RICH'S AUTO CENTER, INC

It is with a heavy heart that I post this negative review. We have taken multiple cars to Rich's over the years dating back to when he was on Fairoak. We've always had excellent service for a fair price. Until now, today's experience has turned us away from ever returning. We left feeling bilked from a very shady auto shop. We took our 02 Jetta in to diagnose sounds coming from the front end and replace 3 broken vacuum hoses, bringing two of the hoses with us. After TWO days; an estimate of $1200 (for just replacing the hoses only!); which we were told had to include a humongous list of parts that "could" break as well as that the parts needed to come from VW. It is a 16 year old car if we wanted dealer parts/prices we would have taken it to the dealer! We finally said "forget it put it back like it was". Three hours later (2pm) we came to get it to find it still sitting in the bay in pieces and were told "it'll be ready at 4". Totally disgusted with the entire experience we said forget it, wheel it outside we'll have a tow truck come get it. We were charged $275 to have absolutely nothing fixed, but we were "given a break" by removing the R&R (replace and repair)(Ya think? You didn't repair or replace anything!) then another $75 to have it towed so we could actually get the work done. We ended up doing the work ourselves after ordering the parts online for $17 and she purrs like a kitten. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS AUTO CENTER.

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We had to talk him into doing the repair a different way, so it wouldn't cost us an arm and a leg more than what was already being charged!

We have used rich's Auto several times. Anytime we can't do a job on the car ourselves. They are always upfront and honest about what "needs" to be done versus what needs to be done soon. My brother is a mechanic and has looked over their work before when in town with nothing bad to say about them. I trust them!

We have a lemon car, so we are there ALL the time. They do a great job, and we are happy with their pricing.

The estimate came back and she noticed some other work. The estimate didn't come back until four days after I dropped my car off, though. The other work I didn't want done with her because someone else was already doing another job that was going to take care of the other problem. So we agreed to have one of the problems fixed. We agreed on a price and we hung up. Twenty minutes later I got a phone call back from her saying they refused to do the repair unless I had all of the work done there. Mind you, the work that she wanted me to have done there as well was about twice the price as at the dealership which is why I declined to have them do it. She got in an argument with me over the phone because I asked her if she was essentially refusing my business and she said no, we just can't do it without doing all of the work. Needless to say, it was a pretty upsetting situation. I said nevermind, I don't want you to do any of the work and I'm going to come pick up my car. I arrived to pick up my car and she wanted to charge me a $130 for a diagnostic. I'm totally fine with paying $130 for a diagnostic if I asked for that to be done and agreed to pay for it but the diagnostic was free with the repair that I wanted her to do but she refused to do. In the end, they had my car for five days, they did absolutely nothing except cost me $130 and make me mad.