Sears Auto Center

I live out of town and was looking to buy a used car. I took it to Sears to have them take a look. They told me that it was in good shape, the tires might need replacing soon but overall it was fine. I bought the car, took it to my regular mechanic, and not only were the tires dangerous to drive but it needed struts too. $ 1600 in repairs! A good mechanic would have spotted these problems. These are not good mechanics.

Poor service all around. I came in for an oil change and a balance and rotate. They put it on an alignment diagnostic and talked me into an alignment. During the service they sheared off a stud which was no big deal b/​c they offered to fix it for free if I came back in a day or two because it was late in the day and they couldn’t get the part. I dropped it off again and when I came back to pick it up they had done another alignment diagnostic which showed virtually the same results as the first time around. I was told that the shop would not be able to do the work within the last hour that they were open. Worse yet, there was not a manager in the store who could approve a refund on the service b/​c the automotive manager doesn’t work on Sunday and the MOD works in the rest of the store which is «separate» from automotive. Neither the guy behind the counter nor the MOD were empowered to make it right. They did not accept the accountability for the poor service that I received. The automotive guy actually said something to the effect of: «I don’t do the work so, it is not my fault». They offered to stay late to get it done but, whether they fix it or not, they won’t see me again.

Oh, Sears. Our Toyota did not come from the factory with a cabin air filter. It had a slightly funky smell through the air vents so we inquired at the Sears Auto Center about having one installed. I have no idea why I didn’t just do it myself and the reason we were at Sears was because my better half had good experiences there in the past.
A few months later while the car was getting an oil change at a different shop, a service technician walked in to the waiting area with what looked to be a folded up industrial sized HEPA filter. It turns out that Sears had taken a filter for a different car (or a home) and folded it up and jammed it in to make it fit.
If you didn’t have one, just tell me. Why take the wrong part and wedge it in there? That’s kind of shocking if you look at the big picture. Sure, it didn’t hurt anyone or anything, but if they’re willing to shortcut and hide an air filter, what else will they shortcut?
*Edit* on 04 August 2012
The service manager contacted me after posting the review and offered to replace the filter and compensate us if there was a mistake or bad judgment by a technician. It’s good to know that they read this and reach out to correct mistakes. Perhaps we were just unlucky as the manager seems to be pretty on top of things.