Diagnostics Unlimited

 

7

25

Laura P.

Oakland, CA

I am horrified at the problems that people are reporting here, because I have never had any kind of trouble with taking my business to Diagnostics Unlimited.

Roy Barron, the shop manager, is simply, utterly, completely fantastic.  He is not only a wonderful, personable guy, he has never blown me off or dumbed down his language when explaining to me what is wrong with my car.  He keeps me updated and gets the job done fast and when he says he will.

My husband and I stumbled (literally, my piece of crap Saturn broke down in front of his shop one day) on Diagnostics Unlimited, and Roy, about three years ago.  I had just gotten a quickie oilchange from the drive-through place on the other side of the complex when my car blew up.  We limped it back in to the parking lot, where it died.  Roy's was the third shop we tried, and he was not only the least expensive, but also the quickest- he got my car inspected that day, when everyone else said two to three days.

I have never looked back.  Roy, who -really- makes the entire shop, has worked with my husband (who drives 65k miles a year) and I financially when the repairs were high.  He has always treated us with respect, and seems genuinely happy to see us, even for a simple oil change.

And yeah, silly as it may be, I do drive the 40 miles or so for that oil change!

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0

1

John C.

Sunnyvale, CA

They Wrecked My Car, But That's Not All  - Not A Joke

I had the worst experience ever with auto repair at Diagnostics Unlimited. I took my car in for a brake job. After they did the brake job they took my car out for a test drive. The driver side front wheel came off (good work)  while they were driving it. My car was in the body shop for about 20 days.  Diagnostics Unlimited did not pay for my rental car, although they said they would ($499.89), and they charged me full price for the brake job. The brake job estimate started out at a couple hundred, then they kept calling me telling me it would be more. Finally
the cost was $833.46.     They did not compensate me for the time off from work, lost vacation, and all the time spent with insurance, and my car just doesn't run the same now.

It's not over yet. I will be taking legal action to get Diagnostics Unlimited to do the right thing.  I plan to recover the cost of the rental car and have a different mechanic inspect my car.  I plan to lose lots of my time, but perhaps they will start treating people more fairly after this. It would probably be best if they just went out of business.  Is there a NEGATIVE star rating?

John C.

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21

192

Lauren W.

Sunnyvale, CA

I was really suprised to read a negative review of this place -- my experience there was great.  My husband has been taking our cars here for oil changes and routine maintenance for a while now, so when my car had a major problem and had to be towed in for repairs, this is where we brought it.  Although I was afraid we were dealing with a major electrical problem, Diagnostics Unlimited was able to replace the battery and several fuses (which had all blown simultaneously) and fix the problem with much less expense than I had feared.  The service was the main plus -- they explained in detail what had been done, what the problem was, and how they had fixed it, and detailed all the costs without me having to ask.  I will definitely keep coming back here.

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10

152

Patrick W.

Sunnyvale, CA

It is hard to find an auto repair shop you can trust, but I think I found one with Diagnostics Unlimited.  I've been bringing our cars here for over a year now and haven't been let down yet.  They have excellent prices for standard oil changes for for regular check-ups (30K, 100K, etc.)  Also, they have never tried to push some repair on me that wasn't required, and they don't pull that jiffy-lube crap where they show you the dirty air filter every oil change and try to get you to spend $15 for them to change it.

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37

175

Cheri M.

Campbell, CA

I have mixed feelings on this place because I really like Roy who works there. He's really nice and has always helped me out. So 1 star for him. if it wasn't for him i'd never ever go there.

I've had so many problems with my previous car, and now the current car as well. I took my previous car to Diagnostics and there was a problem with the carburetor and we paid near $1000 to fix it. Too bad it was never fixed. I continued having problems with it. This week the person who bought that car is taking it to a different shop to deal with the carburetor since it is still NOT fixed. Not only wasn't it fixed I was without a car for OVER a week. I brought this car in a few times besides that and I picked up the  car right before 6pm (they close at that point) I get in and none of the lights will turn on from the inside of the car, but I start driving anyways I get home pickup my BF head off to dinner (my house was 5 min away from Diagnostics) Dinner was 5 min away from the house. The car dies in the middle of the road 10 min after being taken from the shop. My boyfriend has to jump out and push it to the side of the road and almost gets hit by a car while doing so. I park the car on some random street and leave a message at Diagnostics that the car won't start and they need to come tow it. Roy wasn't in the next day so I had to deal with the idiots who work there and FINALLY got them to tow the damn car. They work on it, I get it back.. it dies again a week later. So I sold the car. And its still having problems..

Got a new car... was doing fine. Needed new brakes took it in to Diagnostics. Roy was a pleasure to deal with, as always. Got the car back, it was making this HORRIBLE sound (i thought they test drove it? How could they miss this?) I could hear my boyfriend driving it from around the corner the noise was so loud. So now we're too scared to drive it we park it on the street and borrow a friends car for the night. Next day bring it back to Diagnostics, apparently tire wasn't put on right (hmm.. YOU didnt notice that?! Not even on the test drive?!?!? wtf!) so they fixed it, gave it back. Now 3 days later, brakes are squealing. Car is making the same noise it was previously that we had paid to get "fixed".. yea sure.

And it was weird how everytime i gave them my car it had more than a 1/4 tank of gas, and I'd pick it up and it was on the red line EMPTY. But if they did indeed fix it and test drive it (which they obviously did b/c my gas was GONE) wouldn't they have heard the noise?

Needless to say, I don't think I'll be going back. Roy is awesome he's such a nice guy but my car is more important to me and I'm not paying Diagnostics to fix it when they don't.

UPDATE 10.1.07:

Thanks to the idiot mechanics here at Diagnostics (Roy excluded) my whole engine needs to be replace because of their mistakes, THANKS.

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1

14

allan c.

San Carlos, CA

This place is as crooked as they come.  

Wife went for a oil change and had them take a look at the AC
which had gotten weak and then quit.  

They claimed that it wouldn't hold pressure and that they had run the
tracer fluid through and it was the compressor which was going to
need $1000+ to replace.

Luckily she asked me before spending money there, and we took
it to Ron Price Subaru.  They tried but could not find a leak.  A simple
recharge was all it needed.  They even kept it for another day and
ran just to make sure.  AC has been fine since.

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