Talk about poetic justice! I love to see crooked S.O.B.s get what they deserve. Thanks for the kick-*** story.

 

here's how it works

1. pay the parts changer a low hourly rate and a huge bonus on parts sold. Obviously he is going to pushing parts like a one armed paper hanger.

2. cover your *** from lawyers. what do you think happens when there is an accident and the reason is "my brakes didn't work?" lawyer goes after the brake shop with an arm load full of newspaper adds advertising brake jobs as turn rotors, replace pads, rebuild calipers etc. he asks the shop owner "what do you mean you only replaced the pads? pads aren't a complete brake job read what the newspaper advertise as a brake job.


Root cause

greedy lawyers
greedy mamagement

 

for me, my experiences with Firestone when i was younger taught me my lessons on these crooked retail chains.

i think the first thing was i took my vehicle in for an oil change with a coupon and got the laundry list of items they wanted to fix, not to mention not honor the price of the coupon. it was a battle just to get my vehicle and leave. that was first.

next, i purchased tires for my toyota 4x4 from a different Firestone. that went well of course, because i spent all the money on the tires so it went as planned. the mistake i made however was taking the truck back for the 'free rotation'. i should have never left her side, but i did and walked to a store next door while they 'worked' on it. i came back to "we have a problem sir. you have a leaking brake line in the back that needs to be replaced and we need to drop the gas tank to do it". nonsense i said, the truck was fine when i drove in, give me the keys. "we can't sir, you have no brakes, it is unsafe to drive, we already drained all the fluid out." i was livid and did everything i could but they refused to do anything without doing the repair and charging me. looking back i should have called the cops. i told them to push the truck out into the lot. i then pushed it over into an adjoining lot and called AAA to get it towed to my mechanic who did whatever needed to be done. i would have paid my guy double than give those b*stards a penny.

its been about 15 years since then and never again will i set foot in one of those places. from that point on i started to teach myself routine maintenance and never looked back.

 

My huge got took was at WARDS. my full size bronco needed tires You know the ones they advertise in the sunday paper for a real good price,
by the time they were done with me after giving me the "They cant let it on the road because of a law" speach. I had bought new tires, new shocks (6) of them. rotors, brake lines, calipers, and payed for a repacking of the front hubs, which buy the way they had to do any way! I was just flat out young and dumb. They even talked me into there credit card so i could save 10%... well many years later I am one tough customer And Ill never forget it.
I also love midas lifetime muffler..... that does not include the pipes, hanger or labor. yep been that route also. free muffler equals about 200 dollars. Just try to tell midas you just want the muffler, You will get it and they will ask you to sign a paper that frees them of the free mufflers. I did it.

 

I took one of my winter beaters into a big chain store for an inspection sticker with a 1 month old clutch that I put in myself. The guy running the station could not drive a stick. He stalled my car 8 or 9 times in front of me trying to get it out of the parking space then told me I could not pass inspection with a bad clutch, but would be happy to replace it for $800. I pretty much told him to FO and showed him how well the clutch worked by lighting the tires up though third on my way out of the lot. I was 17 and stupid then but who wasn't.

 

Wow i'm about to go into depression. But I'll add my 10 cents. Went to some tire chain out here is SoCal, long story short, brought my own brake parts, was told they'd change them for me using my parts. Truck was on the jack and they were about to do the change when the guy informed me that they can't use my parts legally. They have to use their own. I said forget it, i'll be on my way, they said "no you can't drive like this". Then they showed me how the brakes were supposedly about to explode off my truck and put an end to civilization in a massive nuclear cloud. I had them put the tires back on and i bought a 3 ton jack and did it myself. Bottom line: I was impatient and lazy and wasted more time that i would have just doing it myself in the first place.

 

Been working for a major chain for 3 months (in college still...and its good money). I've always done most of my work on my truck myself, so I'm pretty good mechanically. But still, for what I do (some brakes, alignments, oil, fuel systems, tires, batteries) the training involves a computer course where you just hit 'yes' 400 times.

I must say, be careful of the chains. The majority of their business comes from oil, tires, and batteries. The rest (bonus money) is from people stuck at the mall with a bad starter/alternator (now can you guess who I work for..shhhh) or people who can be "taken" for having an "unsafe vehicle".

It is unfortunate because a lot of times when we recommend something, it truly needs to be done (yet we are ignored). But at the same time, we get about $5 an hour and make about twice that off our incentives. So yeah, parts and services are being pushed.

Bottom line is this, to the chains, you are just another work order that is an opportunity for some extra cash. To a private shop, you are a customer. The small shops look more long term in the way they treat their customers. You may be in for an oil change now, but in 100,000 miles, you will need a lot of work. If they invest the time, care, and honesty now, it will pay off later for them. The chains don't get that.

I know I'm putting myself out of a job, but use the chains for the coupons and crap like that, but for anything else go to the small shops. And watch the techs do the work! As uncomfortable as it is to have someone breathing down my neck, I'd rather show the customer that his drain plug was stripped and leaking before I got to it. And you, the customer, can hopefully stop them from poking holes in your exhaust with an icepick.

 

it's "bureau" and here is a link to their site http://bbb.org/

 

One of my vehicles needed a free muffler becasue it rusted out and they tried to charge me for the tail pipes. The first muffler they sold me had the tail pipes attached so I simply told them that they could either remove the tail pipes and install a muffler identical to the one they first sold me or they could give me the tail pipes for free. I also made them write on the warranty card that any future replacements would include the free tail pipes.

JMC