Connell Auto Center

Oh the memories of this place. The thousands of dollars drained in this sinkhole, the ghetto games played by the service «agents». I’m reviewing the repair side of this business — we all know that in Oakland only a drug dealer with a suitcase full of cash can get what he wants at a decent price from a car dealership.
I have had several cars pass through their repair shop, and extensive experience dealing with them. They basically could care less about you because they supply parts to everyone else for certain cars (like Nissans) — they know you will pay a lot more other places — so while their prices aren’t that high, they make it up by making shit up and fixing stuff you don’t need fixed.
They have a price point they want to make on every repair. Even if your car has a simple issue they will find something else that «needs fixing». They will tell you that they can’t get to the cheap repair until they fix the expensive one. On a number of occasions they actually performed repairs without getting my authorization — repairs I wasn’t prepared to pay for.
When they repair, they don’t care about anything else. I had a radiator replaced once, and they left the detail striping hanging out on the front of the car (between the nose and the fenders). Even though it didn’t come to them that way, they didn’t want to fix it and acted like it wasn’t their duty. They offered to fix it — if I left my car there for a couple of days — which brings me to the next problem…
They hold onto your car for far too long. On several occasion I had to wait 4 – 5 days for a simple repair. They prioritize according to the type of car you bring them. The nicer the car I brought in, the less time I had to wait.
They hire con men at the counter — con men who need to go back and take refresher courses, because their game is so weak. These people will «lose» your paperwork and then tell you «I thought you said to go ahead and perform that über-​expensive not needed repair». They will lie to you about how long it will take, and will disappear if things get too hot. Anything to extract money you do not have. Who cares about a satisfied customer? Their job is to con the customer into being okay with whatever wallet rape they are about to perform, and to justify even more repairs in the future. Only in Oakland.
The repair crew can run the gamut — but all of them are stuck in the system. They probably would make more money by writing a tell all, but I guess Connell is careful about hiring people with that much intellect. One particular guy had performed electrical work on my car, and I noticed that there were some lights not working. I questioned the con man at the counter and he called the repair man — about the meanest Asian guy I ever met — I don’t know if he had a language barrier, but he came out hollaring and screaming that «he did the repair right». I just looked at the con man and said what the hell is wrong with this dude? He acted like he was going to fight — which would have been a mistake on his part. I didn’t get all aggressive back with him — I just wanted to know about the lights — but he was pushing it with his attitude.
Finally he cooled down enough to tell me that the non-​working lights are optional lights and they never were hooked up in the first place. It’s just something I never noticed. But what I did notice was that when he came out in a rage, the workers there thought it was funny, nobody stepped in to stop it from escalating. They seemed to think it was cool top watch this guy act like that.
It wouldn’t have been cool if I let him get his lick and then «defended myself» — he would have gotten beat up, and Connel would have been sued to high hell.
they are so shameless that once I was called to pick up my car at a repair price of $ 127.00. I couldn’t believe I was actually goung to spend less that $ 400.00 in this place — but when I came to pick it up, suddenly there was a «problem». I ended up having to pay another $ 367.00 to get my car, by the time they were finished! I could tell something was not right, because the lady had a sad look on her face as I was talking to her about it. She almost told me what game was being played — but then somebody showed up.
What they didn’t know was that my wife was there in another area, and she heard the mechanics arguing over something done to my car. Unfortunately my wife isn’t mechanic savvy, so she couldn’t really elaborate — but they were definitely not in agreement about what was about to happen to me.
I am presently looking for another mechanic, but it’s slim pickins in Oaktown. It’s either high prices or /​and sheisty games. I do know a street mechanic that will repair anything for $ 60.00 — and this guy is pure magic. Unlike places like Connell — once he fixes it, it’s fixed. with Connell — the fix is in…