Merchant’s Tire & Auto Centers

didnt have much problem w oil change until 2 weeks later my car wont turn. to find out they stole my battery and replaced with a corroted one! now my car is freaking stuck at work garage! i called them and they say, well your car worked for 2 weeks didnt it. mofos!!! dont go there!!! it may be fine and maybe fast service… but then later u find out they steal your parts!!!

Didnt have much of a problem with this place. They honored their new tire warranty when I got a flat on one of their tires they had installed.
The prices of the tires when I originally went to them for installs, werent totally upcharged as I compared them prior to ordering it online.
I can’t say much on the time it takes to perform the service as I always had something else to do in towson as I waited for the car to be finished.
I just wish they were in a better location as their parking lot kinda sucks…

We have been using them for years. Never anything big just tires and what-​not. With that said they never try to sell us things we dont need and get the job done right the first time every time. George the service writer is great to work with as well. Highly recommend!

All good here. I needed a run flat tire fixed on a Sunday morning and these guys did it for about $ 30. It took 45 minutes and went well. Mike, the manager, was helpful and a pleasure to deal with. I will bring back my vehicle for maintenance going forward.

STOP: Do not take your vehicle to this place!!! My Jeep was there 3 separate times for a total 4 weeks and over $ 2,000 in repairs! It still is not right and never will be, I’m having to trade it in for far less then what it would have had I gone somewhere else. I wouldn’t trust this Auto Center to change a tire let alone do engine work!!!
The people who state they had a great experience are all probably friends or family of someone that works there.
STOP or you will regret it, I promise you!!!

Took my expedition in for steering wheel shaking. They first said the tires were worn out even though they only had 30k, shakes didn’t resolve so took it back and was told needed change of rotors and brake pads. I ended up paying ~2k

Brought my Jeep in for an oil change. The very next day the engine light was blaring and the car was shaking. When I returned the next day the mechanic claimed the light was on when he serviced it. Will never return.

Amazing experience! I had a flat tire and I called AAA. They couldn’t change my tire because I had locks on the tires and the previous owner didn’t give me the key. So the AAA guy filled my tire with air an followed me to this place. I had never gone here before but it was close. I got here only to discover I forgot my wallet. The one mechanic offered to drive me home so I could get my wallet!!! How nice is that!?! Luckily I found my wallet and I didn’t have to go get it but they were courteous and worked with me when I was stressed and upset. If I ever need anything done again I’m going here for sure!

Excellent experience! Wonderfully appointed Service Center and Waiting Lounge. Walked in with no appointment, and the Service Manager quickly found the tires I needed, and got me in and out in under two hours. I ended up needing 4 tires altogether, however that did not add to the overall time.
And understand that this place was jumping. Very busy for this time of year. I highly recommend this Service Center. The Staff is very competent and friendly. This will be my first choice for tires while I remain in Baltimore City. Also, for all you folks who love to shop, the Mall is a short 6-​minute walk around the block.

I drove up – was greeted nicely by a mechanic. The dude drove my car around the lot — jacked up the car — crawled under it — found a serious tire issue. Said they were busy so they sent me to their sister shop. 10 min later: No charge at all and I’m still alive.

The first time i went here was to get an oil change. Quick service, decently prized.
The 2^nd time i went there was to fix the head lights which went out the day before i was supposed to take my drivers test. Though we went around closing time, they squeezed us in. I had called 3 other places to get quotes, and all had given us the same prize. So went to the closest to our home, which is this. It took less than 15mnts.
i gather from the other reviews that if you are not going to get ur tires fixed, you get a good prize, and quick efficient service. But the place is called Merchants Tire and Aut. So it doesnt make sense they dont take care of their tire-​requiring customers, with more care.,
But for anything else, i probably would go here again.

Here’s a copy of the formal complaint I had to lodge with corporate. I would avoid this location at all costs. There are enough stores along York Rd to skip them.
On Tuesday, August 20, 2013, I called this store to set an appointment to have two tires replaced on my car. I had purchased the tires online and this store was a «Recommended Installer» who would honor a better price. I spoke to Brad, the Service Manager and set an appointment for Thursday the 22^nd to have my tires replaced for me. Brad knew I had one flat, so I would be bringing the wheel with the old tire and then the new tire with me to replace. At this time, I would go back home and bring the other one back over. I arrived a few minutes early for my 5:45 appointment with the old tire/​wheel and the new one. I walked in and spoke to Brad. Twice Brad attempted to double charge me the advertised/​agreed upon price until I corrected him both times. After signing it over, the tire was replaced. After settling up with Brad for the first wheel, I reminded him I would run home and be back with the second tire, as I live less than 4 minutes down the road. At this time, Brad informed me that they only had one tech on staff after 6:30 (It was just past 6 at this time) and that he needed me to come back the next day. This was rather upsetting as we had already agreed to this appointment on Tuesday and the shop was not very busy, with some of the tech’s just standing around. I agreed however to come back the next day (Friday, the 23^rd).
I came back the next day around 5PM, driving my car over to have the second tire replaced in the passenger front. I had the tire, and the wheel was still on the car. I walked in to the office, where Brad was working the front desk. After reminding him who I was, Brad tells me that they don’t have many techs that night and I should come back the next day. This was absolutely inexcusable to me, as any good service manager should be accommodating to a customer, especially one who came back the next day like he had asked me to do. Furthermore, an older gentleman tech was in the bay working on his personal car (The tech was being talked to by a younger tech who kept referring to it as the older gentleman’s car). I told Brad I needed to drive my car that evening and couldn’t wait any loner to get the tire done so I would just go a block down to Brooks-​Huff Tire to have it done. brad told me then that it would be fine and they’d do it for me if I could just wait a few. I agreed and handed over my key. I stood outside to wait for the car and after a bit a tech walked over to my car to work on it. The distance from where it was parked to the bay door was approximately ten feet. During this time, I watched the tech stall and dump the clutch four times. I could smell the stench of burnt clutch from 20 yards away where I was standing. At this point, a second tech comes over and proceeds to do the same thing several more times until they gave up. They ended up never even making it into the bay. Instead, they pulled out a hand jack in the parking lot to remove the wheel. As i started to walk over to say something about my clutch, the other tech comes over and says «Yea we aren’t familiar with a clutch and we barely knew how to start the car.» What shop doesn’t have someone on staff who can drive a stick shift? If they didn’t that night, why was I not informed or asked to assist in the moving of the car? The techs had definitely damaged my clutch with the extensive revving and dumping of the clutch that could be felt as soon as I drove away. After changing my tire, I went in to pay the bill and leave, where Brad AGAIN attempted to charge me a double price on the tire before I reminded him that it was wrong.

I came here to get a safety checkup for the car registration. They said it would take an hour; it took over 3. I don’t care how long something takes if they’re actually working on it, but just let me know so I’m not sitting there waiting…
They wanted to charge me $ 700+ for two tires, tire rods, a few light bulbs and $ 80 for doing the safety checkup. I was feeling jerked around, took it to another place who charged me $ 300 for the safety and two tires and they said the light bulbs and tire rods were fine.

Eh. My boy used to manage this store. Tried to upsell me on some tires. Wait time was to be expected (an hour and a half) for new rotors and brakes. Decent job on my brakes. Folks can’t hear me coming now.

I came here to get new wheels on my car, an alignment and my tires rotated. My dad and I dropped off the car at our 8am appointment, drove by around 11 and it still had not been taken into the garage. My dad called and asked them when it would be done done and they said they are putting it into the shop now. At 12 – 12:30 pm we called and the front desk said 20minutes. Half hour to an hour passed and after calling again they said 20 more minutes. At this point I’m irritated. We decided to drive there anyways and see what was up, my car was in the garage but not being worked on and wheels not even replaced. My dad told them he needed to leave and head back out of town so the front desk again said 30minutes to align, put rims on and rotate. We got so fed up we told them not to align the car. We got the car, rims were on, car drove great but they didnt even rotate the tires
Seriously, after it finally being done, and 6 hours later, all they could do was put wheels on, a job they completed in 10 minutes and made us wait around for 6 hours! It was ridiculous and I do not recommend this place. There are a ton others I will definitely look at on York road if I neeed work done! This place was ridiculous and I have never waited so long to get my car worked on! I gave it one star cause my car does not vibrate anymore but only cause WE bought rims and had them replaced. They didnt so anything out of the ordinary to impress me.

So, I got off the airplane at BWI and the flat tire sensor was going off on my car. I’d had a slow leak and balding tires for a while, so I decided it was time to get some new ones. I first called NTB in Beltsville (near my home) — and the guy didn’t seem to have very good customer service skills (click). Then I called Merchant’s in Towson (by my parents) and I spoke with Matt who was really sharp. He was able to get me in that afternoon, he knew about his products, he was friendly, and thorough. On top of that, they were having a buy 3, get one free tire sale — so that made it all the better…
Very pleased with service here. Would be willing to pay a higher price for this kind of service.

I would have given zero stars if that was an option. I was getting three new tires put on my car. Just tires. No alignment or anything like that. I was quoted 60 to 90 minutes. I’m still here and it’s been 3 hours. Go elsewhere unless you want to spend hours in a cramped waiting room, watching the style network, listening to the phone ring off the hook.

I placed one star but it’s because it won’t let you NOT place one. My car needed new tires & noticed they were having a ‘buy 2 get 2 free’ tire sale which sounded awesome. So I went for it. But when I looked at the bill, it states that I was charged $ 150 for a 3 yr warranty that I never asked for. But apparently you can’t get the tire deal w/​out that 3 yr warranty. GO TO COSTCO & get tires & you’ll get a LIFE TIME warranty.
But this isn’t the reason why I highly dislike this place.
CONSUMER BEWARE!!!
While they were changing the tires, my husband gets a call from them informing us that we need new brakes AND new rotors & that it’ll cost us $ 800 to replace. We kindly declined & told them to not worry about that as we would check them out ourselves. The lady on the other line didn’t seem to get the hint & insisted we replace them. So, we told her that we’re not going to drop an additional $ 800 on something unexpected like that. Then she rudely asked us «Why not just put it all on a credit card? You DO have a credit card right??» My husband was in shock at how pushy this chick was being! We take the car to his dad who knows a thing or two about brakes & not only were our rotors completely intact but our brakes weren’t in bad shape either!!!

Although Merchant’s Tire & Auto is very conveniently located (to be read as wait-​in-​mall-​across-​street-​for-​car-​fixing), I have been quite disappointed on several occasions with the quality of their work product.
The first time, we had major work done (car was shaking at certain speeds at gear switching w/​o apparent reason), they misdiagnosed the problem and ‘fixed’ parts that did not resolve the issue. Though they eventually did figure out the appropriate thing to tinker, we paid hundreds of additional dollars to get the appropriate part and work done. As for the initial replacement, we were told that this is another part that ‘had’ to be fixed, which makes me wish I read more car manuals growing up to refute that argument better!
The second major experience required replacing a bum, cracked headlight, which involved reordering the whole fixture. Again, hundreds of dollars down the drain – and the part did not even fit properly! Returning a few times did eventually (partly) resolve the situation but what a drag – even with the mall and things to do nearby. Think of it this way: if they mess up something that is so easily visible, what the heck are they doing beneath the hood?
The one great thing I can say about Merchant’s: their very helpful front desk attendant (blanking on her name at the moment…). She has on numerous occasions provided confident, patient explanations and advice, overall being really great.
While Merchant’s is alright for an occasional oil change and minor work, I would not, not recommend it for anything significant – just take your car to the dealer and, hopefully, avoid having to return again and again. (FYI: apparently, they partner with NTB so they will cross-​honor each other’s existing job/​part contracts; call ahead to confirm.)