Don't Trust Sears at Rushmore Mall!

There are some lessons you learn in life from experience. The one that I've learned....Never trust the Sears Auto Center in Rushmore mall.

The car developed a gradually growing noise as we ventured west this week, and Monday, every bump gained a groan and a clank from the front end of the car. So, needing a quick mechanic, I figured that a name like Sears would provide trustworthy service. Wow was I wrong. We took the car there just after 4pm on Monday afternoon. We went and told them to take a look at it, and I was promptly told that suspension was shot. Not a major surprise, as the car did have over 160,000 miles on it already. So, after agreeing to have that replaced, the mechanic and the auto center employee decided that it would take about 2.5 hours. So, Heather and I went on to the mall to check it out. Not long into our shopping, the phone rings, and it's Sears telling me that they found too many cracks than what they call a safe serpentine belt. So, after I agreed to have them do that also, we were on the way shopping. Knowing what the problem was, the next call from the Sears Auto Center kind of surprised me. It was the tech saying that he'd found that one of the mufflers on the car was not being supported by the bracket that the other one was, and this was more than likely where the noises were coming from. I already knew the front suspension was done, so I said that I was planning on taking care of that myself. They continued working on the car until I return at 7:30pm, to find out that the car still wasn't done. At 8pm, I was told that I would have to come back tomorrow as they didn't have enough time to finish. I asked the guy who was in charge at this point what I was supposed to do, and he seemed to not even care about the fact that they'd failed to finish the job in about double the time they'd told me it would take. And, to top it all off, I had to tell them to leave the serpentine belt in the car and I would do it myself as they had failed at getting that installed because they couldn't figure out how it went on.

So, the next day, we had to return the car for them to finish working on the balancing of the rear tires. Now, I'm not automotive genius, but I'm pretty sure I could have handled the situation better. Heather and I had to waste an additional 4 hours for them to finish aligning just the rear of the car. Anger was flowing freely at this point, but Heather and I walked out without saying much of anything.

I've since filed complaints with the store and have been contacted by the store general manager regarding my complaints and poor service. Sears may make amends to this yet, and for their sake, I hope they do, because I'll find other ways to get my tools if I must!