A1 Committed Autocare & Sales

Driving to class, and I noticed that my brakes were making a loud grinding noise. I saw this shop many times on my way to and from class. I decided to give them a shot since they were so close. I went in and the guys in the shop and office personnel were friendly. I spoke with the guy in the office after parking the car and told him what I was experiencing in my car. He took my keys and have it to the mechanics in the back. After a few minutes one of the mechanics came back with my keys and said he needed to replace the disc and pads on the front and recommended the rear brakes as well. To ease my decision I walked into the back where they had my car and the mechanic showed me how much I’ve worn down the front and rear brakes. I walked back to the office and they quoted me a price that was better than the previous brake shops I have been to. After about two hours I felt this shop had my car back to me and I was on my way.
I highly recommend this shop to my friends and family. Friendly workers and great job on my car!

Sadly I can no longer recommend this shop and I am now in the process of looking for another to work on my car from here on out. For the past few years I really liked bringing my car here because I felt I could trust them to treat me well, but my last experience with them has ruined that trust. The work they did on my car was still good. No problems there. It was just the billing that was ridiculous making the repair of used parts cost as much as a dealership would have charged to install all new parts.
When I brought my car in this time it was after I heard a grinding sound when breaking. The sound was very jarring since it started out of the blue on a quick trip to the store and I could not understand why it sounded like I was grinding the rotors when my break pads had never once squeaked to alert me that they were low. The second I heard the sound, since the shop was closed on a Saturday night, I immediately drove straight home and parked my car to prevent any further damage. I was house bound all day Sunday and on Monday morning when the shop opened I drove straight to A1 expecting to need new break pads and hoping the rotors were okay. I wasn’t that lucky. I was willing to pay to repair anything my car needed and they only repaired what I needed (pads and rotors) but I believe I was severely overcharged for the work they did. Compared to every other time I’ve used them in the past their rates when you factor in the time it took to do the actual repair were literally doubled. I watched as they spent half the time working on someone else’s vehicle while mine sat there waiting but then they billed me as if they worked the whole time. I think I am a reasonable person and I understand companies needing to make a profit but there is a point where charges become excessive and for the labor on this job that took about an hour and a half of actual work we were looking at excessive in the rear view mirror.
Maybe I should have seen this coming what with the changes I’ve observed in the atmosphere of A1 and the staff lately. It is not nearly as active as it once was and the employee turnover had been suspicious since all the mechanics that have worked on my car in the last few years and the ones I’d built relationships with have left. My guess is it has to do with the owner. The owner seems to have quit his other job to come work at this business and I couldn’t tell you why but he really nickel-​and-​dimed me. He purposefully made the estimate very confusing separating the charges into two sets of two for front and rear brake sets with multiple labor costs. When I tried to clarify the totals all he would say is I’m giving you a good rate and you are not listening. I know for a fact it was not a good rate because while I was waiting on the repair I consulted a family member who just replaced his own rotors (he lives in another state so he could not do it for me) but did say he thought I was being taken advantage of since he did his in half the time without being a mechanic and then I got an estimate from another shop and found out just how excessive the labor portion was. At that point it was too late to go somewhere else and I wasn’t in much of a position to argue anyway. I would never have authorized the repair work in the first place had it not been for the fact that my car was in pieces when the owner brought me the estimate and I knew I could not drive on it in its current condition so shopping around was out of the question. The other estimate I got could not be completed for a week so even though it was a much better rate they were too busy and I could not wait that long. I was stuck and did ultimately pay the excessive bill but that is the last time I will ever go to this shop. I trusted them and until now had never felt cheated but even with proof of how non-​competitive the labor charges were the owner refused to compromise. The main reason I liked this shop was for their trustworthiness and that is no longer the case. As a result, A1 has permanently lost my business and my recommendation.