Sears Auto Center

I came here at 8:30am to get all 4 new tires. The guy told me it will take between 2 – 2 ¹⁄₁₂ Hours. And was just the second person. I waited 2 hours my car was still park in the parking lot waiting for tires. I ask the guy it’s been 2 hrs and the still have not done anything with my car? He told me they were short in people to work on it? I told him that’s not my problem. and way they were nothing but rude. After 5 hours I want back to ask for Store Manager they told me to wait we will get him for you. After 30. Now I have been here 3 times if they can fix my car wheel balance? and my car still shakes. I will never get anything for them again i’m in the process of looking for a good lawyer because they have wasted way too much of my time, they are the rudest people you will meet. Every time I come here I ask to speak to a manager he/​she is never here.

Jane Goodall dedicated her life to saving chimpanzees. That was her mission. MLK fought for civil rights. That was his legacy. If I can leave something behind for my people, it will be a stern warning against ever stepping a foot inside this auto center. No I am not overreacting. I am only adding to pages and pages of horrible, horrendous reviews that the management apparantly doesnt give a $hit about. Giving this place one star is actually painful act. I wish Unilocal didnt force this one star. So here is my experience. Buckle up.
I wish I had looked at these reviews before bringing my car here. I brought my car in for regular maintenance. All I needed was an oil change and wheel alignment for a 2013 car that’s in a great condition. I was told it can take several hours so I should bring it back the next day and make an appointment. I was told it will take a bit over an hour if I make the appointment.
I obliged.
I showed up on time the next day. Now the person taking my keys told me that it can take up to 2 hours. I reminded the guy who told me the night before how I was told an hour. He rudely responded, «I don’t promise my customers anything». Though I was frustrated, I decided to leave the car there and return in two hours. I waited for 2.5 hours and when I approached the desk again I was told «They are working on it and it may take another 30 minutes». My frustration was only getting worse. I waited for 3.5 hours and the car still wasn’t done. I keep hearing other customers complaining but everyone was getting the same scripted response. I am not sure how this place is still in business.
When I complained to the manager on duty, he told me he is assistant manager and the manager Steve is not available. Then I was told, «We are sorry but most of the mechanics we have are very old and slow.» I was a bit shocked to hear that. Then he said. «Sears is not a company that let’s go of its loyal employees.»
I responded. «How is this relevant to anything I am here for and as a customer why is this my problem?» He didnt have a response and just shook his head. After nearly four hours and keep asking them to just give me my car back, I finally got my car. I asked the guy for my keys and wheel lock which no one seemed to know anything about. This took another 15 minutes to locate. Lastly I opened my trunk and it looked like that a robber had gone through my trunk. Everything was upside down. The mats were moved and never placed back. This was extremely upsetting. I asked the guy «What happened to my trunk and belongings?» to which he responded — «I dont know. Maybe the other guy was looking for something?» I had to move all my stuff out of the trunk, re-​arrange the mats and put all of my stuff back. This took another 10 minutes. After all this, when it came time to pay, they charged the full price for their «Service».
I drove the car today and the «Maintenance» light just came on. Arghh! I know I dont have the stamina or the strength to go back to this place. I will have to figure out what they did to my car and will probably have to pay extra!
I then also tweeted @Sears and @SearsCares to complaint however their response was as bad as this experience. In owning several vehicles over the course of last 20 years, this was by far the worst experience with an auto shop ever. Stay away, read all the reviews on this page and save yourself all the hellish headaches.

My car was there for over 24 hours. Repair was not completed. The customer service is awful. There wasn’t a single manager on duty and they are driven by commissions. They will sell you lifetime balance and rotations but when you come in there is a 3 – 5 hour wait! Not trustworthy sales people. I won’t speak for the mechanics but the people up front are shady. Beware and READ THE REVIEWS! I should have.

Very bad wheel alignment. They redone the alignment 2 times still it looks bad. I don’t know how they can do such bad job. The steering is so tight that I can’t able to rotate because of their bad alignment. They said it will be done with in hour, but still made me to wait 4 hrs. I never suggest any one to go this center

I had my car serviced earlier today for a number of items including and oil change, tires rotated and balanced, fluid changes and new spark plugs. I went out this evening and when I got in my car, after dark, I realized that all of my headlights are out!!! When I came in this morning, I had fully functioning headlights and now they only the high beams work. I’m very unhappy that this basic function wasn’t checked prior to my car being released back to me.
In addition, when I was driving home I noticed a burning smell. I though it was possibly any oil that had spilt during the oil change. When I realized that I had no headlights, I lifted up the hood and the engine was very hot and there was a mild burning smell. I looked at the coolant level and it was almost empty. I had the coolant serviced today!!! Why wasn’t there coolant put back in???

I’ve have taken my car about 4 times now and had zero problems. Nice staff, good prices, and decent fix time. Going through front desk sometimes takes a while when they are busy but overall good experience.

Ordered online for store pickup. They cancelled my order without informing me. Came by to pick up to find out (after waiting in line) order was cancelled by the store manager and they didn’t even refund my money when they cancelled it. I had to come in and swipe my card apparently. Makes no damn sense. If I didn’t come in would they have just kept my money for the good times they gave me? I wouldn’t waste my time ordering online from these flakes if what you’re ordering is something you actually want; or if value your time. They couldn’t even give me a reason WHY they cancelled it. I know they received the product because I got the email tracking saying so.
To make matters worse, I lost all the promotions I spent time finding on the deal, and maybe lost all or some of my shop your way points… you know. The ones they give you for being a «valued» customer. Smdh

If I could give this place «no stars» i most definitely would. They manipulate you to think that they will fix the problem on your car and they don’t. Took my Honda Accord here, 3 weeks ago. Because it is the closest place to my house that my car could make it to in it’s overheating condition.
Walked in and a lady was complaining about them and arguing when I walked in, but I did not let that turn me away from inquiring about them fixing my vehicle, long story short. I ended up taking my vehicle to them 3 – 4 times and each time they kept saying something was broken due to something that they has supposedly replaced when i brought it to them to fix it. Everything they said they fixed would be broken again, PLUS more things once I picked the vehicle back up.
I ended up calling the corporate office and they were even more rude and tried to say I wasn’t being truthful and that my car was just too old with too many miles. I knew this was not the case because we had gotten it fixed at a different place and there was absolutely nothing wrong with the car after it had gotten fixed! This place doesn’t know customer service and doesn’t take pride in their work with fixing cars. I would not recommend this place if it was the last place on earth. I’d rather walk or take a bus than take my car here to get fixed.

If I could put zero stars I would. Hands down, the WORST service east or west coast. Zero promptness, zero customer service, zero customer satisfaction. And worse, when I asked the manager Charles A. He was ZERO help to resolve the issue. I will never use Sears auto ever!

The worst manager on duty I’ve ever seen. I used to change my car engine oil for $ 24.99 and that was the regular price. They have a manager (not the store manager) who refused to get my car in TWICE due to «not enough time» although I was there by 5pm and they close at 7pm, he rudely asked me if my job can let me come earlier –Seriously dude… In addition, any employee can simply give you the $ 24.99 price but he found that a chance to increase the price to $ 34.99 saying that there is no coupon to use and that if other reps gave me that coupon «He doesn’t know how they did that» … A manager who is full of crappy words and bad attitude, I have no idea why he became a manager. The manager is a problem solver not creator. I decided to go to the dealer and change oil for $ 34.99 and will never go to sears auto again, I don’t need another hard task to do in my day off. SEARS AUTO SERVICE IS BAD … I forgot to mention that in the dealership they told me that whoever was changing the oil in my car has damaged the oil filter place and need to be fixed!!!

Christina mercado solved my issue in 15 minutes. She listened to my issue and resolved it within minutes. She was efficient and helpful in every way. Numerous calls and emails had resulted in no help. She is a star. No telephone was answered by merchanchis delivery for 10 days. Customer service was nice but did, t do the job. Christina took care of a long time sears customer in a ritz carlton way. I don’t know how to rate this experience. 10 for Christina. 0 for merchandiser pickup

The first time coming here, I made an appointment for an oil change over a weekend. They did the job, no complaints about the actual oil change service, but the wait time was a ridiculous 2 hours! I appreciate the discount for an oil change even though I didn’t have a coupon. If you decide to get service done here, I suggest catching a movie at the mall after you drop off your car.

I usually get my tires from Sears and this location is very good, customer service is cool but when you go in I recommend that you see customer rep Shah, he is very polite and helpful, he even took the time to try and get me some discounts on my transaction even though i did not have a Sears card or any coupons and he wound up saving me some money, so Shah gets FIVE Stars!
but as far as the actual work on my car, I have been satisfied each time.

Stay clear away! We purchased two tires and were quoted price with road hazards. Six months later, we need to take in for service issue and are now told they did not add road hazards to the tires. We always buy road hazards and told them at purchase that we needed road hazards. We were told the price included road hazards. After much bickering and contacting corporate, the manager said to come in and he would repair for free. However, nail too close to firewall so then he refuses to make good on it and says we will have to buy a new tire. He also quotes much higher for the SAME tires and tries to make it sound like he is cutting us a deal. I go into store to deal with him in person. He left the store and after 20 minutes, I had to leave. Horrible customer service and refusal to uphold their «road hazard warranty» will make me let everybody know to stay clear away!

We have taken 3 vehicles to Sears Tire & Auto at Dulles Town Center over the last 10 years. Some services have been more efficient than others, but overall our experience has been positive and we continue to return for further services. You should be proactive and ask questions if you notice that work is not progressing as quickly as you hoped. They do not carry stock and need to order parts and there was one occasion when the part ordered was wrong, which caused a 90 minute delay to return/​retrieve the correct part.
The front desk staff has always been knowledgeable, professional and focused on providing the best customer service possible. When the 90 minute delay mentioned above occurred, they comped the alignment service to make up for the poor communication and lack of timely delivery.
I would recommend using this store.

I’ve bought tires from Sears for years. This experience however was most difficult. They did not have tires in stock. Not all requested services were done and final job was sloppy. Given the experience now, I’m not even sure they got the right tires.
The tires on the car came from Sears and were getting close to needing replaced. One failed Friday night, so I went in to get both rear tires replaced. The wait for a service writer was near 20 minutes. English was not his primary language so we had some difficulty communicating. The replacement tires were not in stock, but could be in Monday.(We had a problem with promised delivery dates previously with a battery — Monday promise turned into Thursday afternoon.)
As promised, Monday afternoon the work was done — poorly. I had to walk into the shop to stop them from disposing of my spare and show them the bad tire was in the trunk, as written on the order. There were several other ‘factual understanding errors’ in their explanations, to where some of the techs argued amongst themselves. When they brought the car out, I checked the spare only to find they had thrown the spare into the space and piled the mounting parts in the well.
Doubt I’ll be back to this Sears anytime soon and others are now tainted.

In our world (especially spoiled-​ass-​NoVA) of I want it yesterday it could easily be felt that «they take too long» are a «…band of roving morons…». I admit there may have been some trying moments over the past 16 years but it has been 16 years. I’ve brought 6 vehicles there for service in 16 years and never had to return for re-​work. Yes, some minor surprises of a mechanical nature upon investigation and no, I wasn’t happy. Overall though, I’ve been VERY SATISFIED.
I would advise that if you have problems you take the time out to write Sears as that does still help. Sears does need to pay their employees better to attract and retain the good ones. Sometimes in a year they may seem to have changed staff quite a bit but this is a high transition field.

Only needed one tire changed. Was told it would take around 45 minutes. What a lie. They had to order some sort of part that I was not told about, and the excuse for the even longer wait was that this location isn’t their top priority during deliveries. It has been 2 hours and my tire has still not been changed. I will never come back here again.

On Labor Day 2013 they were open but only 1 mechanic came into work. When we came back, we had our battery replaced and paid the extra $ 10 to have alternator checked but I HIGHLY DOUBT they checked it because the car is now dying when stopped at a traffic light!
Worst customer service EVER!!!
I will never go back to this Sears Auto Center!!!

I’ve tried the Fair Oaks Mall — Fairfax, VA location a couple of times and though their work is good you ALWAYS have to wait at least 3 hours for a standard oil change.
The Dulles Town Center location is closer to my current place and in addition to the mall you have many neighboring restaurants, a shopping center and SamsClub/​Walmart to occupy time. Dulles’ Sears Auto is starting to have wait times that rival Fair Oaks. I waited 4 hours for an alignment, rotation and oil change (4 cylinder sedan) at last visit and during Sunday morning store opening the line was wrapped around the store. The last few visits they have forgotten to add wiper fluid with the oil change and reset car’s maintenance indicator
In addition to including your cell phone for callback, have the technician note:
1. Reset maintenance light
2. Please cap all fluids
3. Please replace mileage sticker reminder on windshield
I enjoy Sears Auto because no matter where I travel or relocate all of my service information is accessible and transferable to any location which is good for a gypsy. You earn Sears/​Kmart rewards and there are online coupons for discounted service. Their warranties are great especially the 6 +months alignment packages since I do a lot of highway driving and love potholes or sideswiping median barriers within an inch of life. Also the staff doesn’t seem seedy or give me that «fresh out of county lockup» vibration that many auto shops do. Dulles’ staff is really friendly and the work is generally good but they seem rushed and absent minded lately. If they are busy they should invest in more staff.
I guess my hometown locations have me spoiled.