Merchant’s Tire & Auto Centers

It took 3 hours for a oil change and tire rotation! Do not go here! Never going back!

I bought tires from merchants a long time ago, and everything was a-​okay. Recently though, I had to have on serviced. It literally took 3 visits over the course of a week to get the problem resolved, simply because of their incompetency and lies. Don’t bother with this place. They have no idea what they are doing and are in no hurry to even do that.

Horrible. Under-​staffed, unresponsive, unreliable. Very unprofessional. Highly recommend finding another shop!

I wrote the CEO of Merchants about three years ago to compliment him on the excellent advice and service I received from the Manager of the Merchants Tire & Auto on King Street in Arlington, VA. Last week, I called the same store to make an appointment for two new tires and told them I wanted a time that would allow them to do the work quickly (there was a blizzard approaching). I showed up the next day 5 minutes ahead of my appointment at 11:00 a.m. When I arrived, I was told that it would be several hours before they could get to my car. When I told the technician that I had an appointment, he swung the monitor around to show me all of the people who showed up without appointments. I don’t know about you, but I consider appointments to be sacrosanct. I informed him that was unacceptable. The acting manager of the store (who I recognized from the Duke Street store) said hello, and offered to call the Duke Street Store to see if they could get my car serviced quickly. He made the call and told me to drive over there and all would be fine. When I got to the Duke Street store it was a madhouse. When I finally got a chance to ask the the woman who was handling the front desk if they were going to be able to get my car in for service, she said not for several hours. It is one thing to blow a reservation by not intending to keep it, but remedying the poor service by sending a customer to another store and having a repeat performance is a debacle. Several days later, I called Radley Acura and they got my car in the very next day and matched the Merchants Tire price. Good for them. Bad for Merchants!

I brought up my car to correct alignment. They also inspected my vehicle’s oils and fluid and told me that i need engine oil and brake oil need to be replace. I changed engine oil myself about month ago and brake oil was flushed from the dealer shot about couple months ago.

I have to give this place a bad review. I really don’t like giving bad reviews… First off there is no place to park. The lot is insanely small and awkward. That is bad. BAD. Second, there just seems to be a lack of organization there. The staff seemed a bit all over the place and they are slow. I waited to get my tire checked and then decided to come back. Well FOUR hours later I saw a guy that was there when I had previously left. He told me that the staff had tried to sell him on some stuff he didnt need and he felt they were shady and advised me to leave. So I did.

I had a problem with my car overheating, so I took it in and someone told me I needed a new knock system. You think that someone could have told me I had no coolant in my car!!! My neighbor helped me figure that out. I don’t appreciate trying to be ripped off because off; if it wasn’t for my neighbor I would have gotten a new knock sensor and probably would have been charged and arm and a leg to get one put it and continue to have my car over heat. Not cool– next time instead of trying to charge me a high priced item, check a little more for the problem. Oh and also they messed up the alignment that were so quick to charge me for too! If there was an option for no stars, that is what the rating would be.

It was Friday afternoon and I was running around doing errands in Rockville when I realized one of my tires was low on air (again). I had pumped air into the tire a couple of times already over the last several weeks; so I was thinking there was a leak somewhere. I checked on Unilocal!and searched for the term «tire repair» to find the closest high-​rated place closest to where I was.
At first I went to Charles Automotive (on Nebel) as they had the highest rating (4.5 stars) among the ones close-​by. However, since I was a walk-​in, they couldn’t take me at all as they were two technicians down for the day with the other two scrambling to keep up with what they had scheduled. Completely understandable. So she kindly recommended Merchant’s Tire just around the corner on Randolph Rd.
Here’s where the frustration begins…
When I got to Merchants, I noticed that all of their bays were open so I thought, «Great! this will be pretty quick even as a walk-​in». WRONG… when I came up to the counter, I was greeted by the guy behind it who had a certain «smarmy air» about him. You know, the kind the proverbial used car salesman has. When I explained what I needed and asked how long it would take, he said «an hour and a half». WHAT!!! He said that he had three guys back there and they could be done with my tire inspection and repair in that time. Ummmm, I’m not an expert in car repair, but I know enough that checking a tire and repairing it does NOT take that long… especially when every single bay in your shop is empty. But I thought, well, what choice do I have? Take time to find another place, drive there, and go through the same thing all over again. So I gave them my key and said go for it… only, when I saw the quote, it was for $ 35.00.
While sitting down, I tried to log on to their WiFi but wasn’t able to (I was directed to a shady-​looking check-​all-​the-​boxes-​and-​sign-​your-​privacy-​away sort of page). No thank you. So I used my regular phone connection to check out on Unilocal!what this place’s reviews are (I should’ve done it before) and other tire repair locations. I saw Executive Wholesale Tire (about 20minutes drive away) had perfect 5star ratings and that they charged anywhere between $ 20-​$ 25. Done, I’m going there! But first I called to see how long they would take to fix my issue. They said about an hour. IMO, it’s worth it. Buh-​bye, Merchants!
Fast forward to about an hour later… I drove 15minutes to Executive, told them what I needed, 45minutes and $ 25 later, I was done. Check out my review on Executive Wholesale Tire… that’s the place to take your car!

Talk about a scam shop that not only tries to upsell you on what you came in for, but also tries scare tactics to perform additional work! A few weeks ago I needed to replace the tires on my car. It’s an older car, a little beat up, and used for short trips to the gorcery store, movies, etc. At 70,000 miles I don’t plan to use it much longer than an additiona 30,000 miles. However, it took me quite a time that I did not want 60,000 mile tires. After about 30 minute of arguing, they finally agreed to tires in a lower mileage rating and price range. But that was not the best (actually, worse) part. After finally having the tires put on, they also presented me with a complimentary estimate to: (1) change my dirty power steering fluid; (2) replace my rear shocks which were on their last legs; and (3) replace my front struts which were also on their last legs. And all of that would only cost me an additional $ 994…a special price that was only good for a very short time. I declined, and in the past few days have taken the car to a reputable auto shop for its periodic oil change. Without telling the shop anything, I asked them to check the power steering fluid (which, as it turns out, they would do anyway as part of the oil change), along with the struts and shocks. When that shop finished the oil change, they reported that the power steering fluid, struts and shocks were all fine! What a surprise! Although, not really, since several months before that I had gone to Merchants to replace one tire that had a slow lead due to sidewall damage that could not be patched. At that time, they told me they could only sell tires in pairs. After discussing that with them for a while, I left and found another shop to sell me a single tire. BTW, I should note that I am an senior female with grey hair, and probably look like an easy mark. What is not apparent on the surface is that I work in a technical industry (not automotive… satellite receivers), and tend to get testy when someone takes advantage of me. Bottom line… never, never, never go to the Merchants at this location.

Liars. Don’t go here otherwise they’ll try to fleece you and then threaten to take you to the «local authorities» when you don’t pay a paltry less than $ 200 for services that they claimed they did but clearly did not; we had it checked/​verified by a third party. They really show you what sort of bullies they are when they threaten to take a small claims/​contracts issue to «local authorities» — the police don’t give two cents about a contract dispute. Don’t fall for their bullying and fleecing tactics. Take your business to local shops like the Sunoco on Hungerford Drive in Rockville; at least he won’t try to bully you into paying for services that he didn’t render.

I walked in with a tire issue and merchants fixed the problem I was having without any issues. I say without any issues because I went to two different auto/​tire stores and they were not able to fix anything. I decided to try merchants after no success elsewhere… And I should have just gone here in the first place.
The staff here is on top of their stuff and know what they’re doing. They have smart people working on your car who educate you top of fixing any problems. I’m coming back here in the future and I’m not wasting my time with other places.

I’ve used Merchants in the past, at various locations, and have never had a problem till this past Saturday. We took my wife’s car in for a simple tire repair. Turns out the nail was too close to the side wall to patch or plug, so they said we needed to go with a new tire. OK, we agreed to go with a decent Goodyear tire (not the cheapest but with a coupon, two for $ 250 total with tax, tire/​waste disposal). Car is there for four hours getting tires.
When it was ready, I dropped my wife off, she paid, drove it around. Came home Saturday night complaining of a «wobbly tire» when going above 45.
I go outside and look at the tires: they’ve only put on one tire, though my receipt clearly shows that I paid for two. How a mechanic could fail to see this is beyond me.
So Monday I call them, explain the situation, ask them to not only rectify, but also kindly ask if they can possibly throw in an alignment to help make up for the inconvenience and incompetence. The assistant manager Sopy says, «No, can’t do that.» Will give you a $ 20 cut on the $ 90 alignment.
Um, no thanks. I called Merchant Tires in Frederick, near where I work, and they not only quickly put on the second tire that I paid for initially but they threw in a free alignment. Great customer service and the Merchant’s that I will go to in the future.

Took the car in to get an oil change (for convenience). To no surprise, they told me that several other things had problems (including an almost new battery). Three days later, my regular mechanic told me the battery was in good shape and happened to change my oil and filter because they were dirty. I never mentioned that I recently had an oil change which tells me that Merchant’s didn’t change my oil and filter (or did a really sloppy job). If you can’t trust a place to do a simple oil change, why should you trust them to do anything else?

Typical mechanic experience… went there for an oil change and they wouldn’t do it because my check engine light was on… when i asked if they could just see what the problem was, they wanted to charge $ 105…just to check the code… ridiculous…prefer to go to the jiffy lube down the street, better service, nicer people, and they don’t try to swindle you

Last night, I realized that my tire was almost completely flat and after attempting to fill it with air, it was clear that I would some emergency auto repair. I wasn’t sure what the problem was, but I called around and Merchant’s seemed to be the nearest and cheapest (and it was still open late at night). I spoke with Taj, who was incredibly pleasant and reassuring. He explained that they didn’t close until 9PM and I could certainly stop by. I showed up and relayed what had happened that whole week with my tire. He gave me an affordable, honest solution. I was floored. I am accustomed to being ripped off and hassled at auto repair centers. As a young female, I am incredibly wary of where I take my car. Last night I was desperate, knowing that it wouldn’t make it more than a couple of miles. Thank goodness I went here. Please speak with Taj. I can’t vouch for anyone else who works here, except for the mechanic who worked on my car — Yusuf (I hope I’m spelling that correctly). He was so jovial and helpful and I can honestly say he was the NICEST mechanic I have ever encountered. He bent over backwards to help me out. Overall, I can say with full confidence that my experience dealing with Taj and Yusuf was the most pleasant auto repair experience of my life and perhaps the only time I have left a center not feeling taken advantage of.

BEWARE!
Go see other horrible Unilocal reviews for all the Merchant’s Tire Gaithersburg & Rockville MD locations!

Went to them with a slow leak in my tire, which they told me would be fixed with a patch. No such luck, as three days later the slow leak returned. I went back and purchased new tires (it was about time for that anyways, but the failed patch does make me wonder now…). At the time, I didn’t think to check, but months later I discovered that one of my wheel locks is now missing. Really?
The prices for everything were great, but the little things make me wonder about the general quality of work.

I took my vehicle here 3 weeks ago out of necessity to have a screw in my tire repaired on a Sunday morning. The location is close to where I live, and I needed to take my car on a trip the next morning.
The service was quick — I was in and out in an hour. After I left, I had a tire that was patched — and a wheel that was gouged with a bent bead and a bend laterally which made the car shake. I brought the car back immediately, and the manager offered to repair the wheel if I took it off an brought it to them for 3 – 5 days. This was not acceptable to me — I brought a pristine car with 12K miles on it, and I wanted the wheel replaced. After a week of discussions with the manager and Merchant’s Tire corporate, they agreed to replace my wheel. I took the car back last week and got the wheel replaced with one from the local Mercedes dealer — I was in and out in under an hour.
Tonight, I come out and find my tire flat again. When the tire pressure monitor/​valve stem was installed, the installer did not tighten the nut down properly. Tonight, it came loose and left me with a flat. This type of sloppy work is not only negligent, but it is dangerous — had it been at highway speeds it would have essentially been a blowout.
Think twice — if they can’t get something like a simple tire patch on a modern car right, do you really want them changing your oil or doing something more in-​depth to your car? I only wish I had read the reviews elsewhere on the internet prior to taking my car there — I would have went elsewhere.

These guys were awesome! I showed up with a flat tire and was greeted by 2 staff members. When they checked the tire, they determined that I would need an entirely new tire. They were careful to listen to my budget while still making sure I got a quality tire. The service was quick (in and out in less than an hour on a Friday afternoon) and really good. I’m thrilled to have found a tire shop I can trust.