On May 15, I took my 1987 Honda Civic to a Tires Plus store in Athens, GA, located at 1425 College Station Road. I had several things done to the car, including new brakes, front-end alignment, a transmission clutch assembly, and the replacement of the left front half shaft of the vehicle drive train. The total bill came to just over $1711.00. A lot of work needed to be done on this car.
I am very disappointed with the work done because after getting the car back, the right front axel fell out! (That is the right front "half shaft"). This happened while I was at a major intersection in Athens called "5 Points" at about 5:00 P.M., a very busy time. I was moving from a stopped position when it happened.
I feel that this was a potentially dangerous situation as it could have happened on a major road traveling at high speeds. When the axel fell out, I could not move the car nor could I steer it. It could have been very dangerous if that happens to a person doing, say, 55 mph.
I called a wrecker service, which happened to be located a few blocks away on Lumpkin Street. They came and loaded the car onto the wrecker and then asked me where I wanted them to take it. When I told them Tires Plus, they urged me not to go there! They recommended another garage next to their location saying that they had a real good mechanic. I had seen the axel of a former car of mine fall out after some faulty work was done years before this.
I also wanted a "second opinion" so I agreed to go to this other garage on Lumpkin Street. I ultimately had that garage replace the right front axel that fell out which cost an additional $290.00. I was so angry that I was not about to go back to Tires Plus for anything. I was angry about the cost of the work and the poor workmanship.
After having the repairs done at the second garage, I took their bill and Tires Plus bill back to Tires Plus. (I had been in communication with Tires Plus but I am trying to keep this short). I pointed out to them that they had replaced the left axel while the other garage had replaced the right axel. Then I said that I thought the work at the other garage was made necessary due to their work. They agreed to giving me credit on my credit card for the amount of the bill incurred at the other garage.
In conclusion, I thought that the work at Tires Plus was not of good quality based upon the axel falling out. It was expensive work and possibly double-charged in an off-hand way. After showing the bill to the folks at the second garage, they said that the charges were not only high but that some of the labor charges were in effect done twice. When they did one phase of a job, they could have completed another service without billing a second cost. Tires Plus was applying a standard labor charge to each service requested although some of the mechanical work actually overlapped.in reality, a mechanic can at times complete "this while working on that" and not have to make an extra labor charge.
Since that time, I have asked other people about Tires Plus. The responses that I get are usually something like "we don't go there", or it will be a story of Tires Plus saying something needed to be done to a car which turned out to not be the problem. Of course, it they had performed the service they suggested, it would have been expensive. I had bought some tires at Tires Plus a year-and-a-half before this and had no problem then. However, I should have asked around before going there again.
Anyone who is in business for themselves knows that there are at least two key things to staying in business: (1) Repeat business; and (2) Word-of-mouth advertising. Tires Plus will not be getting repeat business from me, nor any word-of-mouth advertising. It is too bad because they could be a good place to take your car. Having many stores, they could offer good warranty service. But we are looking for quality of workmanship and not finding it. For me, this will negatively reflect on all of their stores.
Tom
Athens, Georgia
U.S.A.
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