Cinderella Carriage Company

Dear me, I wasn’t sure they were still in business but after so long maybe they really have closed.
I brought an old volvo here to be tuned up on the advice of a volvo mechanic in Maine and whoa! I was very young and inexperienced but they had me sign a release of work and when I came downstairs to get the car they had charged me three times the normal price and the car drove wonky all the way home. I had to have my brother in Amesbury come down and fix it for me because the distributor cap was loose and the rotator pins weren’t firing quite right. Reading the comment below, it wasn’t much different from her experience only I was able to get the car home eventually.
As a young kid they took me to the cleaners and laughed about it and I didn’t know how to really stand up to that. That was a long time ago but I never forgot it, it taught me what to look for in a shop and how to avoid that in the future. And — it taught me to really appreciate those good mechanics who do help you for a fair price. It was a good early lesson.

This place is now closed. Although expensive, they were convenient and fair.

cinderella carriage is amazing for 3 reasons:
1) they do excellent work – i have a 91 volvo wagon and they know pretty much all there is to know about old volvos. they’re fast, flexible with scheduling, and honest. i am a 20-​something woman, but i never felt like i was getting shoddy service or treated like i didn’t know anything about cars just because i’m a girl (and that has happened elsewhere!)
2) their receptionist, tracy, is super friendly and helpful. when i had my car towed to cinderella carriage from the cape, tracy called me AND my parents to let us know that my car had arrived safe and sound!
3) today, the aforementioned receptionist called to let me know that if i was going to pick my car up tonight, they were going to put bread in it – apparently, a guy from iggy’s bakery dropped off a ton of bread and cinderella carriage was generous enough to share! a mechanic who fills my car with freshly baked bread – if that’s not love, i don’t know what is!
i will say that their prices are a bit high, but i honestly think it’s worth it because i know i can trust the mechanics there and that they’ll treat my car well. also, the garage is in walking distance of my office – how convenient!

I’ve been to Cinderella Carriage twice. The first time the service was fine, except that they accidentally damaged my coolant reservoir during the repair process and I ended up leaking so much coolant while driving home that I had to call AAA and get towed back to Cinderella. Fortunately they fixed the problem and didn’t charge me anything extra. I thought they were a bit on the pricey side, but that is to be expected where Volvo repairs are concerned.
My second (and last) visit was a different story. I dropped off my car because the «check engine» light came on and it was handling a bit rough. After an evaluation, Cinderella Carriage called to tell me that the repairs would be $ 2700 for a new turbo engine– too pricey for me to justify given the car’s age, so I told them not to do the repairs as I would be buying a new car.
When I picked up the car, I was presented with a bill in excess of the amount I’d been quoted over the phone (for labor/​diagnostics). Turns out, they’d done an oil change on the car before determining that it would need an engine replaced. I was not pleased, as I had not requested an oil change up front and was not due for one. They said it was part of the «diagnostic process» and since i don’t know a lot about cars, I decided to take their word for it, although I found it a bit misleading of them to surprise me with it when I was paying.
As soon as I’d gotten back on Alewife Brook Parkway, I realized that my car was barely drivable. It was handling far worse than it had when I’d dropped it off, and I was unable to accelerate. I spotted a gas station close by and decided I’d just pull in because I knew I was putting myself in danger in this car (I nearly got hit twice since I was forced to drive at a very low speed and couldn’t get out of anyone’s way). But before I made it to the gas station, my car died in the middle of the lane during rush hour.
I called Cinderella Carriage back to explain what happened. The manager said, «After you left, the mechanic came in and asked if you’d picked up your car yet. I told him you had, and he said, «oh, that car is in horrible shape!» I was livid. I explained that I easily could have been injured (or worse) given that I had barely any control over my car, and that I certainly would not have tried to drive home if I’d been told that my car was in such «horrible» shape. I couldn’t believe that they’d let me get in a car that was unsafe and told them that their appalling lack of communication with their own mechanics was unacceptable. It is not wise to gamble with customers’ safety, and that is exactly what they did with me.
Ultimately, they refunded the full amount of what I had paid for diagnostics and labor and I certainly appreciated that, but I had to fight for it. They apologized for the «inconvenience,» which I thought was insulting… they put my safety in danger, and call it a mere «inconvenience?»
Please do not take your car here, it is not worth the safety risk.

I’ve been going to this Volvo repair shop for four or five years.
It’s very difficult for me to evaluate auto service, because I don’t know that much about cars.
But today I took my car in because the tire guy pointed out a problem with the rear break.
Cinderella Carriage said there was also a problem with the front brakes, which would cost $ 600 to fix. We discussed the problem a little, and I said that they had fixed the brakes last time. Anyway, Cinderella Carriage fixed my front brakes for free, waiving the $ 600 charge, because they guarantee their own work for a year.
I actually offered to pay because it sounded like the problem was not really their fault, but they refused and fixed it for no charge.