Econo Lube N’ Tune

Not impressed. I came here because I was told by the manager when I called, that it would take 45 minutes to an hour to get my brakes done. Now, three and a half hours later, I’m looking at the other two bad reviews here on Unilocal and wishing I had gone to another place. Notice, there aren’t any good reviews.
Shockingly, the manager tried to screw me over. He said I needed rotars and pads. After I told him several times to put the tires back on so I could go elsewhere, to a more honest place, he decided that they could do just the pads. Of course, I had to get him to show me the rotars that weren’t in bad condition before he would stop insisting that I need new ones. The deal he made me was that they would install the brake pads but they couldn’t give me the warranty since I wouldn’t buy new rotars from them. What a deal!
Once the brakes were finally delivered, it wasn’t all of the needed parts. Thus causing my wait to be an additional hour.
Being somewhat familiar with cars, If you need new rotars, that means pads don’t fit. He lied to my face and thought that since I drove a nice car I’d be an easy prospect to screw out of an extra thousand dollars. WRONG.
SAVE YOURSELF THE MONEY AND BRAIN DAMAGE, GO SOMEWHERE ELSE!

It’s sad when you have to try hard to look for positives in a business that is known for screwing people out of money or making you feel like you need unnecessary repairs. It’s probably best just to go the BBB.
I called in on a Thursday and spoke to Justin Williamson, who claimed to be the manager. He sold me on the idea of getting Advantage One Ceramic brakes for the front end of my 2009 Subaru Forester. He quoted me 170 $ at first, then 160 $ if I could make it there that day.
I told him I needed to be out of there by 4pm. I arrived at 145pm.
My car was ready at 445pm. Justin felt bad and wanted to give me a free oil change. He marked this on my receipt.
He gave me his personal card and told me to contact him on his off days. I chased him around for about 11 days and then brought it back to the Econo Lube.
That’s when I talked to Mike, who claims to be the real manager. They diagnosed my wife’s car (2010 Chevy Malibu LT) with a bad purge valve. We bought the part and they put it on free for making us wait for hours. Check Engine light is still on. They say it needs a smoke test. We had to wait another 2 hours for Gustavo to do the test.
Gustavo leaves and Mike has to call him on his cell phone and gives me a diagnosis of a leak between the purge valve and the gas tank.
My wife brings it a week later at 7am, when they claim to be open. They send her away until 8am until Gustavo comes in, even though he is supposed to be there. Gustavo doesn’t pull the car into the garage until 840am. The car isn’t finished until 1245 pm. They charge us 100 $ and the check engine light is still on but they claim that it is fixed. They say that we have to take it to the dealer because it’s a computer issue.
Here’s my question: If it is a computer issue, then why was the smoke test and the «leak repair» necessary? It’s too bad that this shady business conducts their affairs in such a poor way.
I immediately took the car to the Chevy Dealer as recommended by Econo Lube. They said it was a purge valve connector. Total charge 260 $. I called Mike at Econo Lube, he said he would have to talk to «Corporate» to see if we could get our 100 $ for the bad diagnosis they gave us.
Updated 3÷28÷14 —
We took it John Elway Chevrolet. They charged us around 210 $ because I had a coupon. I contacted Driven Brands in North Carolina, which is the corporate entity that controls Meineke, Econo Lube, and some other companies. Apparently, Jasmine, the woman who has been unhelpful throughout the process, from Driven Brands, says they can only «mediate» a fix and cannot actually force them to a resolution.
Jasmine contacts the owner of this location and they say they tried to work with me by doing the «smoke test» and «some unknown repair» underneath the car. Chevy told me that it was the ground connector for the purge valve and that any other test or repair was unnecessary. Econo Lube is offering 100 $ credit in service at this horrible location. I explained that I would never take my vehicles here ever again based on the incompetence that they have shown.
MIKE LOPEZ, the manager of this location and his lackey, Gustavo, just show up whenever they want and make uneducated guesses regarding what’s wrong with vehicles. Why would ANYONE take their car here? When you look to get it done on the cheap, it ends up being more expensive than getting it done right the first time.

Just get your oil changes and run. You can get a better deal on your brakes some place else. Oil change is $ 15