Sears Auto Center

absolutely terrible. completely unqualifed people. we had new tires purchased and front end alignment. Currently, the car shakes due to improper balancing. we brought it back and they said it was fixed. Then we find out it is still messed up and we have to pay a qualified mechanic to fix it for us. They offer no refund or anything. Terrible place. NEVER GO HERE.

Sears Auto Center was horrible!
Service needed: Front two tire changed
I made an appointment for 9am today. I went to the center at 8:50. Was asked if I wanted an alignment done as well. I said yes. I was told that it would take an hour and a half, which was fine.
I went into the mall to get food and kill time.. around 10:30 I went back to the auto waiting area. There were three other customers waiting.. .And they were NOT happy. Their cars were no where being done, even though they were told they would be. So I thought to myself, I’ll be a little more patient and give them about 15 – 20 minutes before going to ask them how much longer.
Then when I didn’t hear anything after, I went outside and was told it would take ANOTHER hour and a half!
Then around 11:45 I went back out since I saw the car lifted and no one working on it.. a mechanic comes around asking if it is my car. Proceeds to tell me that the back two tires needed to be changed (which they don’t) because they were making a lot of noise.. .If they really looked at it, they would know its the brakes in the back that need work. So I told him no, I need to go to work. He then asks me about the alignment because he didn’t do it because the other tires needed to be changed and that no one (meaning the owner of the car) came out to the car to check.
Just makes no sense.

God awful service. Never bring your vehicle to this location in Gaithersburg. Made a reservation for service and couldn’t even get into the bay until 45 minutes later. Service reps arguing with their supervisor right in front of customers. Simple service takes 4 hours even with an appointment.
Corporate needs to better oversight at this location.

Avoid this so called auto center! I don’t just give one star reviews easily, so here goes my first one star review, which means the service had to have been very bad. I brought my car in on a Saturday, I was asked if I had an appointment.
No, I replied. Employee said, no problem we will still work on your car. All I needed was an alignment and quotes for other repairs that I might want to get done at a later time. So, I was told that it might be 2 – 3 hours, okay I can manage that. I can go in the mall and pamper myself at the nail place. They told me that they will text me or call me to let me know how things are going. 3 hours go by, nothing. 4pm comes nothing.
I called and I check on my car and they tell me that my car hasn’t been touched. In fact, I walk over back to auto place to see this female manager and tells me that only the top technicians can only alignments?!
What?! Top notch tech? So the rest are crap? Is what your saying? To top it off and to further piss me off she has the nerve to tell me that there are still 2 cars ahead of me?! So I was promised a time and then they tell me that the cars with appointments have priority. Wowzers, I wish I knew that before handing my keys over. Then, I was told okay my car is next. Then she continued to bs me that I never handed over my wheel lock keys when it was in my glove compartment. Then, she says OHHHHHH!
An alignment doesn’t take half a day to do. 4:30 comes and I get a call. It’s her! The manager, she tells me that they can’t work on my car because of one of my tires is a spare but it’s a full size spare and the wheel cover was in the trunk. Something that I had never heard of before since it all seemed like bs to me. I go to the auto center and speak with the manager, at this point I was pissed off. I saw my car in the last bay. What’s my car doing in the last bay if the alignment machine is in the front?! Then the manager had the nerve to say that the employee who wrote my ticket should had never take in anymore walk-​ins. Wow 5 hours later, thank you for being so thoughtful to let me know.
I was like enough with the bs just bring my car around and that’s it, she then was apologic and asked for me to make an appointment and to give them another chance, I said no thanks, just bring my car around, so I can go, she then said no please give us another chance? She then said, I’ll give you a free oil change, I was like really? I said my car can only have synthetic oil changes though, she the was like oh, we’ll how about $ 20 off? I said no thanks. Bottom line, is that you need an appointment, if you do a walk in your are wasting your time and the employees here definitely lack customer service skills. I took my car elsewhere to have it aligned and I was in and out within the hour with no bs.
Avoid this place especially IF you have no appointment!

Horrible place. Sat for two hours for them to tell me that they couldn’t do the oil change because the oil levels were too low. That is why the car was brought in so you could add oil. I’ve never in my life heard of this and my dad is a mechanic.

Apparently they only do oil changes by appointment now. After the women asked me if I had an appointment (I said no), she made me wait in line for 30 minutes only to tell me she couldn’t help me and I have to come back in two days. Find a different place, customer service is terrible!

An oil change at Sears? Why not! You can call for an appointment and it only cost $ 18.99. Not too shabby.
I called early in the morning and even though Sears was not open yet, the auto center was. I set my appointment for the next day because the rest of the day was booked. I took the last appointment of the day which was 5pm.
I cannot say enough nice things about my experience and Usman.
When I arrived, the auto center was busy. He asked what I needed and when I told him I had an appointment for an oil change, he told me there were two other people ahead of me, but he would be right with me. He was swamped and then the phone rang. He expertly juggled everyone and was even polite on the phone. In no time at all it was my turn.
I about had a heart attack when he told me the wait was going to be 90 minutes.
Turns out, it is a skeleton crew in the evening. There were a few other people ahead of me so I really didn’t have much of a choice. My problem was I had made 6:30 dinner reservations in North Bethesda.
When I called my friend to see if we could switch it, Usman overhead and he did everything he could to get me out of there faster.
Sears does a free systems diagnostic. It was kind of neat to see how warn my brand new tires were. There was also a color diagram showing me how badly the alignment on my car was. They have different plans for alignment… I think it was $ 65 for 6 months to $ 120 for 3years. With potholes beating up my car, I am definitely going back to get the 3 year plan!
Even with the long line of people ahead of me getting alignments and major work done, I was still out of there is less than an hour. Sure, it was not as fast as one of those jiffy places and it wasn’t free like when I get work done at the dealership (bat your eyes, smile and ask them to throw in a free oil change and they always agree), but it was a good value. I drive one of those Japanese SUVs and rarely am I in the shop so 19 bucks is a good deal!
I never felt pressured to buy anything I didn’t need and I received service with a smile.
Plus, I made my dinner reservation… Thanks, Usman!

Okay so I consider myself lucky because I had stellar service from the get go. A big plus is that they are open on holy Sunday. A million thank yous for that. I call and make an appointment because I know it will be busy. Phone dude was cool. Didn’t rush to get me off the phone. I go there and there is a sea of dirty cars ahead of me. I sat in the one car lane that takes you into the car bay for 25 minutes. But each time I dealt with courteous employees … So I needed tires and other stuff… It was a 2 hour wait. I ain’t complaining … Open on a Sunday and just two hours. Okay! They even send u texts to let you know ur car is ready. The tires are pricey but you get quality service here unlike Walmart where they damage cars and the wait times are like **** at least I know that there are true ASE certified mechanics working on my car which is backed by a warranty. It would have been five stars but there system of getting you kinda sucks.

I went to this location with my daughter about 2:30 pm on ⁶⁄₂₀ to purchase 4 new tires and a battery. I had already read the reviews on Unilocal and both of us were apprehensive about going ahead but we were already there so decided to pursue. You just sort of have to know no one will wait on you inside the store. We were directed to the garage area by who appeared to be a car rental agent and shares the same space.
Once in the garage I saw several mechanics working on vehicles and saw who appeared to be the garage manager about 20 feet away finalizing a transaction with another customer. After the customer left we continued to wait inside the marked area. No one acknowledged our presence. I could see the woman/​apparent garage manager so I know she could see me but chose not to speak to me. Then I saw her get on her cell phone. Finally a gentleman approached us from the far side of the garage. Just as he asked if he could help us and my daughter started to answer, the woman/​apparent garage manager with poor vision interrupted and told the man to take some thing somewhere. He took whatever it was from her and excused himself, but that was the deal breaker. My daughter decided some one else would surely want to sell her 4 tires and a battery so we started to leave. The gentleman met us on our way out, asked what we needed and I told him 4 tires and a battery, just not from there.

What a ripoff!
Took our car as air conditioner was not cooling, the foreman at Sears assured us that they will perform a leak test, fix it and then refill with gas. Foreman also assured us all works have a warranty of 6 months and if anything happens just come by and they will take care of it. We paid $ 124.99 for this.
Well, weather has been great for 3 weeks after that so we did not use airconditioner till late last week when we found out that the airconditioner was not cooling, so we were not worried as we have a warranty, right?
So we went by the same Sears shop less than a month since they performed what is supposed to be warranted for 6 months and were shocked by the foreman response as soon as we showed him their invoice carrying the warranty, «We can not fix everything, you need to take your car to the agency! our technician is not in now, come back in the afternoon but we do not think he can fix it you better go to the agency!» and similar excuses.
When we came back in the afternoon, same foreman said to come back tomorrow morning as tech is not there now.
We and you we think got the message, Sears had no intention to honor their warranty.
Why did Sears assured us of a) No leaks found, when evidently there was. b) having a warranty when they are trained what to say to not honor it.
Save yourselves the hussle, heartache and money, do not bother with Sears so called Auto Centers.

Found a nail in my tire that was really making it low Sunday afternoon. This was the only place I could find that could patch it before closing.
They patched the tire fine but the serviceman wanted to switch out the spare, which was a better tire but on a different kind of rim from the others. In the process of removing the spare from the rim, the technician ripped a hole in the sidewall, making it useless. So now I have to find another spare tire.