Midas

Went here for an oil change and tire rotation. I was there last customer of the day. When I left the shop I realized my pressure light was on for my tires. It hey we’re closed on Sunday so I thought I’d call in Monday so they could adjust the pressure. They claimed that I’d have to pay for them to look at it and. That I have a leak over the phone. I don’t believe them and they have poor customer service.
#update I went back to Midas on Wednesday and the manager put every effort to fix my the issue I was having with my car. I would come back

My husband is headed later today for Brakes for our sons car and looked at Unilocal and noticed the very negative reviews about bad treatment by management there. That reminded him about his two past experiences with this Midas shop. He shared his recollections with me and decided to write this review. About three years ago he had excellent help and guidance from the woman who was managing the shop there. As a result he had new shock absorbers and other services for my Corvette. That excellent service was why he considered Midas now. However, the negative Unilocal reviews reminded him that about a year ago he went back for some other services and the manager provided an extremely memorable negative experience. It was outrageous and he made a mental note of the poor experience. The discussion began in a construction manner with the manager providing him with a list of items of work that were suggested as needed. The interaction turned sour when he asked for a price for each of the items he had identified. He told him that we might choose to have some of the items cared for but not the others. The managers reply suggested that my husband was cheap and wasn’t able to make a decision. When the manager noticed that the tires on the Corvette were worn he indicated that he could provide an excellent price. My husband noted that seemed unlikely as we had carefully priced Corvette tires. The manager later provided a price that was more than $ 100 per tire more than the price we already had, more than $ 400 higher for the four tires. When we declined his offer the response was something to the effect that we had «wasted his time.» Thank you Unilocal for helping us exclude Midas from our choice of vendors today.

Got an oil change here and they found a coolant leak. It seemed a little shady to me so I said I’d come back another time to get it checked out. Paid for them to find the leak, and then was told it would be $ 600 to fix. Talked to another mechanic and they said that even if it was as bad as they said, which was very unlikely, it would only be half the cost. I should’ve listened to my first instinct and avoided this place, but I like to believe that other people are as honest and trustworthy as I would be in their position. I would recommend finding another mechanic that you can trust.

Bad customer service I went to ask for a price on installing a air intake when I got their they where rude second they try to charge me 150 dollars for installing it hahaha check your self just don’t go here period

These guys were so bad at getting my business that I wouldn’t even let them change my oil. The manager there (Friday May 8^th 345PM) said he doesn’t care about their prices in a really aggressive and bad attitude. I feel really bad for the people who own this store, because this guy is most likely a liability that is losing a lot of money for this business. I will never go back to this place and I’ll tell all of my friends to avoid it.

My daughter and I recently dropped her car off at this location for brakes and oil change. The gentlemen working up front said he would call with an estimate which he did. He made my daughter so uncomfortable she had to hang up and asked if I would call. I usually do the work on her car myself but did not have time. So I call back, after insulting my intelligence for a few minutes I asked if I could just get a breakdown on how much was parts and how much was labor. He said he could not tell me as it was a package deal. I then asked when I get my receipt how much will it say next to labor. He again said he could not break it down. We had to let them do the work as we had no choice. When I went to pick up the car right on receipt is listed how much for parts and how much for labor. What a scammer!!! Campbell 805 415‑0923

I’m not even going into details of how horrible this shop is and how little the manager OR OWNER care! AVOID AT ALL COSTS!
It’s their way or the highway! And God forbid you shop around for pricing… the manager doesn’t like that at all!
Make sure you get paperwork and make sure it’s written up correctly or you’ll be in a bad spot. Read reviews!!!
AVOID!

I don’t usually leave reviews, but I feel it would be a disservice to the general public if I do not leave a review for the horrible brake service we got from here (which almost resulted in a horrible car accident). I would give this place zero stars if I could.
My boyfriend and I took his 2000 Nissan Xterra here because the brakes were squeaking and we knew it needed new ones. They talked us into upgrading to top of line brakes and rotors, which ended up costing about $ 600.00. Given the excellent warranty, we decided it was a good investment and would save us money in the long run.
A couple of days after the service however, we started to notice a funny noise when braking — it sounded like something was grinding. By the Sunday following the service, the grinding noise was worse and there was occasional jerking when braking. As Monday was a holiday, we decided to take it in first thing on Tuesday morning. We didn’t realize how bad the problem was until we were driving on Monday and THE BRAKES STOPPED WORKING altogether! Thankfully we were able to avoid an accident, but we knew at that point that something was seriously wrong with the new «top of the line» brakes we had just shelled out $ 600.00 for.
My boyfriend took it back in to Midas on Tuesday morning and asked them to look at it. They said that the master cylinder had gone bad and he needed to replace it for $ 450.00. They took zero responsibility for the incident as if it was a huge coincidence that the brakes suddenly stopped working after a full service that they did. I told my boyfriend to hold off and did a little research. I found that others have had similar problems and many mechanics suggested that it could have something to do with not properly bleeding the brakes or adjusting the calibers or brake boots/​shoes at the time of service. I didn’t know what any of that meant, but I felt it was worth it to get a second opinion.
My boyfriend then took it to the Brake Masters who then confirmed my suspicions and said that the brakes had not been installed properly. They bled the brakes and adjusted the calibers and brake boots/​shoes for $ 69.00 — the master cylinder was fine and did not need replacing. We felt totally robbed by Midas but relieved that the Brake Masters were able to solve the problem for significantly less.
Don’t go to Midas unless you have a death wish. If you do find yourself there, at least get a second opinion if they try to quote you on a large service that you «need.»

Changed my oil and barely put the cap back on, I noticed something fly off and ding my car on the freeway. Got to my destination and noticed my oil drained all over the bottom of my car and the engine may have seized if I hadn’t noticed, bought more oil and a new cap.

Bait and switch pricing. They advertise the «Midas Touch Oil Change» for $ 24.99 online but I walked in and was told a basic oil change for a Honda Civic was going to be $ 49.99. What a bunch of BS.

Please be careful coming to this location or even considering it. We took a vehicle in to have it «looked at» Aside from the price of just «looking at it» at 900 bucks, the supervisor wanted the money in «CASH». The transaction was handled «Shady» to me because we asked to pay with a credit card, but he kept insisting cash. Another thing is the staff is extremely pushy and when you ask for something they dismiss the request and basically tell you what they are going to do. If you DO go there, make sure you SIGN everything and read each document. The documents we were given to sign, were never copied and/​or returned to us. It all seems like some odd scam. I am not writing this out of spite, but instead just to warn others,. search for other repair centers in the area instead. Or better yet, before you go, call MIDAS CORPORATE OFFICE (1−800−621−8545)
and make them aware you are considering this shop but that you would like further
investigations in the way they do business.

I’m very upset and disappointed with this store on (MIDAS AUTO SERVICE EXPERTS, 3949 East Main Street, Ventura, CA, 93 003) and people who work there do not have a clue what they were doing, the person started working on my car even before the owner told me about the cost of everything, they replaced brand new radiator that had been replaced 6 month ago, overcharged me with service for replacing most expensive radiator, after replacing radiator my A/​C stop working in my car, I came back next day, the owner refused to fix it A/​C in my car, because he said that my A/​C was broken before, which it was working fine before I brought my car to the store. He was talking to me disrespectfully and very rude. I walked out in tears, and hopeless, that the owner took advantage of me not knowing about the cars.

In this economy, no business can afford to piss people off… Take your hard-​earned $ somewhere else…
My ’97 Honda Civic needed a new muffler… but they tried to upsell me on a new exhaust system to the tune of $ 700.00!
Now I’m no girl-​mechanic, but all them’s pipes looked good to me, and if I look you in the eye and ask you if it’s going to be a road hazard if I don’t replace all those extra *rusty* pipes, I expect an honest answer… not the run-​around…
Did my research online and I knew how much, how long it would take to fix it etc… After quoting 2 hours, 3 ½ hours… having my car for more than 7 HOURS, many phone calls regarding when I could expect my car to be done, excuses about how they had to go pick up my part, (HELLO, you are a MUFFLER shop and you don’t carry a muffler to fit my car?!!)…amazing when your husband shows up at the shop after a hard day at work your car is going to be done in 15 minutes…
Guys, you SERIOUSLY screwed with my Wednesday afternoon grocery store schedule…

I called this Midas to get a price for an oil change. The man that answered the phone, michael or marco i couldnt understand what he said, spoke very fast and said «thanks
For calling midas can you hold? Thanks» he did not wait for me to answer and just put me on hold. I was on hold for 2 minutes. He came back on the phone and said «thanks for holding whats your question» i asked him how much an oil change was and he said «forty bucks, anything else?»
RUDE

They are friendly and knowledgeable and very reasonably priced. However, I find them to be rather slow. It’s good if you don’t have any place to be that requires a car, but if you drive a lot or long distance they are too slow.

***Update, 3/1/13…the District Manager called me after I contacted Corporate on Tuesday, 2÷26÷13. His name is Amos and not interested in customer service or the fact that his mechanic was creating and diagnosing non-​existent car troubles. AND he too was still attempting to create a certain amount of paranoia in me by stating, «replace the bolt». My question Amos, why are you telling me to replace the steering coupler bolt when your mechanic said it couldn’t be done? I am no fool and you didn’t get my money. Patrons beware!
I too would give them a 0 if I could! on 2÷19÷13 I wanted to take advantage of the 24.99 oil/​filter change. That was all I needed to get done to hit the road; simple and to the point. I maintain my car impeccably. While sitting in the lobby waiting for my car to be done, I had a conversation on the phone explaining to my brother (who is a former mechanic) some idling issues I had wondering if he had an idea. As soon as I got off the phone, Marco Mancilla (Manager) pulled me into the bay, took me under my car and showed me the Steering Coupler. It had a bolt missing. I told him to put in another bolt and he stated he couldn’t (all the while using my conversation against me, stating my idle issues are because of the steering coupler which is complete hogwash). The whole mechanism needed to be replaced and adding insult to injury, my 14 month old battery was bad. He told me I couldn’t drive my car knowing full well I was taking a trip to cen Cal in a day or so. He said if I turned right or left, my steering would get stuck.
Thinking this was fishy, I went across the street to Big Brand Tires. They not only jacked up my car and put said bolt in there (Marco said it couldn’t be done), they didn’t even charge me. They also tested my battery and it was fine!!! Again, didn’t charge me.
Initially Marco gave me an amount of almost 800 dollars just for the steering coupler. I told him I would have to get a small loan to get my car fixed and I put my banker on notice. This did not phase his lying ways…
When I got to Cen Cal, I took my car to my trusted mechanic of 10 years who double checked Big Brand Tire’s work and said that it was just fine, I was to not fear my ability to drive, and my battery was fine. Midas, and Marco, just tried to take my hard earned money with interest! I white knuckled it all the way to Cen Cal over the Grapevine due to snow and crazy cross winds; pissed knowing now that I was paranoid and afraid to drive my car even though there was NOTHING wrong with it!
I was even told by both mechanics they probably didn’t even change my oil! What a reputation! Take advantage of a naïve customer, I think not! He did give me a minor heart attack though and one I have contacted Midas Corp. about.

NEVER EVER going back. I am a woman and I hardly EVER take my car to someone I don’t know especially to do something as simple as an oil change, since I usually do them myself unless I’m under a time crunch. Well I took it in to Midas for a change and rotation, got home and realized they didn’t even do a rotation. Then recently I crawled under my car to change my own oil like I usually do and who ever it was that did it last time there obviously didn’t know how to tighten the drain plug right. Thanks to them I had to not only get a new plug but when I tried to take off the old one I broke 2 socket extenders and a socket itself which caused the plug to get stripped. So thank you for making sure your staff is not well educated and an even bigger thanks for making me spend more money to fix the problem.

A car repair shop is like a black box. It is unlikely that you will sit and watch what is done to your car. It isn’t even really safe to hang out in a car shop and eyeball the mechanics as they work on your car. But that is what you need to do at Ventura Midas. Trusting these folks to do honest work on real problems has put me in a world of trouble. They are virtually denying having screwed up systems in my car for which I have bills from them for repair. Mistakes, understandable. Possibly ok if you’re willing to fix what you’ve messed up. Outright lies and incompetence?, not ok.
They couldn’t figure out how to make the muffler work that for some reason blew out twice. This is their specialty though right? So they launched into repairs on a sequence of other «problems» that did not seem to have been there before. This shop made mistakes on my car they could not fix, hid their incompetence with claims that I needed additional repairs on things that had not previously been broken, lied about what was really going on, and ultimately sent it to an outside mechanic to repair their errors. And somehow I have to pay for all this.
It would be simple for them to take responsibility for what they did to my car, but apparently that’s bad business.

If I could give this place a ZERO I would.
I called on the weekend to make an appointment. They had no openings so I booked Monday @ 4:00 PM. We arrived 5 – 10 minutes early.
We drove up. A boxy older model Japanese white car was just leaving. The only other car was a van and it was in the far right bay.
We asked how long (since we had an appointment) until our car will be ready. When checking the make & model information, a female employee (his boss?) came out and checked things out. The employee, Marco, returned and said it would take 45 minutes. He also leaned in and told me quietly that I don’t need the free tire rotation as my good tires were on the back. He went on to explain quietly that you need your best tires, in the rear, for traction. We haven’t had our tires rotated in a year. But I said OK. My husband thought that 45 minutes was long. We decided to cross the street and have an early dinner at Toppers. We asked the employees where the crosswalk was. They pointed it out and off we were.
We came back at 4:45. We saw that our car was JUST being driven to the bay. REALLY??? We told «Marco» that this was completely unacceptable. We made an appointment, we gave our phone number if there were any concerns and we even TOLD them we would be waiting at Topper’s and WE WOULD RETURN AT 4:45!!!
He said that the bay wasn’t available as they didn’t have the correct oil filter for the car in that (left) bay. (The bay he had pulled our car into was the empty one that I had watched the white car leave earlier in this post.) Ohh. I was mad!!! Don’t lie to me. I asked twice, «Why didn’t you call us???» NO RESPONSE.
He said he could do the oil change & filter change in 10 minutes. Seriously??? Why tell us 45 minutes if we could have done this in 10 minutes.
The female employee popped her head out of her office but did not intervene. (If she is management, then that is really pathetic and extremely unprofessional.)
NO APOLOGIES! EXCUSES! LIES! EXCUSES! UNDEPENDABLE!
Just say NO to Midas!
We will NEVER EVER take our business to Midas.
We are also contacting Better Business Bureau. That number is (805) 963‑8657

I had my car’s 2^nd oil change done yesterday at Midas. Vista Honda wanted $ 79.95 including tire rotation. Midas’ price? $ 19.95 with coupon from Vons.
Steve was very friendly and professional — it was a smooth, pleasant transaction and it was done very quickly.