Colonial Service Station

This company is the worst they charged me 60 dollars to jump my car and they wouldn’t sit there and charge the battery like other places would. I will never call them again. They are crooks and shouldn’t be in business.
Update. If you leave this company a bad review they will leave a nasty message on your phone

SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG TO FINALLY WRITE THIS REVIEW, BUT I HAD TO MAKE SURE I COULD GET THE POINT ACROSS THAT YOUR THE BEST!
I was having car issues and well to be honest every place i took it to had a different opinion (1) My alternator was done (2) There was electrical issues. All opinions but didn’t want to mess around with it themselves. I was told to call a guy who specializes in electrical who comes to your house (pretty awesome) and made an appointment. I had to wait two weeks since he was on vacation but he came and everything checked out that i just needed an alternator and didn’t see what everyone was making a big deal over. So within a week i went back to the place who told me to call him and gave him his diagnostics. They gave me the run around about being busy etc and never called back, which was disappointing because me and my family have used them regularly in the past for years now.
Anyways i called around and got price quotes from several shops located by me on the south shore, so i decided on Sears even tho honestly i hate the work they do but the price was $ 200 lower then other places i made the appointment to go in. It was no picnic getting my car there since my alternator was dead id have to charge my battery fully to run it, then it would die, and id i have to repeat until i got to my destination. Finally got it to Sears to be fixed and well i got a call back because they couldn’t fix it due to some bracket that i needed from Lexus etc. i called Lexus and could have the bracket it 2 days once ordered. I called Sears back told them the news etc and i received a call back from the shop manager who basically gave me the boot because they didn’t want to be responsible to fix it because of some bolt that was seized to the engine and said i should take it to Lexus.
Feeling defeated at this point since no one can fix my car, and losing my job since this was a dragged on procedure for about two months. I called a friend who is about an hour away in NJ who happens to be a mechanic who insisted if i got my car there he would definitely figure out how to fix it. So i was back to the drawing board and stated calling tow places to get quotes to get my car towed out to NJ.
NOW FINALLY TO THE POINT OF WHERE COLONIAL AUTO REPAIR CAME INTO THE STORY!
My best option was to use my Geico roadside assistance since they covered most of the fees besides the extra mileage, I explained the situation since my car was sitting in the mall parking lot by sears and where i needed it to go in NJ. I received a call back from the tow truck dispatch who put me though to who i would believe to be the owner of colonial (Tommy). I went through the whole story you all have basically read now, where he said if you don’t mind ill take a look at it since he has an auto shop and see if i can fix it. He would be happy to pick up the business and well save me the money on the tow. He was very busy that day at the shop but he said he could look at it for sure the next day. He said he would let me know if he could fix it and if not he could tow it out to NJ.
At the end of the conversation I of course look up reviews on Unilocal and well agh i got a little nervous. However, when you read most of them they don’t pertain to his business more the gas station side and what did i have to lose, I was already between a rock and a hard place.
I got my car there right before they closed that night and well i must say i’ve never seen so many vehicles at an auto place, i couldn’t even park lol. This was a definite sign that they do good business. Waiting inside as they process everything i hear who i would assume is a lady who works there saying good bye to everyone (Sir, Jr, Etc.) This was where i learn that its a family run business and i love that.
The next day comes, i get a call from Tommy’s son who explains to me that there is an electrical issue beyond the alternator. He explained that they had just put in a new one and it burnt it out. We spoke about an estimate on what the electrical would run me before he did the work but was confident he could find it and fix it etc. I gave him the OK and received another phone call about roughly 2 hrs later telling me it was fixed =-) He explained in detail what he had to do and why it probably happened etc. I honestly still today cant believe how much time he spent in communicating with me over my car issues, and this is coming from someone who normally you have to tell to shut up.
I went to pick up my car and actually got to meet Tommy, i made sure to tell him overall how thankful i was. The people there are wonderful and i’m a GUARANTEED REPEAT CUSTOMER. It takes me about 30min without traffic to get there BUT its worth it. I’ll actually be going there to get my inspection done before the month is up, i know they don’t make money on it but its just to show face that i will be a future repeat customer, and ahh who knows if ill pass inspection, maybe they will have something else to fix =-)

GEICO approved towing company. I had an issue today with my car cranking and not starting. I called GEICO to have a tow. When the driver came, he was super helpful and knowledgeable and went out or his way to help me. He asked me what was wrong with the car, and said he thought he might know what was wrong. He actually got the car started for me!!! I thought that was such an honest gesture by him b/​c they don’t make money if they don’t tow the car. I will keep them in mind for the future. Thanks for the help and honesty guys!

The Best in Business!!!
By far the best in Staten Island.

Colonial Service station on Richmond Road and New Dorp Lane in staten Island, New York sells
Shell gasoline and participates with Stop n Shop gas point program. The gas attendants are rude and always stop the pump without rounding it off to the dollar or a quarter or 50 or 75 cents. When you ask for change, they say they do not have any. This past Sunday, I asked for my change, the attendant said we do not have change, I responded that we have a problem, he responded, ‘I’ll see if there is any in the office’ he left, when he came back he handed me pennies. This is not the first time this has happened to me at this station, there are two gas attendants that have done this to me on more than one occasion. I wrote a private e mail to the owners website, I did not get a response. I am putting this out here to try to put a stop to these people harassing people and scamming.

I’m still waiting for a tow as I write this review. Were told it would be here at 1:38 pm. At 1:38 pm were told it would be 45 minutes extra. Ok. It is now 3:33 pm and still no truck. Dispatch makes no effort to appraise us of the time and I had to keep calling to be told «we’re on the way» no ETA until I have to pull it out of the dispatch and the times are not being met. He keeps blaming it on «the heat» whatever the hell that means. Don’t give times if you cannot meet them. If you insist on giving false information at least call us (we know you can, you did it ONCE) to give us additional false information so at least we can pretend there’s some competance going on.

Guaranteed rip off. Brought me in with a $ 50 belt replacement, of course they charged me $ 72 for the belt and $ 250 labor. Told me I needed a bunch of other things total came to $ 725. Of course they were waiting for the parts and started the work before telling me that price even though I specifically asked for the price first.
Didn’t honor the 10% AAA discount, said that was the price WITH the discount. Started making up way higher prices afterwards then had the nerve to tell me that he was actually losing money on this! Told me he couldn’t discount the price further cuz he’ll get in trouble by his boss. 2 seconds later he’s on the phone telling a guy he’s the owner.
As far as the quality of the work, I suspected that they might’ve forgotten to put the screws back in from the stuff they took apart and sure enough, they didn’t put the screws back in. Then he tried to tell me it wasn’t there to begin with, only problem being it was there this morning!
Miraculously one of the workers in the back brought out the exact screw for my exact model car. Not an isolated case. Heard him talking on the phone all day long ripping people off.

This is the ONLY place I will take my car on the island. They are a AAA and GEICO approved service station and the owners (family-​run) are ALWAYS courteous and, I believe, honest. I have a Jeep Grand Cherokee (2002) that was giving me A LOT of problems especially with over-​heating. I went to other places in the past getting the fan system and hoses replaced only to have the car over-​heat 2 – 3 months later. UNTIL I took it to Colonial. Dave, one of the son’s of owner, is the best. Since Colonial fixed the system, I haven’t had a problem with the car. I had another place put new front brakes in, they messed it up, and so I took it to Colonial where I never had a problem after. I had to get my transmission rebuilt, Colonial was the place I took it too. They guarantee their work and are always willing to help their customers. They are a bit expensive but quality, safety, and peace of mind when driving is worth the price. I get every car repair (inspection too) done with them, EXCEPT oil change. They charge approx $ 80 – 95 for synthetic oil change… a little too expensive compared to other local businesses ($ 45 – 60). BUT I don’t know, I may get my oil changes there b/​c I can leave there guaranteed they did it correctly.