I had the brakes on my daughter's 2002 Hyundai Elantra inspected when the tires were rotated and was told she needed front brakes only and preventative maintenance on the rear brakes. The quote was over $200 so I took the car to Just Brakes because of the better price.
Originally, my daughter (age 18) was going to take the car in herself but I offered to buy lunch if she brought it to the place close to work. I signed the agreement to perform the $99.88 brake job and approve any other work in advance. I offered to wait while they checked the brake system (that had just been checked the night before).
The mechanic walked me around the car, showed me uneven wear on my pads, and informed me it looked like the caliper had been held down incessantly to cause the uneven wear. Then he showed me some leakage around the rear cylinder. He pulled back the rubber boots with a screwdriver, showed me some brake fluid in each boot and told me there should be no dirt or moisture in there at all. My estimate came to $391. After reading the posts on this website, mine seems to be on the low end. I told the mechanic the car was covered under warranty so I'd be taking it to the dealer. He recommended I go to lunch as he needed about 30 mins to reassemble the car.
I came back to work and called the dealer who told me that several people have come to him with this exact same scenario provided by Just Brakes, that some fluid in the boot is normal, and most likely there is nothing wrong with my car other than needing front pads. He told me about the complaints on the web and the Dateline episode. After reading the posts on this website, it frightens me to think I let my daughter drive off with her car and pick up my 7 yr old son. I'm taking the car into the dealer first thing tomorrow to find out if Just Brakes damaged any part of my brake system while we were at lunch. I am sick about this. How can a company be so fraudulent with something as life threatening as a brake system???
Does anyone have any suits pending or know of a way to stop this company from continuing this practice? This has been going on for at least 4 years and I've read nothing that indicates any slowdown of this practice to con hard working men and women who, if they had money to burn, would probably not be going to this company in the first place.
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