Merchant’s Tire & Auto Centers

I’ve been to this location many times in the past. had good services and prices were right. But you know, one bad experiences can ruined it all for someone. Had my oil change and car alignment done last week. The oil change comes with washer fluid refill and tire rotation. 2 hrs after i was told my car was done, i asked the guy if he filled the fluid and rotate my tires he goes «i only did the alignment i do not know» just like that he left. wow great customer service there. i asked someone else and he said what? the guy should have done it. then said i’ll take care of it. came back and said the bolts on my tire is too tight and they cant take it off? seriously?
so now the alignment, i have 2 cars and this is my SUV not my daily driver. The shop is close to my house so when driving back i didn’t really pay attention of the alignment because well you expect everything to be fine right after. Now i drove it yesterday and noticed the alignment is still off. called the shop and was told why it took me so long to call back? and that i’d have to pay for a new alignment. why would a good alignment go bad so quickly? after driving it for 1 day? You’ve lost yourself a value customer.

Car promised on Sunday morning, ready 8:55 pm Monday night. No excuse is worth all this.

They are great. They did a very good job changing my winter tires to summer tries. They are a bit more expensive though. An average cost for a change that I had was $ 72. I don’t have too many complains because they are nice, productive, helpful, and have really good coffee. So come here only if you are willing to spend a little more money for your tires. Overall I recommend.

I went in for a routine oil change and tire rotation. I waited forever. They weren’t busy and everyone was laughing and joking around in the garage. I went to the desk to get an ETA, turns out my car was already done, but no one told me. They said, «Oh! Your car has been done for a while.»
Took my car home, and within the same week (prime of Summer, mind you) my car was smoking… Turns out they forgot to put oil in it! A car running on NO oil? Come on.
All they did to make it better was put oil in it. And «not charge me» for the service that I already paid for. No refund or apologies. Who knows if there’ll be further damages. I emailed corporate of my service, or lack there of, and all I got was a lousy phone tag game.
Now I feel like I have to constantly go back there for future oil changes, just in case there is future damage… they can easily say it wasn’t they’re fault.
I’d recommend to do car service elsewhere or see that they’re efficient before you leave.

Terrible! I used their online service to buy 4 tires and schedule an appointment. When I get there, they only have 3 tires. I had to come back the next day to get the last tire put on and they tried to charge me when you could clearly see on the computer I already paid. I won’t be back to a Merchant’s again.

Used to be my go to place when I was in a pinch… well today at 300pm I was in a pinch with my headlight shorting out to see if they could get under my hood for the 15 minutes it takes to check the connection and take 30 of my dollars… nope. 4 to 5 hour wait. what happened to the merchant’s that would help out in times of need? NOT this one. You can’t depend on this shop — only if you have an appointment apparently. I figured at 3pm I’d beat the after work rush. Nope apparently not. Won’t be back to this location. I’ll stick to the NTB (which was short staffed today) or the Reston Merchants which ALWAYS works me in by my office.

Terrible service went in to get an emissions inspection in the afternoon and the guy was headed home wouldn’t help at all. Go to the Shell down the street they are fast and efficient.

Had a nail in my tire Friday. It was in the top of the tire, so it was repairable. Limped the car with the spare on to Merchant’s at 5PM Saturday. Went grocery shopping at The Teeter with the wife. Came back 6:15PM Saturday. Car was done. $ 28.
Oddly, my wife and I caught a flat a couple of nights earlier, returning home from a Unilocal Elite event. She took it over to Merchant’s first thing in the morning and was done within an hour.
Service can be a bit curt, but never rude. I will continue to go here for any tire emergencies until they do something to lose my business.

Great guys over at Merchant’s. My muffler fell right off my 2010 Nissan Cube on a Sunday afternoon and we took it over and they took care of it in 30 minutes! Quick service, average pricing, OPEN ON SUNDAYS, did a great job on the car. Would recommend to anyone!

I called them the night before to see if I needed an appointment to get in and they said first come first served. I was the first one at the door when they opened up their business and yet I still managed to be 4^th in line. Not only that, but I also checked their inventory the night before online and found the tires that I already had on my car were in stock. After I asked the manager on duty about this particular matter she told me oh well and when they finally got to me the tire that I needed was not in stock but the two most expensive ones they had were, ironically.
Bottom line, I was overcharged, the online inventory system is worthless and quite frankly they need to learn a little bit about management and customer service skills. I will not only never go back there again, but I will encourage everyone to avoid them like the plague.

I’m not sure what happened with the other folks below but my visit went well.
My truck is a 2011 Silverado 2500HD with oversized tires. I took my truck in for an alignment and tire rotation and they did an excellent job. The truck tracks straight and steers so much better than it did before. I will definitely be going back to them for my next one for sure !

One star for the speed of service. Oil change and cabin filter change in 10 min. I feel stupid for agreeing to pay $ 50 to change a $ 6 filter. When the guy told me the price, I told him I don’t remember ever paying this much for the filter. He said you’re confusing it with the air filter, which is much cheaper. Cabin filters are expensive. I said are they expensive everywhere be said yes. In fact they sell them cheaper than most other places. He quoted $ 80 in other places. I agreed and paid. Later I looked it up. The filter costs $ 6. It takes 30 seconds to change. Oh, and the oil change, $ 60 for standard oil, which was advertised at $ 19.95. They gave me a story about 4 wheel drive and needing more oil. Like I said, I feel stupid.

I’ve been going to this Merchant’s for more than 10 years, for my car and my wife’s. I never felt ripped off; the managers and workers have turned over during that time period, but they’ve been consistently professional, done work at reasonable rates, AND I always falways felt that they knew what they were doing, and didn’t generate fake work to do. I saw a couple of negative reviews below which don’t seem fair to me. It’s not Merchant’s fault that your car broke down during a busy day, or that you had to get it towed.

I recently moved to the area and had to get a state inspection and emissions test performed. I called Merchant’s on Centreville Rd and asked if they did those tests. Of course they do. He said his inspection technician was out that day. I suggested coming in the the following day (May 31). He said it wouldn’t be the best time because they would be super busy since it was the last day of the month. I asked if June 1 would be better and he said it would be much better.
My wife and son show up with our two cars. They get there at 8:00 and are told that they (Merchant’s) don’t take appointments. My wife said that’s fine we’ll wait. Then she is told, well we can’t do it today.
What a waste of time and effort. I knew they didn’t take appointments, that isn’t the problem, but not able to perform the required state inspections for three days in a row and not to mention the last reason «We can’t do it today».
Suggestion: Don’t waste your time, find a Mom and Pop shop or even a national one that believes in customer service. They will either learn to take care of a customer or go under and that’s what we who pay for the services should ensure happens!

one star to account for the fact that yes, my car is now running.
i was in a bind – my car broke down in a neighborhood i wasn’t familiar with, so i had AAA drop it off to the nearest mechanic, Merchant’s Tire. they took advantage of my situation by absolutely ripping me off, charging me close to $ 700 to change an alternator… i called other places in the area, and they would only charge me $ 377-​$ 550 max (i gave my VIN so they knew exactly what they were working with, and they gave me the same labor estimate for the work as Merchant’s but at substantially lower price tabs). the reasons i chose to bite the bullet: 1) AAA will only tow once per breakdown free of charge, 2) Merchant’s was still going to charge me $ 100 for «diagnosing» the problem if i switched mechanics, 3) i could only stay in the area for a very limited amount of time, and needed my car asap for work.
basically, REALLY UNSCRUPULOUS PEOPLE who know how to take advantage of people in tight spots! and when my mom and i went to pick up the car and explained our findings re: competitor prices, hoping that they would at least *try* to work with us, the sales associate just decided to play dumb and told us to take everything up to the manager (who, conveniently enough, wasn’t there). i would take an apologetic tone at this point, and even $ 10 off would show that they’re trying to work with us. i still walked away politely and said thanks & have a good day, but at this point i guess he knew we were never coming back so he never acknowledged us leaving! no thanks/​have a good day/​bye. just took the check and said nothing. jerks.
for places that seemed to actually want to work with me (granted, i decided not to go with them because of time constraints): J&J Automotive Services and Yorkshire Service Center.