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September 2023 by Laura F.
They don't respect initial quote. I had to pay over $130 more. Service time is also long. Very disorganized business. Save yourself time and money and go another place!
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August 2023 by 3rd Gen T4R 4.
Royal Oaks Auto Repair Inc. 300 SALINAS ROAD (831) 722-9116 Mechanic Shop Royal Oaks, CA 95076 (831) 768-8832 ARD# 289651 ARD#293175 EPA: CAL000433836 On Sunday, August 13th, 2023, I was driving from Santa Cruz, CA with my family. My 1999 Toyota 4Runner was leaking and shaking. We are from Los Angeles and looked up a mechanic and called Royal Oaks Auto Repair. They were near closing, took a brief look, and advised that the water pump was leaking. They advised that they open at 8 am if I wanted to take it back the following day. We drove to the nearest hotel, and the next morning, I took my 4Runner to them. I asked how long it would be, and they said a few hours. I kept calling to follow up, and they kept saying a few more hours. It was now 3 pm, and my truck was still not ready. They said something else was leaking but couldn't figure out what. We could not stay another night and I called the shop and told them to get my truck ready as I was picking it up. When I got to the shop, Renteria said they "were almost going to fix it" and for me to leave it, and he'd have it done by morning. At this point, he knew I rented a car to get my family back to Los Angeles and that we were leaving. The following day, I called him to inform him that I had a car carrier picking up my truck by noon. He agreed. Noon came, and I called to follow up. He said my truck wasn't ready and that they needed more time. My driver showed up at 2 pm and my truck was not ready. My driver waited until 5 pm for them to complete this job. They took two workdays, 8-5 pm, Monday, 8/14 & Tuesday, 8/15 to complete this job. I called to pay, and the son told me the total was $2000. Renteria gave me a price of $700 for the water pump and an additional $400 for the intake manifold gasket, a total of $1100. He gave me this price on Monday 8/14, in person, when I tried to pick up my truck and asked me to leave it for him to complete the job. How did an $1100 job turn into $2000? He was now strong-arming me / forcing me to pay the amount he wanted as I was already in Los Angeles and couldn't pick up my truck myself, and my driver was waiting to transport the car to Los Angeles. Had my driver left without my truck, I would have had to pay a dry-run fee of half to the full amount of what I paid for the transport. I reminded him of the amount he gave me, but he gave me bogus reasons as to why it increased; amongst them: it took us over 11 hours to fix this for you, the parts cost a lot, the screw that was stuck took us three hours, etc. They held my truck hostage, until I paid what he wanted me to pay, $1663.01, $563 more than the price he gave me on Monday, 8/14, in person when I was trying to take my truck out of his shop. He knew my family, and I were in trouble and far from home, already dealing with the mechanic from home's mistake, ruining our trip and my 4Runner. Instead of helping, he took total advantage of the situation and me. My truck arrived today, 8/16 at midnight. It feels worse now than when I left it with Royal Oaks Auto Repair. It was checked by my mechanic this morning, and he stated that had they conducted a compression test they would have known as a mechanic and as a responsible business, not to do any work on the truck as it was already a shot engine / compromised. They moved forward and performed this work on a faulty engine.
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December 2022 by Jesse G.
I would recommend staying away from this place. I had my 4 disks and pads replaced 6 months ago, they changed me over $1.300. After a week of non stop squeaking I went back. They said the parts had been defective and had to change them again. I was told I had 3 years warranty on rotors and one year on pads, and they wrote it on the receipt as well. I dropped it off again this weekend because the brakes were grinding loudly for the past couple of weeks. They said they had to replace the disks and pads again. I just picked it up and was charged $250 for labor. I complained and asked why I was being charged. I told the receptionist (who has the stupidest attitude) that if they had done the job correctly or installed good parts initially there would be no reason why I would have had to return and would be no labor needed. Her stupid response was "you should have paid for good parts" I was told that good parts were I stalled on my vehicle, and for $1,300 I would expect the parts to be good!! So was she saying I was charged for good parts and give cheap parts? Was she telling me they scammed me? After I confronted her comment she then kept up her stupidity and said "well you you're a bad driver". Prior to going to this place for service, I drove my vehicle for about 2 years with the previous disks and pads and never once had an issue. It's ridiculous to get that type of service for the money you pay. To top it off you have to deal with a stupid receptionist that doesn't know how to say anything intelligent. I regret going there and hope people stay away and don't have to go through what I did.
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May 2022 by Elise K.
Oops. I know I posted my original review very recently, despite my experience with this shop being 2 months ago. I had wanted to hold off on reviewing to make sure the car was alright... Guess I should've held off a little longer. I had another issue with my car recently, hood latch cable broke. Thought it was separate, but according to the people repairing this issue, the radiator was installed in a way that pushed up against the cable which eventually led to the cable snapping. I'm still grateful for their help in my emergency situation and the radiator runs fine, but I'm not thrilled about having to spend another few hundred dollars on a problem that this installation caused. Gonna give them the benefit of the doubt and say it was probably a difficult job, my car's given other shops a hard time just with the way things are organized in the engine bay, and I definitelt couldn't have done it myself. TL;DR: Job wasn't done the way it was supposed to. Radiator still works, original problem was fixed, car runs fine, but now I've got a new issue that I have to take care of (at another shop).
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April 2022 by Julian P.
Came here to get some wheels on with spacers and they told me they could order em with bolts and have em here the next day and gave me a price I said ok . The next day they call me and I go on my lunch break to get it done, I show up they say "they forgot to put them on the truck, come back tomorrow at 11". I show up at 11 and they only had the spacers and they weren't even the correct ones. They didn't do the measurements the first time. Still waiting for their response......
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November 2021 by Julian C.
I feel bad giving a local business a bad review but after I saw another review of this garage basically telling the same story as mine I think people should be at least aware of what could be a bit of a trend at Royal Oaks Auto Repair. Brought my truck in for an oil change and to look at a starting problem in the wet. Aside from that, the truck runs perfectly. I was told to come in at 8 the following morning, which I did. It took until 9 for someone to see me, discuss the problem, and for me to agree to them ordering two parts so they could see what was needed and put on whichever one was. Was quoted $65 for the part and $80 labor. I left $100 deposit. Two days later!... and the story was the truck now wouldn't start at all and it was going to cost $500-$600 to fix it. The truck is scarcely even worth that and I had explicitly said at the outset that I didn't want to spend a lot on this issue because the truck is running great... just a bit of a pain to have to put it in the garage when it's raining. After some to-ing and fro-ing they agreed to put it back as it was, with the warning that this was a very temporary fix and that the truck 'is going to let you down very soon' and charged me $80 for the privilege. These guys seem like nice people and maybe they are. But essentially I just gave them $80 to not have transport for two days and be left with the anxiety that my hitherto reliable truck is about to let me down.
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September 2021 by Roberto L.
I stopped by to get new tires installed on the rear of my car. The job was done within an hour but I noted damage to the stainless lips on one of the wheels. I called the older man out on the mishandling of my property and he didn't take any responsibility. If this is what you want to put up with, bring your car in. They are also eager to be paid.
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August 2021 by Murat O.
Total waste of time ,dishonest people . I took my car there , i provided the parts .I was quoted for the brakes and rotor replacement $100. Later i received a call saying parts were wrong. They wanted to charge me more. I said no , just put the parts back .For just putting one wheel back they charge me $80 . Not even half of the job was done $80 . Total job was $100.So please do not go there and waste your time and get frustrated . I will also let Bureau of Automative Repair will know this .
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October 2020 by Janet S.
I want to write a long--but not sordid--story of Royal Oaks outstanding service. But Before I get to the the story, here's the bottom line: Helpfulness: outstanding. Expertise: outstanding. Outcome. Excellent! I am so grateful for their service to me! I lost all my engine oil in about 4 minutes. Providentially my oil light came on quite close to this business but after hours. Someone (not me) alerted the owner to my predicament. Early the next morning while I was trying to get a tow truck to take me to the Toyota dealership, the Royal Oaks owner came to my car, listened to my story, offered his service. He listened to me. He called a couple helpers & they pushed my car to their business. I thought I'd lost the oil pan plug. Nope. Gash in the oil pan? Nope. It was a pin sized hole in the oil cooler hose. They found it, fixed it & ---thanks be to God---my car runs as well as before. It was an amazing experience watching these guys work. I was an out of town female, headed to be a Good Samaritan with Samaritan's Purse, and these guys were my Good Samaritan! thank you! Services: Check engine light diagnostic, General repairs & maintenance, Engine repair
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February 2020 by Melinda G.
I would never recommend this place to anyone. I went in to have the oil changed on my van, and I explained that I had to be somewhere before 3:00 it took them an hour and a half. My van was up on the lift almost the whole hour and a half before they finally worked on it. I left there so angry. I'll never go there again.
