I drive a '99 Crown Victoria. My brakes where making a high pitch grinding sound and my brake light had been on for about 3 months inhibiting me from renewing my inspection sticker on my car so I took it to Just Brakes. Before I continue let me inform you that my brakes still functioned safely and worked well and I believed I would only need basic work done. I had heard their advertisements on the radio offering their 99 dollar basic brake jobs. The ad warns that I should bring my car in soon for driving around for too long with a brake problem may lead to costly repairs.
What the ad should have said is "bring you car in soon so we can convince you to spend hundreds of dollars on unnecassary repairs."
When I took my car in I informed them my brakes were grinding and I needed my brake light to turn off to pass inspection. They disassembled my brake system and showed me what I "needed" repaired. They told me my brakes were unsafe and I "needed" to have some pistons and calipers rebuilt because it was cheaper than buying new ones. I really only noticed one flaw in any of them and it was some kind of rubber bushing on a single caliper that had torn slightly.
After I was prodded into over $700 dollars in repairs I asked if they were all really necassary and they insisted they were. I then informed them of my budget and they took off some of the less "important" repairs because I could only afford to spend around $500, though I initially planned on spending $100. It ended up $505.38.
When I returned to pick up my car I payed and as soon as I drove away from the shop I noticed a strange low pitched grinding which sounded worse than before. I went to the just brakes website and looked at their FAQ section. It described a low pitch grinding after installing new pads that was normal and resulted from new pads not fully contacting the rotors because they had not conformed to them yet. After reading this I was relieved and felt safe to make the 300 mile trip to Port Aransas where my car is registered to have it inspected.
When I arrived at family's home in Port Aransas I drove my mother around and informed her of how much I had spent and she instantly knew something was amiss. She heard the grinding and she said it was definately not right. We took it to a local mechanic.
The Mechanic disassembled the brake and found that a brake pad had been placed on backwards so the metal was cutting my rotors like a cheesegrader. Upon further investigation we found a brakeline hose on the same front left brake that had been placed on incorrectly so it was pulled with severe tension whenever the tires would turn. This work was performed by a chain that specializes in just brakes...
This is completely unsatisfactory and is wreckless endangerment. If I would of had to turn suddenly the hose could have snapped preventing me from fully braking and I could have been killed.
My mother then called the Just Brakes where I had recieved the "repairs" and spoke with the mechanic and manager who signed off as test driving my car (and obviously did not) on my reciept. He offered to pay the $20 we had to pay for the local mechanic to fix the hose and turn the brake pad for a temporary solution to make it back to Austin.
My mother demanded a full refund which is completely acceptable seeing as they convincingly pawned off unneeded repairs and put my life in danger with their poor quality of work. The mechanic simply said that they were not used to giving refunds and would contact corporate about it and call us back before the shop closed. I never heard back.
At this point I am contacting lawyers to properly deal with the situation and get my money back. I will be taking my car in tomorrow to have my chewed up rotor and brake pad replaced. Hopefully this time I wont need to worry about them making my vehicle more dangerous than it was before I brought it to them.
I have searched the web and found many other complaints and even an investigation going on regarding their bait-and-switch sale tactics. I would recommend to stay away from this company unless you know exactly what repairs you are in need of and willing to disassemble and inspect the finished product yourself.
Oh yeah, and all I needed to have my brake light shut off for the inspection was my pads replaced so the brake fluid level would rise.
Matt
Austin, Texas
U.S.A.
0 comments