Sears Auto Center

Had my car towed here on late Wednesday afternoon after it started acting weird and just stopped moving. They told me they would be able to get to it first thing Thursday AM. Thursday morning they call and tell me it’s an airflow sensor and it will cost a few hundred to repair. I approve the repairs and by the afternoon, Tim calls me back to tell me the sensor is good, everything just needed to be tightened. I only had to pay for diagnostics. I appreciate honest mechanics! They saved me hundreds of dollars. Awesome team. They do get busy but I will take the wait with honesty than a quick fix without the quality service. Will come back again!

This place is horrible. 3 hours for an oil change? Had a groupon, made an appointment, showed up on time. They said they would text or call when the oil change was done (about an hour they said). 2 hrs later I show up to see my car is sitting in the lot. 30+ minutes in line and now they want to charge me another $ 16! Never waste your time here!

Strike 1:
Called in advance, Monday May 2^nd, to drop my vehicle off on Thursday May 5^th for the whole weekend — since I would be out of town at a wedding. Spend 15 to 20 min. on the phone spelling out all of the services needed for this visit: Oil Filter and Oil Change, Replace both Front Headlight Bulbs, and Replace A/​C Compressor (A/​C Compressor was diagnosed TWICE by them as being the cause of my Serpentine belt whine /​squeal noise). Show up at the shop at 8am, with 1x person in line in front of me. Waited for the 1x customer service guy — older Asian gentleman I believe named Kenny — for at least 45 min. to process the person in front of me who was only there to get his tires rotated and balanced. After waiting close to 1x hour, I needed to leave before I could drop my vehicle off b/​c I had to take my daughter to school. Leave and return 1x hour later, now it is 10am… this time I’m first in line, but no one is around, and the phone is ringing off the hook — no one there to answer. The guy who was in front of me the first time is now in the waiting area waiting on his vehicle to get done. Same service guy comes from the back of the shop and is now checking the first guy (from 2x hours ago) out and says he’ll be «right with me». After about 45 min. total has gone by now, I get time with the customer service guy. I begin to repeat everything that I called 3x days prior about, since no one at the time bothered to book an actual appointment or write any of the services I needed down. Then the front desk computer freezes /​goes down and is unrecoverable… requiring a hard restart. Kenny tells me don’t worry, he has my full service order written on a hard copy and that he will re-​input it after he restarts their computer. I explain to him 3x separate times that I am leaving the vehicle here for the next 4x days and that I will be returning on Monday May 9^th AM for pick up. He, as well as the service rep. I spoke to originally on that Monday, assures me that the repairs will easily be complete by Monday if I could leave the vehicle with them for the 4x days over the weekend. I hand Kenny my keys and instruct him to call me and confirm the service order was entered and confirm the service would begin on Thursday asap. He says: no problem. 2+ hours to DROP OFF my vehicle when 1) I called 3x days in advance and 2) I communicated all needed services when I called. 2+ hours to hand someone a set of keys and get confirmation of services needed. Unbelievably inefficient, unbelievably slow, basically broken service in every way imaginable.
Strike 2:
Someone from the shop calls me the next day, Friday May 6^th, but not until ~ 1pm CONFIRMS that the A/​C Compressor is bad and that a new one will be $ 700 or so. Also (unbelievably) quotes me the oil filter and oil change as well as the headlight repairs are no problem and that they will get to work right away on the 3x items. I confirm Monday AM pick-​up, to which the tech on the phone says: No problem see you then. I wrongly assume that since I called ahead, communicated my 3x simple service needs now 3x times… that everything was progressing on schedule. I arrive back to San Jose late Sunday evening, and make several adjustments to my schedule to accommodate picking up my vehicle the next morning. The wife drives me, my daughter, my son, and our dog (b/​c he can’t stay home alone) to the shop… promptly arriving at 8AM There is 1x person in front of me in line, and quickly four to five people queue up behind me in line… (here we go again). Again, no one is really around, the phones are ringing off the hook, and again it takes the 1x service guy, Kenny, MORE THAN 45 min. to process the 1x guy in front of me. Holy shit, are you kidding me. About this time I notice the multiple Help Wanted signs in the shop.
Strike 3:
After waiting, I’m told my vehicle is not ready, come back at 5pm Picked up my vehicle today, still has original problem… wow. Painfully obvious that this shop is imploding and is waaaaaay beyond it’s capacity and capability.

Made an appointment to come in at noon for an oil change. I get there 30 minutes early to be told they don’t have my reservation. He tells me they are completely booked and I couldn’t make another appointment until next week. Shortly after I receive an email confirmation about the appointment I supposedly didn’t have. I called him back to have him tell me it doesn’t matter. I’ve never had such bad service and definitely will not be returning.

Had an appointment for noon just to rotate tires to maintain the warranty. Arrived 18 mins early just because of how slow this place is & good thing. After 20 min. wait just to get someone to sign me in (1 service person with 6 people in line) I had to wait for them to show this guy all the tires in the show-​room for a sale. They say they have 2 lines (one for appointments & one for walk ins). No point in 2 lines if there’s only one person available to help customers.
Finally got signed in & received written estimate with «Promised time» the car would be ready as 1:30. (1.5 hours from actual signing in) They take my cell # to call/​text me when my car is ready.
I go to the mall to kill time. At 1:40 I call since no one has called me. I receive other calls while waiting but no Sears calls of course. (verifying my cell phone was working). I start calling Sears to find out status at 1:50pm. After 3 separate tries (each time the phone just rings continually, no answer)
I show up at the auto center at 2:20 & there are no employee’s to be found. I look everywhere in the showroom/​waiting room. You can hear their phone ringing constantly but no one answers any of the calls coming in.
I finally find someone tucked away in their office talking to a phone customer about tires. He keeps shooing me away saying he is busy. I am so annoyed. After 20 mins of this I get him to help me (it’s now 3pm). I ask him what’s going on with my car. He is so dithered & looks frazzled & frantic. He gets my paperwork & says «sorry we’ve been really busy».
He tells me my check engine light came on while they were doing a diagnostic so I might want to get that looked at. It wasn’t on when I got there. I just had my car serviced for routine tune up a week prior. Car is running fine. Why are they doing diagnostic when I’m only here for rotation of tires?
He is rude & hands me my keys after I sign the paperwork. I get to my car & there’s greasy smudges all over the inside of the windshield. (my car was just washed 2 days ago). The previously shiny wheels are now covered in black greasy hand prints & smudged with black grease. Car is parked under a tree (only spot under a tree in the lot while others are wide open) & my car is covered in bird poop. The dirty floor mat is just left in my drivers seat.
And no, there’s no engine light on, as I knew there wasn’t. Perhaps they mixed my car up with someone else’s?
The worst service ever. They never have enough people working here. Why not have someone who just answers phones & checks on the status of the car repairs for customers. A little good customer service can go a long ways. Don’t leave your customer’s cars dirty when they arrived clean.
Stay far away from this place if at all possible. I know I will!!!

I understand that this location is severely understaffed. I really do. But that in no way excuses the line being short and the service was still slow and apathetic. I waited behind one person for half an hour and once I got to speak to a salesperson, the completely uninterested clerk told me that an oil change would take three to four hours. I now get why this place is on Groupon… It’s an effort to build up their dwindling clientele.

This review is not particularly about the service I received at Sears but about one of their employee’s named Obi that helped me out when my car battery died across the street at Chevron.
I came to the gas station to pump some gas and my car suddenly dies. Just my luck! But thankfully Obi kindly offered his help as he saw me pushing my car on the side of the street. We first tried to pop my clutch to get the engine to turn but no luck.
He explained to me that he worked at Sears and that he can gladly push my car over there to have it serviced immediately tomorrow. He definitely represented Sears professionally and showed me how devoted they can be to a potential customer. He was very knowledgeable with cars and gave me a thorough list of things that could have possibly lead to my car battery from dying so suddenly.
We then decided to jump start my car. He used his own personal car to help me and my car started immediately. As for the management to see, you guys hired a great employee. You guys just recieved a new customer!
Thanks for all your help Obi! I’ll be sure to bring my car by whenever I run into any trouble.

Came here for an «appointment only» oil change (1 hr job according to their website). Keep in mind I was here 2 other scheduled times but had to rescheduled each of those times because «they’re too busy/​backed up» so I book another new time slot to try to save time.
Came in at 1:30pm for my 2pm appointment (since there have been times where it took 30 minutes just to check in for the appointment). But thankfully it didn’t take long this time. I was done checking in by 1:35pm and was told it’ll be 1 ½ hours for the job. Actual wait time was just over 2 ½ hours.
Never coming back.

This place sucks don’t brink your car here it’s not worth it. If I could give them no stars I would. Why call me and tell me my tire is ready and when I get here you have me wait for 1hr 40min then you tell me that the music was too loud out there that they didn’t notice that it had another hole so now I have to wait another day for my tire and Odom first said I had to pay why if I have the coverage then I talked to Kenny and got that taken care of but then he said they don’t have my tire that I might have to get a totally different tire «COME ON ARE YOU KIDDING ME» then Odom said that I wouldn’t have to wait because of the inconvenience of the wait so they call me and tell me to get here before 6pm I get here at 4pm and they took my car back and my car wasn’t even worked on until I said something 1h10min later then then they try to say that they need to still balance the tire but they needed the car for that. They must think that because I’m a woman I don’t know about cars «YOU DONT NEED THE CAR TO BALANCE THE TIRE» the man sitting next to me also said here’s been waiting 6hrs here for his diagnostic. It’s funny as we wait in the lobby the workers come in walking fast and as soon as they walk out back out they are just standing around

This is a review of service that could have been done, but wasn’t. And it actually was to my benefit! Allow me this opportunity to explain.
A couple weeks ago I took my car to the Pennzoil 10-​minute Oil Change Center on Pearl Avenue. Upon completion of the service, the technician informed me that the brake fluid level was low (yes, it did appear low). He suggested that I top off the fluid because they don’t provide that service. So I decided I’d take my car to Wheelworks, but there was no parking space anywhere. I then headed over to the nearby Sears Auto Center — begrudgingly and expecting the worse because of its poor reputation, especially among Unilocal’ers. To my surprise, though, the experience was quite positive overall.
When I explained to the Sears Auto service representative what I needed (i.e., topping off the brake fluid), he promptly followed me to my car and examined the front and back brakes, then the brake fluid reservoir. He told me that the reservoir, which appeared to be low, was actually at the appropriate level for the condition of the brakes. It would be a good idea, though, he said, to re-​examine the fluid when the brakes are inspected and serviced in the future.
He could have easily bluffed me and said that the fluid needed to be topped off immediately for my safety, then pocketed who-​knows-​how-​much $$$ in Sears’ coffers for unnecessary service. Instead, he was honest, shared his expertise (educated me on how brakes function), and enabled me to hold onto my money for future brake maintenance. This positive experience makes me more inclined than ever to consider Sears Auto Center for that (and other) auto maintenance.
I could’ve awarded five stars here, but decided to subtract a star because there was a L-​O-​N-​G ten-​minute wait to speak to the service representative. It’s pretty clear that the place is short-​staffed; there’s even a «now hiring» sign near the register. OK, so I understand the reason for the delay, but it was nevertheless a bit frustrating.

The worst customer service, if I could rate them _​_​_​_​zero, I would.
They have no clue, you walk in and if they tell you it will be ready in 2 hours, good luck.
Don’t waste your time.
Ed

A simple tire fix has turned into a complete joke. The amount of time I have spend here is incredible. Appointments means nothing. There are no folks managing the front office for long periods of time. Walk in — forget about it. This is the worst auto experience I have ever had. The fix even ended up being a new tire and I never got a call about that! DON’T waste your time on this place! Not blaming the people that work here but Sears seriously need to step it up!!!

I did a drain and refill of transmission fluid on my car and took about 3 quarts of used fluid here for recycling. The front desk guy didn’t have a clue when I asked about recycling, went inside to ask a manager.
Manager came out, said no we won’t recycle for you because you didn’t buy new transmission fluid here. I then asked since it’s very little fluid if they could recycle it this one time as a favor, the manager rejected and said he’d have to charge me for it, like it’s a big deal.
Never seen any auto shop so unfriendly. I would never take my car here for any service period. Clearly the staff here doesn’t care about being friendly and networking with customers. At the end of the day, they get paid by the hour anyways.

I’m sooooo mad I didnt read reviews about this place before I took my car in for an oil change. I found a coupon at Sears for a conventional oil change $ 18. Booked an appointment for 2pm. Got there and didn’t leave until 5:45 pm They had promised it would take about an hour 45 … I wasn’t prepared. I had to wait it out.
After a stroll at the mall, a dead phone, & 4 episodes of house hunters… I was finally released nearly 4 hrs later.
So if you go there please be prepared to wait astounding amounts of time for an oil change.

Don’t believe any guarantee, they won’t honor it.
Get a battery at Costco, better prices.
Don’t believe wait times at Sears, count on 10x as long.
Don’t think you will get anything installed right.
Inferior products.
Read experiences about customer service horrible.
Run anywhere else.

I had a coupon that brought the price of an oil change down to $ 17.99. After tax, it was just under $ 22.00. So the cost was reasonable. Nothing else about the experience was.
I called and made an appointment a week in advance for Sunday at 1 pm. I get there a little early, like 12:45, and they say it’s going to take 2 hours. 2 hours for an oil change? I was a little taken aback by this, but there’s a mall right there, so I let it go.
I go walk around the mall, do some shopping, hang out at Starbucks for a bit, no big deal. I come back around 3 pm, and I see that my car hasn’t even made it into the garage yet. I go over to the one guy working at the customer service desk and ask what’s going on, and he says they’ll take my car right away.
To be fair, they did start working on my car right after I asked them to, but then it took another hour for them to finish. Meanwhile, the only thing they had on their little tv was Family Feud, so I wound up watching 2 episodes of that. I wasn’t driving away from the place until 4 pm.
What could have and should have easily been a 30 – 45 minute procedure, took 3 hours. I strongly recommend never coming here for an oil change on a weekend. I certainly won’t be again. It might be more reasonable during the week, but even then, you should bring a laptop/​book and be prepared to wait much longer than you think you will.

Took my 1984 cadillac in for brakes, had a few unexpected mechanical issues during the job. Henry was very good in his work and made sure everything went well, he worked on my car from 10 am to 1 hour passed closing trying to complete the job. When he realized it could not be safely completed in time they offered me a ride home.
Jared in the front was very accommodating and provided perfect customer service while checking me in. He was able to answer all of my questions and concerns while taking multiple phone calls and having customers skip the line to ask him questions. He never once lost his cool and even found a few discounts that applied to the service I was getting. The next day when I went in to pick up my car he was expecting me and ended up saving me an additional $ 200 for work that was not necessary. You rarely find customer service like this these days
My advice when using Sears Auto would be to make an appointment

Oil changes are their bread and butter (what they do well). Be prepared to wait in line for at least 15 minutes even if there is one customer in front of you as they are very short staffed. Also be prepared to leave your car all day on a weekend.
Do not let them touch your mercedes airconditioner when all you need is refregerant :-/​ (mechanic staff is very young).

Car never seen w/1:00 appt!
I made a 1 pm appt at Sears for yesterday. Brought my SRT-​8 in to have oil changed and determine cause of earsplitting brake shrieks.
Walked in mall, spent money I don’t have, and returned at 5:10 pm. Waited around but sole customer service guy then disappeared for 20 minutes until I finally went to garage work area and asked if they had even looked at my car as it was parked in same spot. They said not yet! It was 5:30! Why did I waste time making an appointment and spending four hours at a dumb mall?! Customer service guy was still missing, so I just got my keys back and left. What s horribly run place!!!
I had a 1:00 appointment and told it would be done at 5:00 pm-​yet at 5:15 when I returned, it was still in the parking lot site unseen!

So after a few days in a remote mountain location, vacation ends and it is time to head home. Pack up the car, turn the key and NOTHING happens. Thankfully there’s actually another person up in the middle of nowhere to jump start our car or we’d be totally screwed. We drive 4 hours without stopping the car because we know the battery is completely dead and we’ll just end up stranded in some godforsaken, smoggy valley town.
Later that same day… after unpacking the car, trying to start it again and realizing that we were really smart not to stop on the way home, we call a tow truck. Despite all of the negative reviews, I figure all I need is a battery, so I have it towed to Sears Auto Center. Working through a bit of a language barrier, the guy at the counter gets me set up with an estimate for a quick diagnostic and a new battery. He told me it’d be a little over an hour and set me up on their text message system so that I could go tool around the mall while they work on my car.
His time estimate was pretty much spot-​on, service was friendly and now my car starts up with a simple turn of they key. Based on the vast majority of negative reviews for this place, I don’t know if I’d bring my car here for a tune-​up or other service. If all you’re looking for is a new battery, you’ll most likely walk away satisfied with the experience.