In July I got 4 new tires from Auto Check #5. They worked well with me in getting me a "good deal". They put the tires on and charged me an extra $99.00 to the the alignment. At the time I was satisfied. I am not very well educated in the automobile industry so I trusted that they were doing as they said.
I have been taking my car to them on a regular basis for oil changes and the upkeep of my car.in September during hurricane Ike I took it in for an oil change and a new battery. On December 29 I took it in for a 60,000 mile check up. They told me I needed to do an engine flush and a complete fuel injection service with BG. They replaced the air filter and rotated all 4 tires. On Thursday, January 16, my car was making a very loud strange noice when I braked.
I took in for them to check it out. I was told that I needed to replace my brakes, or something on them. This would cost around $240, but since I was a good customer they would charge me $189. While my car was being looked at etc. The owner Max said the inspection was due back in November and that it would not pass inspection because my tires were bad, especially the one on the right front of the car.
I asked how can this be, I was just here 2 wekks ago for a 60,000 mile check up. Did you not see the inspeciton was due, how did you rotate bad tires. Once they realized this, they tried to tell me that it was the struts in my car that ruined the tire in the front. How can this be if 2 weeks before they rotated the tires. Now they say that the road hazzard won't cover the tires because it was my car that did the damage. The owner, Max, insists that he wants to work with me.
He will do the front struts for $369.00 and $200.00 for the labor, he will do a free alignment and if I buy 2 tires his "GIFT" to me would be 2 tires. I could not believe this. I took my car to 3 other different places independent of each other. Guess what? They all said I had been majorly ripped off. There is nothing wrong with my struts, it is an alignment issue. They either did not do the alignment or did a very bad job.
The wear on the tires would be completely different if it were a strut issue. I still owe the the $189.00 for the brakes, which I also found out that it should not have cost more than about $90.00 Max called me on Sat. At around 1:31 pm to tell me that I needed to come in by 5 before they closed so that he could take care of me. We went back and forth that I was not a satisfied customer and that I would pay him once I felt good about how I was being treated.
He said I had to pay today because the brakes had nothing to do with the other stuff. He said I was hard to communicate with and difficult. Acutally, I realized that he was only trying to work with me so that he could get paid by 5:00. I told him I would be coming to talk to him on Thursday once I have all the information I need. He told me that if it was true that I went to other shops and was told all of this, he wanted to see it on paper.
I have an appointment on Monday to check my car out and get all the paper work needed to prove they ripped me off and did a bad job. I made it very clear to him, that I am not saying that I will not pay him. I jus told him that it was not going to be on Saturday. I want to make sure that I have all I need. Once I get that, I will pay him, but most likely he will have to reinburse me somehow for not having done the work they claimed to have done, or for bad workmanship.
Being a woman, I feel that some auto industries believe that we are stupid and can be taken advantage of. I am not educated in the business and therefore have to trust that I am being treated with respect and truthfullness. However, not being educated in this field, does not mean I do not know when things do not add up.
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