automotive technician

automotive mechanic

automotive service advisor

service manager

master technician

Pep Boys

This position was indeed fun for the first year, but unfortunately since, my opinion of this business from an employee's perspective has reduced significantly. A change in management has definitely affected the place, in some ways good, but in others bad, and the bad had a tendency to outweigh the good.

Promises of improvement were made but never kept, new guidelines were instilled that I - as well as other co-workers I teamed with - did not agree with, and above all that was the inability for management to seriously listen to their associate and take consideration for their opinion. More often than not my criticisms were ignored completely, as well as my requests. I can vividly recall a time where I voiced I was not comfortable in an instance where I was requested to work a different department. I was ignored and placed in the department anyway, with no prior training for the position, and I feel this was an outstanding offensive maneuver to me personally as well as an embarrassment for the company since it was an area of customer service I was not experienced in nor trained for.

In addition, there is simply zero opportunity for progress in my employment. I have been an employee for two years, part time, and have inquired to be either given a raise or begin working full time, to both requests I was ignored. I have given the company my best effort every day, yet I am not recognized or rewarded for it, and even worse than that, new hire-ons are receiving more hours than myself, even though there my performance goes without any serious mistake. I can't help but feel insulted at this, as I am going on my second year of employment there, yet I'm constantly getting the least amount of hours I've ever seen.

I understand that the company has to cut back on hours sometimes, and as of late, we have seen one. But when I see myself getting roughly twenty (20) hours, where the newest associate I also register with is getting about thirty (30) hours for the same week when her employment has only been with us for about three or four months, I feel as if my position is meaningless to my superiors, and needless to say feel discriminated against - and my co-cashiers agree with me.

Henceforth my reasoning for currently seeking new employment as of this posting is simply because I do not enjoy it where I am and I need a new environment with better opportunities, better hours, and more importantly, more respect for its employees, which given my previous employer's behavior, those expectations won't be terribly difficult to meet and even surpass.

I cannot completely come down on all management though, as there was at least the assistant manager (or now known as Retail Floor Manager) that tried his hardest to work with me. Unfortunately, he was also often unheard or simply brushed off and ignored, and with his position, he only had so much control. I still regard him as someone I look up to and always back him up willingly and am happy to complete tasks he assigns.

To the better aspects however, my co-workers were always friendly, never any awkward or threatening presence in the work environment between co-workers. I got along with everyone that was in my department as well as other customer service level departments of the store. The casual environment among us was overall very pleasant.

The hardest part of my job would have to be difficult customers, such as ones not satisfied with a product or ones that thought for some reason a product was cheaper than advertised. Even so, such things didn't put a damper on my mood. I've never had any verbal conflicts between our patrons in the years that I've been there, as I am always willing to listen to our customers and try to meet their needs, if not reach a compromise should there be an issue of confusion of disagreement.

In fact, the most enjoyable part of my job were the customers themselves. I personally love to meet new people, and most of our customers had great personalities and an equally great sense of humor, which works out to my benefit because I love putting a smile on peoples' faces whenever I can.

Let's start out with the pay. Customer service advisers (CSA) make a meaningless $7.00 and hour to start, with a chance at a .2 to 1 percent raise after a years worth of service. The commission scale is a joke, so every cent the CSAs can make from a sale is needed. Pep Boys prices are 30-50% higher in price for parts, and if you need a part from the dealer the automated system marks the price up 20% higher than the dealer sells it to a consumer. These are not issues of the CSAs trying to rip you off, it is Pep Boys and their programs. Want to cut the cost and by the part at the parts counter for what Pep Boys deems the "do-it-yourself" price, and then have it installed at the service counter? They will give you a hassle unless you threaten that you will complain, then management cowers like a puppy and gives in to even the most ridiculous request.

If you are lucky enough to make it to a manager position expect your hourly to go up, but your commission percentage drops to 1% of personal sales. Work at a store that actually has staff and can hit your monthly sales quote for the store? You may actually get a bonus! Moved into a customer service manager position to oversee the parts, cashier, and service department sales quotas and goals? Don't expect the elite management comprising of the store manager and service manager to look at you as an equal. You are now just an overpaid worker bee that has manager's codes to give every single person who walks through the front doors a discount.

As many other reviews have said Pep Boys micromanages from behind a desk in PA, expecting some of the busiest stores to work with two CSAs in the entire stores at peak times to cut costs. By saving the 112 dollars a day per store to ensure there is not enough coverage, they are losing about a thousand dollars a day in sales. Makes logical sense, right? The stores are beyond understaffed on the inside, but in the shop it is usually overstaffed. This does not help since most of the technicians and mechanics feel they are entitled to every job that walks through the door, and if they don't get their way they hissy-fit to corporate for an hourly raise that far exceeds the store managers salary. The mechanics at my shop did not rip off people as consumers say, and again I will stress it is Pep Boys and their horrid pricing system. 

I gave Pep Boys a 1 overall star rating because of the current lack of values and morals with their management system. Managers will make promises they cannot keep to obtain you as an employee, and then ignore your requests to ensure that those promises are kept after you are hired. The revolving door of managers also does not help with creating an atmosphere or knowledge and corporate know-how. It is a dog-eat-dog world at Pep Boys. It is like working in high school, and every person will stab you in the back to move forward at any cost. Steer clear of this company until they move back to the way the company was run 6 years ago! 

To start, the pay is a joke. No one can properly explain how commission is supposed to work, so your paycheck as an advisor is a surprise. Every position they’re currently hiring for pays more than what they’re paying the employees that have held the same position for 2+ years, and they will not give anyone a raise.

The building is disgusting and falling apart. Pep Boys clearly has no interest in renovating this location, and it needs it desperately.

The current service manager treats everyone like idiots, customers and employees alike. He talks down to everyone, makes rude, sarcastic comments when asked a simple question, and talks badly about all the employees to each other and even customers. I’ve had SEVERAL former regular customers tell me they were no longer taking their cars to Pep Boys because the manager is so rude. Most of the customers I’ve seen in the past couple months were new, and I haven’t seen them since. 
He’s currently working all day every day, but it’s his own doing. He believes he’s the only person who can run the shop, and I was the only advisor. I was forced to train him and an assistant manager (who has already quit). I received no extra pay for this, and all it did was make him rely on me for pretty much everything. Despite being the one to train him and having run the shop alone many times before he was hired, he repeatedly told other employees that I can’t run the shop. I shouldn’t be surprised, since he made it clear he didn’t respect women in the industry on his first day, and often talked about firing me to other employees. He treated me like a secretary and a cashier. He thinks he’s above calling customers and cashing them out unless no one else is there to do so. If you’re an advisor or assistant manager, he will leave you alone on the desk, even if it’s busy, to find insignificant tasks to do or gossip with the techs. There have been several times when I had multiple customers in front of me, phone ringing off the hook, estimates to do, etc, and he just walked by without a word. Even when I was trying to hand in my resignation letter, he stayed in the shop most of the day and hardly spoke to me, so I couldn’t get his attention to let him know I was quitting. I decided to leave the letter on the desk when I left (after staying late to help with the sudden rush), and he complained about me to another employee for an hour after he found it.

They ran the last manager out by not letting him hire a sufficient staff and working him like a dog. They allowed the current manager to hire several employees, and most of them quit within a couple months. On top of that, the tire room has been an unorganized mess since the change in management, and incorrect parts are being ordered on a regular basis. 

I’m hoping someone will see the pattern here and make the necessary changes to keep this shop open.

If you wish to learn most of the  basics when it comes to being a tech this a good place to start. With that being said don’t ever plan on going flat rate unless you plan on being broke for a while. Our shop is struggling everyday to feed our techs hours as upper management is constantly pressuring us to make more sales, work faster, work longer shifts and on our days off which is just absurd. If you focus on doing just your work and keeping your head down and push a good amount of cars out they might consider giving you a raise  and that’s if your non replaceable because of your skills. Don’t plan on having much time off unless your using PTO and the only holidays you get are thanksgiving and Christmas. Don’t expect to be taken seriously for a while when you get there either as management views a lot of this as a joke. And if you are a good worker expect to be taken advantage of and being overworked with tasks that don’t even match the job description. If your building isn’t remodeled either you’re in for a world of terrible suprises that I couldn’t even list. The appreciation they show to techs is little to none and will constantly push recommendations that aren’t needed when they aren’t hitting quota and in turn most of the time it isn’t the service advisor that is telling you to make the sales fault it’s upper management shoving it down their throats. And upper management takes serious problems as jokes they will say it’s just an excuse your not making enough sales when the whole entire computer system is down in the store and it’s their job to repair the issue. Upper management is a huge issue and doesn’t take any responsibility as lower management tries to deal with all the new systems that don’t work because they aren’t given the time to adjust. If you have problems with your building even if they are serious it will take weeks for them to get out to you. Our store is such a joke we can’t even imagine at for our lots being plowed. All the lifts are old and quite frankly on the way out and there’s nests of birds in our walls that won’t be taken care of lowering our air quality. I would’ve never taken this job if I knew what stuff I would have to put up with and I don’t recommend anyone going there unless it’s for a short period of time. Any techs that go there will surely suffer as advisors try to lower prices because the labor rate is so high they have compensate for it and the techs end up doing more work for the same amount hours if there’s changes made. Taking a break during a busy day is practically breaking a holy commandment there so don’t expect to relax for at least half an hour when you really need it either. All in all this place sucks and I don’t recommend anyone working here. It’s all profit based only for the corporation and it should be left to die stuck in its ways 

College kids beware, if you apply to be part time they will schedule you full time hours if they feel the need to in which they almost always do and then get mad at you for not being able to show up even though you originally applied for a part time position, not full time. On top of that they will schedule you full time hours and you will not receive full time employee benefits, and when you ask management about it, they schedule you an hour less than what is considered full time the following week. Sneaky and manipulative company. You can forget about raises since it affects the managers bonuses so therefore if you don’t move up to assistant manager or a key holder you won’t be getting squat, even then they only pay them 2-3 bucks above minimum and treat them like slaves, making them work 10 hour shifts at times with no lunch. I’ve seen it. Schedule is always posted literally a day or two before the new week starts, or sometimes management will even shoot you a text on Sunday, the first day of the new week on what time to come in. Aside from the schedule being posted late, the schedule changes throughout the week! So you will think you’re off because you checked the night before and then get a call the next morning from a manager asking why you haven’t showed up and telling you that you should be checking your online schedule frequently since it’s always subject to change. This company doesn’t do anything by the book, and the area director doesn’t care for his employees either, all he cares about is numbers and sales being made and always nagging about sales but when a situation gets brought up in need of his assistance he will take forever to find a solution meanwhile workers are just left to be chewed up by the dogs. Throughout this COVID-19 pandemic pepboys has remained open and not given employees hazard pay, total bee es. Pepboys will cross train you and have you do tasks that other employees are trained for and being paid more for and still pay you your same wage. My coworkers always seemed miserable and tired being there, customers are in a bad mood since they’re most likely there because their car has broken down and need repairs. Employees only get a 20% discount on parts when customers can go to the online pepboys store and receive 25% off on parts, shows how much the company really cares about they’re employees. If you don’t plan on pursuing an actual career at pepboys just stay away and look for work somewhere else.

I worked at this company for six years and reported to multiple managers during that time. One manager in particular progressed from a Customer Service Associate (CSA) to Assistant Service Manager (ASM) finally to Service Manager (SM), while I grew from a mechanic to a master technician. Until recently, I had never seen leadership at the store level overwhelmed or unsupported. That changed when the Area Director position was eliminated. From that point forward, store leadership lost critical support, recognition, and appreciation. Over the following months, it became clear that upper management did not understand—or make an effort to understand—the local market, yet still expected the store to operate as if it were in a completely different region. This disconnect led to severe burnout at the store leadership level. Despite this, the SM worked hard to create fair schedules and maintain a healthy work-life balance for the team—something that would not have existed if decisions were made solely at the corporate level. The current direction of the company is concerning. Staffing a store with bodies does not make it productive. Productivity comes from trust, communication, and employees who work well together. The team that left the store I was working at did so because they trusted one another and felt supported by store leadership, who fostered a positive work environment through experience, knowledge, and accountability. I ultimately chose to leave because that leadership was no longer supported or respected by upper management, and I was unwilling to continue working under those conditions.

The management is awful. There is no training other than computer courses that you are expected to either take in between customers or take on your own time at home (unpaid). They will promise you anything to get you to take the job/stay at the job/stop complaining but they are all empty promises. The schedule is not flexible at all; for the first six months you have no PTO and are not allowed to take any days off or work any alternate hours unless you find someone to cover for you which is impossible since there is only one manager, one assistant manager, and one service advisor. 

Pay is $7.00/hr plus commission, but you have to watch out because it is easy for someone else to go in and rewrite your ticket so that they get the money for it and there is no way to track this because there is no way to look at the details of your commission beyond what your total was for the day. 

Benefits are mediocre; there is supposed to be a perks card that you get that gives you discounts at various places but I never got mine even after submitting two separate tickets for it. The insurance can be good but you are going to be spending your entire paycheck on it if you want decent coverage. You get hardly any time off and holidays are not paid; you don't even get paid time and a half for working on a holiday. 

It is very stressful; customers are constantly complaining about prices and about repairs. If you put tires on their car two weeks ago they will say it is somehow your shop's fault that their engine is overheating today. The only way to make any decent money is to push maintenance services onto people even if they don't really need them. 

This would be an okay part time gig for a kid still living with mom and dad who is into cars, but it is not something anyone can expect to make a career out of. You will also be expected to work every single Saturday and Sunday.

Pep Boys does not adhere to Mitchell International Labor guidelines for flat rate technicians. They like to make package deals for customers that cuts down on the labor to make the job, on the whole, more affordable. They still have a markup on parts just to bring them from the store, across the sales floor, to the shop. Shocks all pay .5 per pair, regardless of vehicle. Struts pay 1.8 per pair, regardless of vehicle, and that includes tear down. Also this company will punish the technician for using their low quality parts. If you put on a part that pays 2 hours and that part fails, you will have to put it on the second time, under warranty for 1.5 hours. This 25% reduction in pay also hits your diagnostic time. So even if it is the first time you have worked on it, and you did not install the original part, you are still having time taken away from what it should pay.
Pep Boys does not keep up with the times as far as their facilities go, the shop is in a state of needed repair, the equipment is very old and doesn't seem to be updated for decades. This also applies to the P.O.S. system and the shop management system. It simply takes too long to process a work order, or do anything at all with the system in place. It needs a major overhaul. No common shop chemicals are on hand, they are acquired by going to the store and grabbing what you need off the shelf, and having the service writers take it out of the system. But over time, this leads to inventory in the store not being correct, and the entire building being out of brake cleaner, power steering fluid, etc. 
Pep Boys does have a few up sides. They will pay for ASE tests, 4 per cycle, and they do provide a decent scan tool for the shop. I am not sure about benefits, as i haven't ever signed up for them.

I have been with Pepboys for years and see employees come and go. I went from making 60 hours in a week to little as 15. Depends on what manager is there. In saying that not all the pepboys I seen are bad. For the most part with management they don't care about the employees that work under them. We are just numbers to them. I haven't seen to many managers understand the dynamics of a shop flow. The difference of how the techs in that shop get paid makes a difference. Lately I have been hearing the word opportunity alot. Bring in every car and do 120 point like inspections on the CVI. I asked several time how is the shop and the tech making money on a $0 ticket and the vehicle sit in the shop up to an hour... Answer usually is opportunity. If your not paid by the hour you will struggle following all the Instructions implemented throughout the shop. I have seen cars not get fixed because of looking for something else to sell the customer. It's ok to let the customer know that there other issues but to put it as the focus over the problem is ridiculous. This place help grow good Technicians just to find another company to take them to the next level and spend more time with their family. As a Technician I can understand why alot of the people in the shop get burned out. Cause paying scale is not on how much work is done but in how much work in pay for to pay us. For example I pull in 4 cars that only CVI then that $0 dollar then the average time of each car done the way was told to do would be close to 3 hours. In reality a technician is going to struggle to make 70% productivity if they told you that apart of your job too. It depends on if the manager likes you too because it can happen where they will not bring work your way to make you leave. 

First 2 neighbors and  I have worked for pepboys We all started at minimum wage + commission At different times. Agreed upon taking the job with them. Coming from another shop that closed  I knew how it worked or should have worked. Well as a trainee I didn't pay attention much attention to the customers I serviced and if something was sold by me how much my commission would be, because I was always taught customers come first and the rewards will follow. now I'M starting my next six months. Training over My outlook for a better paycheck started to take place selling what ever wasn't tied down.So on two occasions  in the same week i sold over 1500 dollars each tires and other repairs.Those sales would have put almost 300 in my pocket alone. well come paycheck time I don't see the sales. here an employee who knows the system would cancel the ticket and rewrite it under his name or change a big item tickets usually by talking to the customer and telling them he has a better deal for them. Taking away from my commission. when I said something to the Manager (he is salary) he said ok I'll take care of it. whats your employee number and gave me everything he sold that day. Which was more than I would have made.But SAID nothing to the bad employee.
 I check my pay every week from then on. told every new employee about him so they could watch there commission. In talking to other store employees from other stores this is on going by employees that have been there a long time and that is why they are always hiring NEW EMPLOYEES ARE CHEATED AND LIED TO. It happens to the mechanics too favorites of these people get the best tickets.        Every time this guy stole from me the manager just gave me something of his equal value or higher. If you need a job take it but keep looking. not worth being cheated

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