I won't set foot in a Pep Boys since the Petersburg, VA location really screwed up a brake job back in 1994 or 1995, and when I nicely asked them to please look at the car and tell me what was wrong, well, they were too busy to look at it any time soon, and the shop manager was personally extremely insulting to me. I was kind of young (just out of college), kind of poor (OK, very poor, flight instructors don't make much money), and it must have been obvious to the shop manager that he could blow me off without any consequences to him or his shop. I had to drive a car in which the brake pedal sank nearly to the floor before getting any braking at all to another shop, which you can be sure I did very slowly.

When the second mechanics called Pep Boys (of their own volition) to tell them how badly they'd screwed up the job, costing me over a hundred extra to fix at their shop, Pep Boys agreed to refund what I had paid for the original brake job. When I showed up to collect my refund, they refunded me the $10 or so that the brake pads they had used for the job cost. Possibly the only time I ever considered vandalizing a business.

I live across the street from a location in Atlanta, and I won't buy so much as a wiper blade there. I'll drive past ten Pep Boys to get to an Auto Zone or a real mechanic.