MERLIN COMPLETE AUTO CARE

I scheduled my appointment online and this location did not get this on their schedule. I called to let them know that I’m running late and couldn’t make my 12:30 appointment. They didn’t get that online appointment but they still accommodated me. I’ve called several shops and an auto diagnostics was $20-30 more elsewhere. I was planning on purchasing this used car but I wanted to know what repairs needed to be done. I was then able to negotiate 800 less on the purchase price of this car. Worth the $60 complete diagnostic charge. They did a top notch job. They took over 1 hour and at the end I received a diagnostic report of all the issues on this car.

Extremely dishonest shop. Please read: If the shop got their way, I'd have paid over $2000 for a single bad ignition coil on cylinder 4. I had a misfiring engine and was forced to pay a $167 diagnostic fee. The "Diagnosis" was ignition coils, valve cover gasket, fuel cleaning and spark plugs. The code showed it was cylinder 4 on the ignition coils (I ran my own reader beforehand) but the shop decided to quote me for all of the extra unneeded work too. They quoted $907.52 for the 4 ignition coils (I did these myself at home in 20 minutes and any person who has worked on this particular model knows this is an extremely dishonest quote) and I declined those but approved $700 for the rest of the repair. At this point, Steve turned from very friendly to very condescending and laughed over the phone. Totally different guy when you don't fall for their astronomical quotes. I approved the oil change and valve cover gasket and spark plugs (because Steve claimed the issue was the valve cover gasket). I then drove an hour to pick the car up (he said it would be ready) for him to call me at 5:50 (I was 5 minutes away) to say it wouldn't be ready. I turned around and drove an hour home. Steve called again at 6:15 and left a message saying he was adding $300 to the repair (I did not approve this and it is against Illinois law to add costs after agreeing without consent). The next day when picking up the car, Steve tried to convince/shame my partner that I should have done what he said. The car was still misfiring. I took it home, changed all 4 coils for $60 in 20 minutes, and the misfire went away. I was dishonesty swindled out of $1000 dollars by this shop. DO NOT GO HERE. The good reviews are simple oil changes and solicited. They lie to add costs. Do not remove diagnostic fees. And they diagnose wrong. They also do not follow Illinois law. Shameful. And I tried contacting Merlin corporate and got zero response. Please please please think twice before going here. MAKE SURE TO DOWNLOAD YOUR ESTIMATE AFTER SIGNING. Steve updated mine w/o consent and so I could not review the original signed estimate. Extremely shady tactic to shake you down for more money and hold your car hostage.