I went to the Firestone located at 307 Market Place blvd., Cartersville, Ga. 30120, to get an oil change, tire rotation and balance, 9/22/06. I had an appointment at 12pm. The first thing when you pull up, you see a sign advertising oil changes for $16.99. When I got in, the guy told me that oh, no, the $16.99 is only if I would apply for their firestone credit card. It made no mention of this on the sign outside. So he tells me it is going to be $28.99. I told him that it was advertised in the paper for $18.99. I had to go dig the ad out of the newspaper to show him and he gives me the $18.99 price. I notice while waiting that they have the same advertisement on the bulletin board behind the register but they only seemed to be giving the price to those that notice.
Then I told him that I had lifetime rotate and balance on my tires I bought there about 6 months ago. The man helping me couldn't find it, he looked for a minute and then told me he did find it but only life time rotate, not balance. I insisted that I had it on there because I would not have bought tires there with out it. I could have gone to Sam's club where that is standard. He couldn't find it until I told him I had a copy of my receipt in the vehicle and I'd go get it to show him. "Magically" he then found it.
Well anyway, I go sit and wait on my van, 1 hour and 45 minutes later, (remember I am there for a simple oil change, tire rotation and balance, WITH an appointment) Gary comes out and tells me that Oh I have a SERIOUS extremely dangerous problem with my brakes and I better come take a look. I go out and see that my back brake pads are low. Not gone, just low. He seems to think that I know nothing about brakes and tells me that this has to be done now and he's got the ticket written out for me and he'll do it "for me" for $179. He said that he needed to put an air filter on too and would only charge me $31. I said no thanks, The ford dealership only charges $21 and I went and bought the filter when I left for $9.99.
About the brakes, I told Gary that I thought I'd just have my husband look at them since he's done the brakes on every car we've had for the past 10 years. He told me that my husband wouldn't want to do these. I told him I just didn't have the money to do it anyway and my husband can do it just for the cost of the brake pads. He said, well, his number one concern was the safety of my two year old and I really needed to get it done and "for me" he thinks he could come down to around $130.
I told him thanks for telling me about it but I'd let my husband look at it. He told me that unless my husband did brakes for a living that he wouldn't have the right tools to do these brakes. (they are standard disk brakes, nothing special about them) So I told him that I'd have him look at them and if he thought it was going to be too difficult I might bring it back in. He tells me that if I should bring it back in, that he didn't know if they could do it then. They'd have to look at it and the price would probably be much more then.
I asked him why it would be more then. He said that if my husband took them apart and put them back on backwards, they'd have a mess to deal with. I told him ok, I still needed to have him look at it. He dropped it and when I went to check out he told me that if I brought it back I could use a coupon for $25 off and get brake service for $150. I said, I thought you said that you'd do it for $130? He said that I seemed like a really nice person and that yeah, he'd probably still do it for $130.
While I was waiting for them to put my tires back on, to make conversation, (why i dont know) I asked him how much he would charge to do the spark plugs for our other car. He quoted me $259 and told me that "that was a very good deal." I told him that really it wasn't and the last time I was here another guy quoted me $179. He asked me if it was Pat, the guy that talked really fast. I told him yes it was and he said, "oh, that's why Pat isn't here anymore, he just gave stuff away and never made a profit, they transferred him to Colorado. He was good with people but didn't make the store any money."
To top everything off, as I was leaving I looked at the print out of services they did and they did not balance my tires as I asked them to do. There was no way I was going to let them touch my van again so i just left.
I think that whoever transferred Pat and left Gary in his place did the Cartersville firestone a huge disservice. I regret buying my tires from firestone now. I will not EVER go back to that store and will not recommend anyone I know go there either.
Jamie
cartersville, Georgia
U.S.A.
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