Valvoline

I rarely have time to scratch my head lately (job-searching as a new-comer to Oregon), but there was no way I was going to miss out on the opportunity to compliment and thank Valvoline for running such a high-quality business, and the guys at the 26th Avenue Portland location for being great at what they do. THANK YOU! Signed, your permanent new customer, Jennifer **.

Even the prior quoted price of the full-synth oil change for the make, model, year and engine of the vehicle I gave them was a lie. The 93.99 price was given to me "plus tax". However, even though they KNEW the vehicle ('21 Santa Fe), they proceeded to charge an "extra oil charge" AND a labor charge for the oil change on top of it. Don't be fooled by their scam operation.

Speaking to the manager is a complete waste of time since he tries to talk to you like you are an idiot with things like: "Anytime you get work done anywhere, they charge for labor" and "We don't know in advance how much oil your vehicle takes". Seriously. He actually said those things and a few more. And refuses to do anything about it other than to tell me to contact their attorney. Been going to JiffyLube, Walmart, and half a dozen other places in the Cedar Park/Leander area for 20+ years and never had an issue until going to this scam Valvoline location. On a positive note, my Wife said they were really friendly!

After my car was logged in- Another person came to ask me if I want about 7 add-on services. I replied that I only wanted an oil change. I figured I would be in and out in 15 minutes. Boy was I wrong... After 20 minutes and several cars that came in after me had left I tried to get the attention of the single person directing every one and he finally told me 10 minutes. After being in the bay for 25 minutes and I finally called Valvoline Customer Support (Which could be heard on the car speaker) and the single person that was directing all the trainees walked over and told me my drain plug was stripped and then walked away.

The drain plug was not stripped before and there definitely was not an oil leak before. That said, they put in a "New Drain Plug" and made me wait until the new drain plug "Sealed". When I got home 1.6 miles from shop - There was a minor oil leak which became much more pronounced after a few miles. I had to take the car to local dealership which charged over $1,000.00 to replace oil pan which included an oil change. I have not heard back from Valvoline Customer Service.

I hurry over to the closest of the two, pull up to the location, and speak with one of the employees. Very straightforward, he informs me that it would be a 4-hour wait in order to get an inspection... I half expected this to be the case - arriving 12 minutes after opening to one of two locations in my city providing inspections. Nonetheless, I was still taken aback by the inability of Valvoline to provide such a fundamental service.

This review isn't so much about the service I received (or lack thereof, however, the two employees I spoke with were apologetic and willing to explain the situation), but more so an inditement on the company itself for lack of information and failing to provide for perhaps the highest-demand vehicle service. To have 9 locations in the Rochester, NY area and only provide state inspection services at two locations is not good, nor convenient service. To not warn potential customers on your website of said shortage, while not necessarily false marketing, is nonetheless unfortunate as uninformed people would just assume the service would be provided. To have to drive to a location and speak with an employee just trying to do their job in order to get an explanation for a service you lack is a bad experience.

While I understand not advertising the shortage of inspectors for fear of losing service, ultimately, you end up driving away potential customers like myself due to this type of inconvenience. I propose Valvoline addresses this shortage by (a) adding a banner to the front page of https://www.valvoline.com/ acknowledging potential shortages, (b) on locations pages, noting if a location provides inspection services or not, (c) providing locations that don't offer inspections proper signage to acknowledge that they don't provide inspections to people arriving to the location assuming they could be serviced (this would prevent people from having to wait to speak with an employee, only to be informed of the shortage of inspectors), or (d) hire/train more inspectors to meet the demand for a highly sought-after service.

Having received services from Valvoline on several occasions, I understand the convenience of having multiple locations capable of providing automotive preventive maintenance services in my area. However, having experienced issues the last three years when attempting to get my vehicle inspected, something needs to change in order to address this failure on behalf of this brand's management, marketing, employee training, website team... whoever's responsible for any of the items noted above to address this issue.