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RepairPal has a rating of 1.94 stars from 71 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. RepairPal ranks 380th among Auto Repair sites.
This company responds to reviews on average within 4 days
I like how quick we get appointments and they tell us what they need to get done. Warranty companies are able to call and tell us what the customer needs done, which is awesome.
REDUCING RATING TO 1 star. The issue involving Repairpal.com and Patriot Auto and Truck Repair began around July 2023, and still has not been resolved. The shop still refuses to honor the estimate, and Repairpal.com is not enforcing their contract with them. The response from Repairpal.com today by Chimene Navarro was as follows: "...our shops are expected to honor our estimator, yes, but they don't need to do work with a customer if they choose not to for personal reasons." WOW, I wonder if personal reasons include skin color, color of my shirt, or walking with a limp. Have they heard about a thing called "Discrimination"? I was shocked by her response. I've read their contract and there is no reference to not serving customers based on personal reasons. I would understand if a customer threatened violence or broke the law. However, I did none of that. BUYERS BEWARE! She also accused me of being aggressive in my emails to her, which was strange because all I asked her to do was read the contract that Repair Pal has with its participating shops. This was after she made some idiotic response to my concerns. I suggested that she get a job as a greeter at Walmart if she couldn't handle complaints from customers. It's apparent that Repair pal doesn't have legally binding contracts with their shops, or deliberately choose to not enforce the contract.
I recently utilized the Repair Pal Online System to get an estimate to have the spark plugs in my 2006 Mustang GT changed. The shop located in Dover, DE, was featured as one of their participants. Repair Pal gave an estimate of $301 to $345 to replace the plugs.
When I arrived at the shop at the time and date confirmed by Repair Pal, I was told that my appointment was not in the system. After we resolved that issue, I was given a written estimate of $798.49 to replace the plugs and one hour labor to remove any broken plug ($150 each). The ucharge cost on the spark plugs is huge. They wanted to charge me $469.84 for 8 double platinum type. That's $58.73 per plug. Advanced Auto Parts, which is located accross the street from the shop offers the double platinum plug for $21.99 each. ($18.69 currently on sale) I respectfully declined the service. Repair Pal and the business need to honor their estimates. The difference between $345 and $798 is more than double. Although the Service advisor at the shop was professional, my day was ruined. I had finally budgeted $400 for service, only to be disappointed by this experience.
Received the estimate range for a listed repair to my vehicle. Went to a recommended shop and received a quote that was 2.25 times the high end of the estimate range. When I questioned the shop about why large difference I was told that RepairPal estimates are for Hondas and that they ignore the information i supply. I left a shop because they were higher then the high end only to be directed to another shop that was more the twice the cost.
This site doesn't validate car repair shops in any logical way, other than customers that can afford to go to these locations. They are in California. How could they possibly check reviews of a shop in PA, other than the high-paying customers? Are these people even mechanics? Do they know anything about vehicles? There are other locations in my area that could be on this site, but just don't get involved in these politics. I emailed the site about their data collection methods and never got an answer.
I typed in several examples of repairs and the estimates seem to be either too high or too low. This site might help shops get more exposure but I don't think it is reassuring for consumers. There is no guarantee any of the shops listed are better or less expensive than the mechanic down the street. Remember, they pay to be listed here. I ended up getting 3 'real' estimates from mechanics in my area and they were less than what was quoted here.
Hey Ann, thank you so much for the review and your concerns. Any shop that is listed with RepairPal has gone through a verification process to ensure a good customer experience, the use of quality parts and tools, a high level of training (and the continued investment in education) for their technicians, and a warranty that backs up their work. When you use RepairPal and list your repair with us, we also back that warranty nationwide at any Certified shop. There are incredible auto shops throughout the country that go above and beyond to help their customers, but many people continue to have a bad experience when it comes to car repair. We hope to give a little peace-of-mind, help people find a shop that will honor a set price, and no matter what, we're glad that you were able to find a great shop to get your car repaired at! We hope this helped shed a bit more light on the program and that we can help you in the future. Thanks again Ann, and safe travels! -KB
When I got to shop the price amost double. It was simple repair. Valve cover gasket! Labor and parts both were higher. A126.00 quote turned into a 246.00
Hi Leonard, a vehicle always has to be diagnosed prior to any actual repairs, a charge that will always be added to the repair bill. Also, if your vehicle needs any additional repairs, it is the shops responsibility to recommend those to you, as they're looking out for the best interest of you and your vehicle.
We're hoping your car was running smooth and were happy with your repairs in the end.
They said to replace a Fuel pump on a 2001 ford Escape is $386- $475. The pump is located under the back seat and take 3 minutes to access. It took me 15 minutes to remove and replace with new pump ($125.00). I'm a Chef, not a mechanic but I checked UTube and saw it was easy.
Estimates are high and the range is large. Its like if I asked how much a toaster should cost and someone said between $100 and $200 when you could get one at Walmart for $25. I saw the estimates and first thought was this site is sponsored by the car repair places that want to rip you off.
The cost estimator seems too expensive. The estimates seemed really high when checking against things that I had repaired on my vehicle. So just to be sure I checked the estimate against something I was familiar with, spark plugs. You can purchase extremely nice spark plugs for $8 to $10 a piece and replacing them is super quick, and a much faster job for an experienced mechanic. The price quoted by repair pal for the 8 spark plugs was $96-$144, I don't know what kind of spark plugs they are using but auto shops usually replace with aftermarket parts and I highly doubt they get the spark plugs for more than $7 to $10 a pop. That is $56 to $80. Then cost for labor is stated at $182 - $233 an experienced mechanic will replace 4 spark plugs in 15 minutes so lets say 30 minutes for the job, that means the mechanic is making $364 to $566 per hour! According to national average labor rate for auto mechanics the hourly rate for an automechanic is $75 to $100 an hour. This puts labor at $50 for the spark plug replacement. In reality this job at a mechanic shop should be no more than $130 that is less than half of the minimum price quoted by repairpal! If I am wrong about this then I would appreciate someone justifying $278 to $377 for spark plug replacement! Don't trust this sites estimater, this site has a lot of potential to do good and help keep mechanic shops honest, but not when their estimator is less honest than the mechanics! AutoMD.com is a much better option then this site. For the same repair it quoted me $235 to have 8 spark plugs replaced at a dealership, and $152 to have them replaced in a shop, this is much more accurate
This is a pretty cool idea and I would love to give it more stars, but I have to go with my personal estimate and not a random or easy one. In my case I queried the cost of an alternator replacement on an old GMC van, and the site came up with a price of between $263 and $393. And it quoted the cost of the part as $159 - $261. And perhaps that's correct, well let's be fair and say that's probably correct, if I take the vehicle to a repair shop. That in itself is a challenge since the site helpfully offered me 64 pages of possible shops to go to but at least I'm not short on choices.
However, a trip to the local parts store told me that the part costs only $44 from stock, as it's a very common one used in several different vehicles. I could take that to my local shop and they would fit it in an hour for another $80.
I think this is a neat idea and should definitely be one of your sources of information. But I wouldn't rely on it, solely, especially if the repair is a simple one and potentially D. I. Y, or which you can see is an easy one for the repair shop to get at.
I'd like to see a difficulty rating for repairs, indicating whether the average motorist could tackle the work. Obviously such a rating couldn't be any more accurate than any of the other ratings, but it might encourage more people to learn how to do things for themselves. And ultimately, it would be great to select the symptoms and have the site take an educated guess at the problem, too. It's got a lot of potential for development. At the moment I am a bit concerned that repair shops are going to be using this as a guide, so that if it shows my repair will cost $250 and they normally charge $150, they might be tempted to go with the higher figure. Not that there are many shops out there which would dream of doing such a thing, of course.
Gain trust and grow your business with customer reviews.
We're taking the mystery out of auto repair. You can visit RepairPal.com and get a quick, fair estimate that's tailored to your vehicle and where you live. RepairPal is also host to a network of over 2,000 repair shops across the nation that have undergone a rigorous certification process, ensuring fair pricing and trustworthy work for everyone. Additionally, when you get your repair done at a RepairPal Certified shop, you can rest easy knowing you're covered anywhere in the US by the RepairPal Nationwide Warranty.
RepairPal was founded in 2007 by a group of automobile enthusiasts and entrepreneurs who were frustrated by the expensive and tedious process of fixing and maintaining their vehicles. They created RepairPal to provide drivers with the most accurate, unbiased, and useful car ownership information available. RepairPal is partnered with a number of great organizations, including but not limited to, USAA, Cars.com, Consumer Reports, Bosch, Castrol, Napa, and ASE. RepairPal is headquartered in the SOMA neighborhood of San Francisco, CA.
Hey K. H., we're so sorry about your experience and the difficulty finding information about our program. We want to assure you that every shop is fully certified by our Automotive team, which has ASE Certified mechanics up to the Master Technician level speaking with shops.
Our certification has multiple core components to make sure customers are taken care of. We verify the parts supplier of the shop to ensure only high-quality parts go into people's vehicles. We also check into the training of hired technicians and how long the shop has been in business. We have requirements for current training of technicians to ensure customers are dealing with shops that are using the latest technology, especially as cars are becoming more and more like computers everyday! Speaking of technology, we're also looking into how the shop operates day-to-day – computer systems, invoicing, etc. We also make sure shops offer a minimum one year warranty on all parts and labor. Standing behind your work is a must in order to be a part of the RepairPal Network. We also back up that warranty nationally, so if you find yourself stranded because something went wrong with the water pump you jump had fixed, we will ensure you get back in a shop and get it fixed under our warranty. And of course, the shop must ALWAYS honor our fair price, no matter who walks through the door.
The last aspect which you touch upon is our customer survey of the shop to ensure the majority of interactions with the shop are positive. Because most review sites don't have implementations in place for review padding or sniffing out fake reviews from people, we only speak to customers who have actually visited the shop recently through invoicing. This ensures that each and every review is truthful and the shop has no way of mingling with the process. Thankfully, in order to do this, we don't actually have to be on site interviewing folks! We do all of this online or over the phone, so we're able to certify shops inside and outside of California. If all of these aspects check out, the shop has the opportunity to officially enter the program with RepairPal. We know that's a lot of information, but anyone who is in the network has been through this whole process.
I hope that sheds some light on the process for you. I also want to apologize that your email to us slipped through the cracks! RepairPal is in no way automated, so we're real people on the other end of the line who always want to help. Occasionally, we get bombarded with marketing emails asking for data, so there's a good chance yours might have been marked with that. We're always happy to answer any questions either through email, but also through social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn). You can email me personally at community@repairpal.com.
Thank you again and we hope you'll use RepairPal, whether it's for figuring out an issue, getting an estimate on work, or finding a shop close by. -KB