or truck) and he said that they had bigger components, harder to get to, etc. This is a total lie. It was at this point that I checked their reviews on Yelp and saw that there were 3 reviews and all at one star. I completely understood and was glad that they had a bad name....but then...a lady brings her car in for some issues with her instrument panel and they bring it back to check it out. I asked her how she found the shop and she said that she picked it from all the great reviews online. I was confused becase I only saw the Yelp ones. I googled the shop and saw all the positive reviews on there; all at 5 stars. Knowing something stunk, I checked out all the reviewers and they were all professional reviews written to many companys that paid for it. Some of the reviews would be for a dentist's office in Sacramento stating that they have brought all of their family there for years, then the next one would be for a roofing company in San Diego that did great work on their house. These things just do not happen. Please be fore warned, I was taking this opportunity to find a great local shop and they screwed me over something as basic as an oil change by overcharging by 50%. Don't get your car stuck in there halfway into a major repair where you will have no choice other than for them to finish and take advantage of you for more than an extra $20
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