Sears Auto Center

Wonderful Experience!!! I called this location to inquire about an Oil Change Special they were having and also to price two tires for my wife’s Honda. The person that answered the phone was «Robert» and he was pleasant and answered all my questions professionally. He gave me a quote on the two tires and it was exactly the same amount as a quote I received from a competitor which I had bought tires from before. I had never had any service done to any of my vehicles at a Sears Auto Center before, but Robert was pleasant to deal with when I met him in person and also over the phone. He wrote up the work order and told me it would be about an hour and half, (a reasonable time for installing two tires, balancing them, and doing an oil change). After I signed the work order, this was a «Go Sign» for my wife to start shopping at the K Mart, the Auto Center was attached to. Lucky I was there to rein her in because she can find things to buy even in a cart full of «Go Backs»!!! We received a call from the Auto Center, (about an hour… not 1 ½ hrs. as estimated) just as we were in line paying for my wife’s purchases. The Auto Center payment process was made much more enjoyable by the lady who handled our check out. She was a pleasure to talk to and made us feel like honored long time customers. I would recommend this center to all who read this and tell everyone that the service couldn’t have been better.
***** To everyone that reads this review… you will see other reviews below that are not complimentary or typical of the experience I had here yesterday. Please note the 2012, 2013, & 2014 dates on these bad reviews. They DO NOT reflect the current service and quality standards that you will receive if you choose to come here for your auto needs. *****
I was very impressed which isn’t easy to do!!!
Larry

Needed new tires, alignment and oil change. They were actually having a special where you buy three tires and get the third tire free. I’m very happy with the service I received. It took them one hour and 40 minutes to complete the job as he originally quotes me two hours. My steering wheel no longer shakes when I’m driving over 80. Yes, I know the speed limit but that’s why it’s called a freeway. Lol I’ll be back.

Only reason I’ll do business here is because I have a commercial account. But for anybody that hasn’t been here before, don’t expect friendly service. Older lady with curly hair talks to me in a condescending manner and shows no patience for any questions I have. She dreads her job and shows it to the customers.

Ask for Nataly. Best Sears Auto Center in Los Angeles. If they don’t have what you need, they’ll find it and get if for you. Natalie, Assistant Manager — great customer service… the best.

Avoid this place! Very high prices along with rude and unprofessional personnel!

Go somewhere else. The prices are ridiculous. Service is horrible. And atmosphere is not welcoming.
We arrived and the lady told us to walk around the store for 30 minutes and they will look and give us an estimate. We came back after 30 minutes and they hadn’t moved the car. We sit in front of them hoping they would feel more obligated to help us. We waited another 45 minutes to find out the work we would need would now be $ 800. No thanks well take our service else where. Okay give us ten minutes to put everything back together… 20 minutes later they are still charging us for estimating the cost? Okay well pay we just want to leave…
As we walked around while waiting– the store was a mess everything seemed cheap or sketchy and nothing was in the right place. I picked up a few different items that I was going to buy but when I looked further at the price tags none of them matched the price below it. Things were all stacked in front of the cheapest price tags so you didn’t know till you checked out they were ripping you off. We ended up buying milk duds (hard to go wrong with candy) yet they were old and hard. Ugh
we circled the store a few times and went back. Sitting there we witnessed them realize they forgot to put the spare tire back into a ladies car. Another two people came and left ahead of us with larger problems then we were having checked. The guy helping us– Riley seemed not to care about his job, customers or work– that’s probably why it took so long and labor would be costing us $ 375. A lady walked up and asked him where something was. He said they don’t have any and after she walked away mumbled under his breath that he didn’t really care that’s not his store. I made a comment that I remembered seeing what she was looking for when we were walking around. She came back two minutes later holding what she was looking for to let him know for the next person that asks. He smirked and said again that he wasn’t concerned because it wasn’t his store. Sears– hire people that care or are willing to help please! Don’t waste our time or the next persons time. Don’t charge rediculous prices for things that aren’t good quality. Don’t be connected to a Kmart store if you aren’t willing to help kmart guests. If you are going to act like you don’t care about kmart guests don’t send us to the kmart register to pay after you just wasted our time and money acting like we were YOUR Sears customer.
Not satisfied. Not going back.

Took in my car pretty fast without an appointment and were very polite. I suggest purchasing the 3 year warranty with your tires, really makes a difference in case of an emergency and you just bought your tires (warranty/​prorated discount depends on the tread ware of your tire). Ran over something yesterday and shredded my front passenger tire. With the warranty, I paid $ 76 (usually around $ 100 with installation fees etc.) to replace it plus they checked up on my car for me. Only downside is there is two guys working the shop so I have to wait an hour, oh well. Thanks! :)

I printed out a coupon for a free tire rotation. I was told it would take anywhere between 2 to 4 hours. They said that they only had one mechanic, and that was the anticipated time. I know that they were trying to dissuade me from my free rotation, and so I waited. They don’t have a real waiting room, just a few chairs in the store, near the garage. When the 2 hour time limit approached, I got up to check on the progress on my vehicle. A employee noticed me getting up, and as I passed him, heading towards the door he said, «Sir». I walked outside, and I noticed that my vehicle had been moved, as a sign that the work had been completed. I didn’t realize that he was addressing me, until I sat back down. And then he said, «Sir your vehicle is ready!» I assume that they did the work but yet not certain as I did see my vehicle on the hoist. I see the demise of Sears, ever since it acquired Kmart. It was once the largest department store back in its hey day. Oh and one more thing, I thought that they might have been sincere when they say” Thanks for calling Sears Auto Center, how can I earn your business? They can start by actually trying to earn my business, and not use it as a sales ploy.

I have to break up this review into two pieces:
First, the service was great, very helpful, ran all these tests on my battery and pro-​rated the discount on my old (bad) battery. I would have given 4 – 5 stars if not for the next point.
Second, within 8 hours of leaving this location, my bank called to report credit card activity, there were over half a dozen fraudulent charges and the adjacent Kmart and other stores, gas stations, etc. Someone at this place stole my credit card information and in addition to my bank’s investigation, I’m going to report it to law enforcement. Just be careful.

Cars in Los Angeles are essential. If you are car-​less in LA, you are useless! And those of you that are not useless, you are lucky enough to have a chauffeur or you have downloaded the Metro bus schedule into your brain.
Sears auto is my trusted place other than my car dealer’s service department.
I saved money at Sears in my TUNE-​UP and got everything checked, replaced and updated. My car came home happy. I set aside a full day for this tune up and expected it to run like new (as new as a 7 year old car could run). I wanted good service and I didn’t want it rushed. Sears delivered.
Bottom line: Great and patient manager. Honest and hardworking team.
Tip: A well maintained car is a dependable car.
Get your oil changes regularly and check your tires and never drive on empty!

This auto center was pretty good.
The manager was very nice, explained everything in detail.
Didn’t try to up sell me, which I really appreciated.

I WISH I COULD GIVE THIS PLACE LESS STARS. These people ruined my day, car, and faith in humanity.
This was the worst experience I could ever have at any place. First they made me pay for a replacement tire before even looking at it. Then, they looked at the tire and said that it could be fixed, wait an hour. I WALK AROUND THE KMART FOR AN HOUR, they need another hour, I walk around for another hour, I come back, and they tell me the tire can’t be repaired. They need to order the tire. OKAY. FINE. Lie to me once, shame on me.
They «order» the tire. I call the next day to check the status, THEY DIDN’T ORDER IT, but they said they did. I call the other store to make sure, and there was no record of an order. I call NOHO Sears back, they say: oh, that tire doesn’t exist. Let me «text» the person you were dealing with yesterday. WHAT?! WHY DID YOU TELL ME THAT YOU ORDERED IT, IF IT DOESN’T EXIST? They text the salesman, I call back, they tell me «they can’t repair my tire». I KNOW THAT. WE HAVE MOVED BEYOND THAT, NOHO SEARS.
I call the store that they «ordered» my tire from, they’re like oh yeah, we have SEVEN of apparently NONEXISTENT tires (which, by the way, was another lie). I don’t know if I have ever spoken to more incompetent people in my entire life. Robert, Jimmy, the whole freaking lot of them. Good thing Sears is going out of business.

I wish I could give them worse than one star. Manager was RUDE (Robert), employees were rude. It is obvious why this store has such a poor Unilocal ranking. Sears natinoal call center was very nice to me, but I would go to any other sears. F-​. I would not send my worse enemy to this store.

First I’d like to say I am not one to write reviews (positive or negative). But my experience as this place has been so terrible I must slander them. I was going to write something 3 months ago when they really F*cked me over but decided not to. Just had another incidence so I’ll explain both. I wish that I could give zero stars because this is by far the worst automotive place I’ve ever been to. Someone should be ashamed that they are under the name Sears.
I was there a couple months ago to replace a flat tire (my tires are insured through Sears), I went here before and didn’t love it, however, it’s the closest Sears to me and I didn’t want to drive too far on my donut. While I was there I needed my oil changed as well, so I asked if they could do it while they replaced the tire. I then proceed to walk around the trashy attached Kmart wasting over an hour of time. I go back to check on the progress and they told me the oil change was done but they did not have the tire I needed in stock and they could do it tomorrow morning. Naturally I was fuming because 1. I couldn’t come back in the morning (had to be done that day) and 2. they didn’t bother to call or page me over the intercom to inform me right away that they couldn’t fix the tire. The associate was a bumbling idiot and didn’t apologize. He also offered to comp the oil change they had just done but then said he couldn’t according to his manager. I asked him to call the Northridge store so they knew I was coming and didn’t close before I got there as it was 6:30 on a week day. He said he did. I had to haul A** over to the Northridge Sears (on my already quite used donut) to get the tire fixed. When I got to there luckily they were still open because I made good time but they had no idea I was coming. No one called them from the North Hollywood store. I told them what happened and they informed me how many complaints they get about that store. They were helpful and nice and got the tire changed quick!
When I submit a complaint to the manager he made a lot of excuses but offered me a couple free services including an oil change.
Now here we are yesterday, I needed my oil changed and am tight on money. I also wanted to at least get something free for my troubles but dreaded going back to this Sears. I sucked it up and went. They had one technician on hand… but they were not busy. All I was getting was an oil change and fluids topped off. This took them an hour and a half!!!
My advice is to avoid this place like the plague. I know it is further away but the Northridge Sears is 100% better and nicer (that is if you want to go to Sears). They know what they’re doing and they are much quicker.

Two words to describe this place: Total Incompetence! everything everyone else has said is true… Bad management, rude tech, understaffed. I went it to get a new battery and over an hour later I had to buy a wrench from K-​mart and install it myself. Yes, the rude sob of a tech wouldn’t even loan me a wrench to do the work myself!!! In the end I would have to say that the store manager should probably be fired. Also at the same time I was having issues there were to other customers arguing w/​the sales associate or trying to rundown the missing manager. What a load of bs, go to Costco for tires or battery this place is a joke!

If I could assign this place NO stars, I would, in a heartbeat. They were so rude to my mom that I’ve decided I will never take my car to Sears auto North Hollywood. My mom has been a Sears customer for over 30 years and it’s usually her go to place for auto work, but no more. She has a Mazda 3 and had taken it in because her tire was low. Turns out she had 3 nails in the thread, but not in the sidewall. Now it’s understandable that it may not be able to be fixed, but the guy was so unhelpful and condescending to her that she called me upset because they told her she had to buy a new tire, period. I understood, she may need a new tire. But what made it worse is when she called me I could hear the guy talking in the background, clear as day, to her. I asked her to ask him exactly where were the nails, and he answered back that it didn’t matter. Giving him credit, he was following Sears policy, although it’s a policy neither she, nor myself or friends that were with me, had heard of: they do not repair tires with 3 nails in it, it’s an automatic new tire. A couple of more questions and going backs with the guy, I couldn’t believe he was talking to her like that. She is a long standing Sears customer, number one. Number two, she is an older woman who has questions, if you’re in a service job, then provide good service and help a customer’s confusion and answer her damn questions. I get it if my mom was being «demanding», but that was not the case here.
I asked her to put the guy on the phone and she said, «he just walked away». I told her to find someone, ask them for her car back, and go to the place I had gone for my tires. She was nervous at this point, but found a guy who was willing to talk to me. Turns out it was the manager. I told him how long my mom had been a customer of Sears, not that it should matter as ALL customers should be treated fairly and with respect, and he said he had seen that. He also said he had overheard how the employee had spoken to my mom and was apologetic and that he would be talking to the employee about it. I told him that if you decide to take a job dealing with customers, then customer service is also part of your job, period. At least fake it if you have to. But get annoyed or defensive over the first question a customer asks.
Long story short, they gave her the car back. She took it to America’s Tire in NoHo on Lankershim (5 stars!) and they were able to take care of the 3 nails. Only two really were needing patching as the 3^rd had not penetrated through. Best part, for free!
Sears North Hollywood on Sherman Way gets 1 star for their ridiculous customer interaction by the one employee. And their policy regarding patching tires.

If you need tires, please do not go there! I had a horrible experience and the manager at this store is not helpful. They are understaffed and you will wait a long time, guaranteed! I had an issue with my tires as they gave me the wrong ones the first go around. After they were replaced, the ones they put on were correct, however, they were poor quality and I felt every bump in the road. The Goodyear tires they put on were not cheap, however they were poor quality.
I attempted to explain this to the store manager and even tried taking it higher and when I spoke to Sears company dispute area, a gentleman hung up on me after telling me it was too bad that my tires were not right and they were not going to do anything about it. I was in shock and I’ve never been treated by an employee so nastily.
I am very disappointed with the whole experience and have lost my faith in Sears.
Due to the rudeness of the manager there and the lovely man who hung up on me in Customer Service, I have closed my Sears Credit Card and it’s really too bad, because they actually used to me a great company and well known for good customer service

I have a VW Touareg (big SUV to fit all my children… oh wait, I don’t have children). This mighty vehicle weighs just over 3 tons, which means it requires special order/​high performance/​heavy load tires (in this case, Goodyear). I ordered them Monday. $ 1,200 and expected to get them next millennium. 2 days later, they called the moment they came. Said it would take 1 ½ hours to install them and rotate the tires. It was great because it took almost exactly that amount of time.
They lost a star because it said it would be about $ 1000 for the tires and installation online and when I came in, it jumped $ 200. I didn’t have any paperwork proving it once i was actually there discussing it, so I had to shell out. Plus, they wouldn’t let me pay over the phone so I had to drive from Beverly Hills to NoHo just to give them money to even order the tires.
They lose another star because one guy said that they would rotate/​balance my tires every 6,000 miles or so, for the life of the tires (about 60,000 miles) and then another guy on another day said that was wrong; They would only rotate my tires within like the first 3 or 6 months (I forgot) or up to the first 6,000 miles. So basically, they’d do it once. It was expensive, too, for balancing my new tires — shouldn’t that be included? You’d think, for that kind of money.
Anyway, I’m old enough to remember a better Sears… Perhaps not the best idea buying up Kmart. Gives me the impression they’ve changed their clientele. Oh well.

Note– this review is old but it should still be reported.
I didn’t even get a chance to get my tires installed-​the store lost half of the order.
I placed the original phone order on ¹²⁄₁₄ for 4 tires to be shipped from Michellin.
I called them to find out they said only two tires were in around ¹²⁄₂₃.
Cut to today 1/​6, I call Sears customer service and they call Michellin directly.
First part of shipment was delivered via fedx on ¹²⁄₁₅; second part delivered via ups on ¹²⁄₂₁. Store lost one of the shipments but just kept telling me the tires hadn’t arrived.
I am getting a refund and going to Costco like I shouldve from the beginning. The worst part is the store making me feel like a douche for calling daily to check on shipment status when all along, they had both orders and misplaced or sold one. Beware of doing special orders !
Very very disappointed.

The mechanic on duty was so damned rude that I just left before they could work on my car. FAIL.