I wish I had found your site before going to Just Brakes today. I'm one of those "dumb" women who wasn't even sure I needed brakes, but I suspected I did as I heard some odd sounds yesterday when I would come to a stop. I'll just have them check to see if that's the problem, I thought. I didn't even notice that there was a $99.88 special (I told you..."dumb").
I was told they would check it, to take a seat. Talked to a grandmother who told me that she'd been there since 9:30am (it was around 1:00pm) and that her bill was $500, which surprised her as her car was only a year old. She said she couldn't afford it, but "what can you do?!" After about 1/2 hr., I was taken back through the garage to an outside driveway where my car was elevated and without wheels.
A very personable, seemingly knowledgeable guy walked me around the car, told me it was metal-on-metal on one, the others weren't quite that bad, but since I'd been so fortunate in not having had to replace the brakes on my 1997 Taurus ever, the brakes and pads should be replaced... For $99.88. Thinking of the grandmother I'd met, I asked: "For each wheel?" "No, " says he, smiling, "for all four!" Wow, do it, I say. They said to go back inside and someone would come for a walk-around in a little bit.
After 30 or 40 minutes, the cashier (pad in hand) takes me back to my car for the "walk-around" with the same personable man as before. I didn't get any talk on calipers, but I did agree to new brake fluid. The personable man kept measuring something and giving the numbers to the cashier, who wrote them down. Then I was told to return to the waiting room.
Finally, the cashier comes in and has a list of figures, none of which alone seemed horribly high, except mentally I could see it would be somewhere in the $400 ballpark. I asked a few questions (didn't know enough to know what I was talking about), then considered that my car was elevated, the wheels off, the time I had spent waiting, the fact that I HAD to have the car by Monday for work, and ended up initialing for permission to do the work. I got a ride home from a friend, and he told me that he'd gone in for brakes a couple years ago and it came to close to $500 also.
I'm seeing a pattern here. My friend, the grandmother, now me. All $500 for a simple brake job and I'm thinking of the whole psychology of how I was suckered into this, and the madder I got. They are SO slick. They have it down to a science, and I bet the many people who left their cars there today ALL had $500 bills. Mine was "only" $492.15
For that I supposedly got disc pads (4), brakes shoes (nothing circled as to how many),
rotor (4), "drum" is circled but again. Nothing circled as to which one, how many, etc. And this was the $99.88 charge; calipers (4).. Cost $104/146; "disc hardware" - 85.00; "bleed, fill and adjust brake system" for $39.95.
For those of you who are familiar with the cost of auto repairs, is this extremely high?
I don't even know that I got all that, but guess that's the risk you take when you aren't auto-savy or know who you're really dealing with. Just want to warn others (maybe especially WOMEN) to call around if you even suspect you have a brake problem to get some rates, and just hope you'll find a decent, reliable repair person.
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