Approximately one week ago, I took my car to have it inspected. They inspected the car, and told me that, in order to pass inspection, I would have to pay $550.00. That seemed high, so I got a second opinion, who said the same thing, failing the same issues, and telling me the car meets state inspection guidelines outside of those issues.
I went back to the original shop and paid the money to get the car fixed. They told me that everything was all set and the car would now pass inspection. However, I was unable to get an inspection sticker because I had accidentally left the new registration at my house.
Since this is 1/2 hr away from my home, I decided to just pick up the inspection sticker at pep boys in Manchester, thinking, obviously, that they would pass the car due to the fact that two independent shops listed the same items. However, they failed the inspection, and stated that it would cost, again, over $400 to fix, noticing several things that none of the other two shops noticed. The showed me the "failures".
The first thing that they told me was that the "cracked windshield" failed the inspection. When I looked at the windshield, I saw that there was, in fact, a very noticeable crack there that I and neither of the other shops had mysteriously NOT noticed before I brought it into pep boys.
Then they showed me the rear shocks, which they claimed needed to be replaced. They showed me functioning shocks with minimal wear. The ride in the car is smooth, and again, neither of the other two shops failed it. There were several other things with the car that neither of the other two shops noticed, yet pep boys failed me for.
What struck me the most was that the employees had very large grins on their faces. The kind of smile that you might remember from grade school from a bully while he takes your lunch money. I am inclined to believe that they knew they were screwing me over, and enjoyed it.
Unfortunately, I can not prove anything. Taking legal action would be an expensive, time consuming and frustrating waste of time. I just wanted to politely let other people know that these people should not be trusted.
Socrates
Manchester, New Hampshire