Complaint Review: Sears Automotive - Providence RI, Hyannis, Swansea, & N. Attlebo MA, RI, MA

Let me tell you a little about Sears Automotive:

They mishandled several cars in my family over the years, some through ignorance, some deliberately. There's a reason why they were hauled into court over automotive repairs. Here's my experience:

1) 1980, Providence, RI (store now closed) - They replaced my Die Hard battery, which died hard early on, and when they were done the car stalled every time I put the car in reverse while backing out of the service bay. It had run perfectly up until then. I got it out into the parking lot by feeding it more gas, and observed it idling slowly but smoothly at 450 RPM in Park on my dwell/tachometer. Since I had set the factory spec of 550 RPM in Drive myself (650 RPM in Park), I turned the idle back up. It ran fine after that, at which point I knew they had tampered with the idle to get me back in for some invented repair. The problem never recurred.

2) 1980, Hyannis, MA - My battery had gone dead from the car sitting one month. Their diagnostics claimed a bad alternator, which I disputed - it was only one year old. They immediately said then that it must be the voltage regulator. Instead I had them take my battery overnight for charging and give me a loaner. Everything tested fine the next day. One month later,

same scenario. They insisted it was the alternator. I jumpstarted the car, took it home, and disconnected the power wire to my stereo amplifier on a hunch. Never had a problem again. The amp was shorted, and since the power wire ran directly to the battery, right in the mechanic's face, I knew that these idiots didn't know how to diagnose a problem. Any homemade wiring should have prompted them to check the current draw first, and they would have found the trouble right away.

3) circa 1980, Hyannis, MA - While waiting for service once, I saw them damage 3 cars through carelessness and ignorance, all within an hour. a) They drove a car into a service bay by starting it without pressing the clutch in (apparently no safety switch) and crashed the car into a case of oil, splattering the whole front end with quarts of motor oil. b) They had a car parked halfway in a bay on a rainy day, with the garage door raised most of the way. Eventually the rain built up on the door gasket enough to cause the huge garage door to come crashing down on the trunk, leaving a deep crease across the trunk lid. c) They didn't know that Chrysler had left-hand thread on the left wheels of pre-1970 vehicles. They tried to loosen the lug nuts on a '64 Dodge pickup and broke 3 lugs off before they realized their mistake. I heard them tell the owner that they were rusted on, and he would have to pay to have new lugs put in.

4) 1981, Hyannis, MA - My dad took his 1972 Pontiac Grandville into Sears on a Friday afternoon with a rusted-through front pipe on the exhaust. The whole exhaust had been replaced just two years earlier. The service manager told him that the whole job would cost $220, including $40 for parts to cut off, drill and replace the four exhaust manifold flange bolts (without even seeing if they could get them loose, and still after being told that they had been no trouble 2 years earlier). He couldn't start the job til Monday. Instead, we took the car to Midas at quarter to 4 on Friday, and they fixed it in less than an hour. They replaced the whole exhaust for $130, and had no trouble removing the "hopelessly rusted bolts".

5) 1982, Swansea, MA - They "tuned up" my grandmother's classic 1966 Chrysler Newport. It ran worse afterwards. They retarded the ignition timing from 2.5 degrees BTDC to 15 degrees AFTER! I convinced her to let me do the tuneups after that.

6) 1986, Hyannis, MA - They did an advertised 2-wheel brake service on my dad's car, originally quoted $69. Then they jacked the price up to more than 3 times that when they found one of the wheel cylinders was damp at one end and some brake line was rusted. The rebuild of the cylinders and line replacement were appropriate, but they insisted on replacing the wheel cylinders instead at $30 additional cost. I disassembled the cylinder in front of the manager and mechanic, showing them that the cylinder was not worn or scored, only a leaking end seal, indicating a need only for rebuild. They replied that it was Sears policy to replace the cylinder even when there was a trace of a leak, and charge extra parts and labor. They essentially charged for both the rebuild and replacement, as there was no price adjustment. Under no conditions did they actually ever do the advertised rebuild of the wheel cylinders.

7) 1988, North Attleboro, MA - They installed new Michelin tires and lost a lug nut on me, which I discovered a few weeks later. They refused to open a package of new nuts and instead made me wait two hours while they supposedly sent someone out to buy a replacement. No apologies were made.

In addition, a friend of mine from high school was the assistant manager at the Hyannis store, and told me that he wanted to fire half of the mechanics for incompetence, but his boss ordered him not to, as they could not get any qualified mechanics to replace them.

Had enough? I did.

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