Pep Boys ripoff, missed diagnosis, replaced working parts Austin Texas

Simply put, we brought a 1996 Saturn SL2 in for a problem with the Air Condition. $1200 later we drove off with the same problem we had when we brought it in. The A/C would work for a couple of minutes when the engine was cold, but when the engine was hot the A/C would shut off. We brought it back several times, and each time we were told that there was nothing wrong. This was due to the fact that the car would sit outside cooling off for 30-45 mins before the tech would actually look at it, he'd turn the A/C on for 1 minute measure the outlet temp and say it was OK. We insisted the car needs to be driven for a bit before the A/C would cut off. This went on for nearly 9 months, finally fed up I took matters into my own hands. I did a bit of troubleshooting, I then found out the cooling fan had not been working. I did numerous simple tests to verify the fan was truly bad, and it was. After spending $23 on a new fan the A/C has never had another problem. So had Pep Boys actually taken the time to look at the car they would have fixed the damn problem for a lot less than $1200. Instead their only solution was to replace the compressor which did not fix anything at all. They replaced a perfectly good compressor and we paid a heavy price for it.

Anthony
Round Rock, Texas