On April 8th, I had my wife take our Quest mini-van in for a front brake job. The advertised price for a four wheel brake-job is $99.88.
I knew from the last trip to Just Brakes that they were going to inspect the rest of the brake system. My wife had taken the vehicle there in May. We payed $600 for front caliper rebuild, rear brake piston rebuild, and the brake job itself (pads, shoes, and rotor/drum resurfacing). Here is the description of what was wrong (May '07):
"Front calipers are not retracting so pads are always touching the rotor. The rear springs are weak. Because of that, the front brakes have been doing all of the work. The front calipers need to be rebuilt. The front rotors can be resurfaced, but it's probably the last time. There's also a brake fluid leak. The rear pistons need to be rebuilt so that the front brakes aren't doing all the work." — Just Brakes, May '07. (this is taken from the invoice itself)
Now, this most recent visit, here's what I was told (verbatim, I typed it as he told me what was wrong):
"Your front calipers are not retracting completely and the pads are always rubbing. The front brakes are doing all of the work because the springs in the rear brakes are weak. Your rotors are fine, and can be resurfaced, but will have to be replaced next time. I also found that your brake system is leaking, so your front calipers will need to be rebuilt. To split the load between the front and rear we have to rebuild the rear pistons too." — Just Brakes, April '08.
Keep in mind this is the same vehicle we had repaired less than a year ago at the same location. How, in a year, did all of these systems fail a second time? Of course, they couldn't find the original invoice. So, I kindly brought in a copy. But, never had to show it to them since they refused to do any work on the vehicle because "they can't work on it in good conscience with all of the problems it has."
They tried to scam my wife. When I refused to pay for anything more than the front brake job, they began calling my wife to tell her that I'd refused things that could threaten her very life. My wife and I can't be pitted against each other. Furthermore, I was a brake technician once, so I knew the line already. I'll just do the brake job myself.
Steer clear of Just Brakes. I won't be as gracious as other people that have complained about Just Brakes. I give them no credit whatsoever. They didn't do anything right.
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