I took my car to my local chain repair shop last Saturday because the parking brake was nonfunctional -- the lever, when pressed, had no resistance, and was clearly not hooked up to anything. They diagnosed that the cable had snapped (which seemed reasonable given the symptom), but also that my front roters and pads and my back roters, pads, and calipers needed replacing. Since that was enough repairs to qualify for a payment plan, I threw in an oil change, coolant system flush, and transmission flush, figuring the cost was negligible when amortized over six months of payments and I have a road trip coming up.
When I got the car back, I drove it home and set the parking break, and since the lever had resistance to it, I figured it was fixed now. Yay! But Monday morning, forgetting I had set the brake, I put the car in reverse... and it started rolling a little (I live in a hilly region). Curious, I gave it a touch of gas, and it pulled right out of the parking space as though the brake wasn't set -- which it still was.
I brought it back to them Monday night, having to leave work early to get there before they closed (which represents a small but real loss of income), and they were very apologetic, saying it just needed tightening. I picked it up 4 minutes before they closed and took it home.
Today (Tuesday), when heading out, I went halfway up the sloped driveway to our parking lot and put it in neutral, setting the parking brake. Sure enough, when I let go of the normal brake, it rolled right down the hill. So the problem is still not fixed.
Given that they've failed to fix the problem twice now, should I bring it back to the same shop? If not, how can I get it fixed without sinking more money into it? And given that they didn't fix the parking brake, how can I be sure they did my normal brakes properly? The car stops when I apply the brake, but I don't know much about brakes beyond that. I'm going on a road trip in a few weeks, I'd hate to have my brakes suddenly fail in the mountains.
Edit to add: It's a 2004 Chevy Impala. I was hoping for some way I could verify that the brakes are functional independent of taking it back to the place that screwed up twice, which seems more on topic than my original inquiry.