On Spet 10 2006 I took my 1986 GMC Surburban for some brake work, the pedal was going low to the floor and was taking longer for the truck to stop. I just had the vehicle over a yr so figured it needed pads. My Mom got a charge card for Pep Boys so I could make monthy payments as I am on limited income because of a disability.
Well at first I was told by the service dept it would cost $10 to check the brakes and that if they need to be done the $10 would be taken off the service bill if I have them do the work. Well after siting there for an hour they got it on the lift and said well you have a heavy duty rearend so we will have to now charge you $70 just to look at it and this will not come off the bill, well i have my 3 kids and my fiance here cant drive around with bad brakes they will get worse if you wait to long so I say well I need it done so Ok, they get the thing all aprt and show me the pads and shoes and say they are good that I need adjuster repair kits and cylinders for the back wheels so I say Ok to this and I had them do My NYS Inspection since it was due by the end of the month anyways. They tell me it will be a few hours so I walk to my moms who lives about 2 miles away. I kept calling back tehy say they will call when its done well 5 hours later i call they say its done. Well thanks for teh call to tell me. They did the work and passed my inspection. The cost was outrageous $68 for parts (Resonable), $21 for inspection (Expected) and $217 for labor (Ridicoulous) for a total of $307.
Well now to the story,
Today 9-30-06 I load the family into the suburban hop in start it up wait for the high idle to slow and put it in reverse to back out of my parking spot. Hit the break pedal to slow out and the truck keeps going back towards a dumpster and another car I keep pushing the brake pedal and it goes all the way to the floor I hurry turn the wheel to make a sharper turn to avoid hitting something and slam the shifter from reverse into park with the momentum it didnt kick in right away, but we finally came to a stop, prob not to healthy for a trany with 108,000 miles on it. We all were so shooken up my youngest son was crying saying we almost died. Well i live on top of a large hill what if this happened as I was going down the hill there is the power company at the bottom of the hill with huge ground transformers and stuff, we could have crashed into and all perished. 4 hours later and im still shokken up at what happened and what could have happened.
Well I wasnt about to trust the same shop so I dint even bother calling them It was done on a Pep Boys Charge card so I had to call another pep boys location I explained to him and strait out asked if I will be able to trust them to get this strait and not cover up any mistakes by the other Pep Boys he assured me that he would not that he is a good honst shop manager. I plan on calling corprate on Monday when they are open but from what I have been reading on here it prob. Wont do any good. I also am going to contact and attorney for advice and the BBB to try and do all the right things. Also teh state DMV about them passing the inspection and having teh brakes go bad. I could have had the work done by an autshop manager off duty who is a friend of the family and saved money (Not Pep Boy) but I figured brakes are puting youre lifes and familys lifes in someone elses hands so I want it done on the records with guaranty and a Legit and Licensed shop. And it turns out you cant even trust that.
Well I had Pep Boys service take care of the tow I will argue about paying that. So i will just have to wait and see what happens I will keep everyone informed. It is great that there are websites like this. Wish i would have looked before i took it to Pep Boys.
Richard
Solvay, New York
U.S.A.
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