Long Firestone Tires rant (about py, halfassed work)
I just got home from the Firestone Tires on the base here where our Pontiac was getting some work done and I cannot believe the things I saw. We are pretty pissed about it.
First of all, we should have known better than to go there. We got some new tires there a couple of months ago and when my wife got home she the car was running really bad and kept dying. I pop the hood and find this...
They lef the hose between the MAF and the TB unsecured so it was running like because of all the dirty, unmetered air it was ingesting. Nice. They apologized and were pretty cool about it so I let it go.
Last Thursday we finally decided to get some wheel bearings done on the Vibe. It had been making noise for a while. Nothing terrible, but noticeable. I tried to figure out which side was making noise and couldn't figure it out so we figured we would give Firestone another try since they are convenient (across the street from my wife's building.) We took it in Thursday morning and they called us within 2 hours and told me most of the noise was the right, front wheel bearing. They said the left side was somewhat worn, but did not need to be replaced urgently. I told them to go ahead and replace both side while it was in there and they said it would be a couple of hours.
They called me around 5 and told me they had trouble getting the parts in a timely manner (in their defense, a tipped over cattle truck was disrupting traffic that day) and that it would be finished first thing in the morning. I was fine with that.
The next day I dropped my wife at work and she was just going to walk over there to get the car during lunch. She got over there and they said the spindle nut was stripped and they couldn't find one. They said they had to get it from the dealer and it probably wouldn't be in until Monday (today.) I'm sure they didn't think to check the Toyota dealer, but anyway...
We did not hear from them today so I called them around lunch time. The guy said they were just getting all the parts they needed and were putting it together. He said it would be done in the afternoon. We stopped by at 6pm because they close at 7 and we hadn't heard anything from them. The guy at the counter apologized and said they were having a problem with the bearing and offered to take me in the back and show me. We went back there and had a look.
The Vibe was up on the lift with greasy hand prints all over it. The caliper was dangling by the hose. The ground effects were being bent by the positioning of the lift arms. He showed me the spindle while he explained to a stripped nut. He said it was fine to use even though it was missing 1/3 of the threads. After that I called his attention to everything they had done wrong and he admitted his tech did screw up bad enough to be pulled from the job. He (this guy was the shop manager) said he would personally oversee the correction of these things and that he or the store manager would contact me tomorrow morning to speak to me about the job.
Here are the pics...
He found a better place for the caliper once I called him out on it.
The quoted price for this "work" I had done was $477. I'm sure as hell not paying that. I knew I should have just done the work myself like I always do. This is why I avoid shops.
Topic: Long Firestone Tires rant (about py, halfassed work) (Read 2268 times)
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