When I first bought my car a few years ago, I brought it to Tires Plus and ending up spending $900 on all sorts of problems - crankshaft pulley, fuel injection cleaner, oil change, etc. I admit that I was a naive 16 year old who didn't know much about cars at the time (but boy, how that has changed).
Then after I got the receipt, I looked at it and realized how ridiculous their pricing is. The shop I went to is supplied by an auto parts store I've shopped at several times and looking at their website, the parts are listed for only 1/3 the cost Tires Plus sells them for. When I tried to talk about this to a Tires Plus representative at the store, they said they used "superior parts"; even though the part numbers and manufacturor match up exactly!
Also when I brought it in the first time, I had asked them to do an inspection - which they supposidely did (according to the receipt). Then, not even a week later, my water pump went and I was FORCED to go to Tires Plus because they are the only shop close to my house that I could reach with no coolant (I had to dump and entire bottle in just to make it there). They then charged me $500 to replace the water pump - charging me $127 for a $40 part. The guy said the water pump was in horrible shape and that this was bound to happen - something they neglected to tell me after that first visit and something that would be easily noticable on a real inspection.
After this round of repairs, I just figured ok I'll never go to Tires Plus again. However, just recently (6/12) I had to go back to Tires Plus because a crankshaft pulley that was replaced on my first visit was acting up and it was still under warranty so I figured they'd have to deal with it. So I brought my car in and told them about the problem. At first, the guy tried to tell me that the part wasn't under warranty, but I was smart enough to have my receipt handy which said otherwise, but the employee still tried to argue against it. But then he said they'd give it a once over and call me.
At the end of the day, I get a phone call and they told me what they found. First off, they said the engine was misfiring and throwing a code for it. However, this was NOT TRUE. Only a QDM B code has even shown up and I told them this (I scanned it myself just prior to bring it in and again afterwards to double check) but they continually insisted I needed a tune up (which I had my real mechanic do just a few months ago). Talk about lieing through their teeth.
On top of this, they said my engine and transmission mounts needed to be replaced - for over $700. I said no, because I knew my real mechanic could do it for less then half this ridiculous price. So essentially, I declined all the work they said needed to be done and I said I'd come pick it up in a few minutes.
Not even five minutes after that call, I got another, this time the guy said "we had a problem" and so naturally, I asked what it was. He told me that one of my brake lines cracked and broke when they were backing up out of the garage - and that it would be $223 to repair. I had NO CHOICE but to do this because you can't drive a car without brakes and even tried to work a way out to get my car to my mechanic, but I couldn't.
This infuriated me also because they would not do any better for the price even though it was only a $15 part - a 3' piece of brake line and all they had to do was simply screw off the old one and then put the new one on and do a brake flush, but no, I had to pay the full price.
Essentially, what was supposed to cost me nothing, ended up costing me over $200 for work on a problem that was probably caused by them. I can say this because 1) they wouldn't show me the old piece that "broke" and 2) when I brought my car home I got underneath it and saw that all the lines (including the ones they didn't replace) looked perfectly fine and were plenty strong - even though the Tires Plus rep said they were all old and rusted - yeah, right.
Every time I've brought my car to my real mecahnic they do a once over on everything and when I brought it in back in May of this year, they said everything was fine - not to mention the fact that I've done almost $400 in work on the brakes already. Also, why the hell would the line break by simply backing up when I travel over bumpy roads daily and I've never experienced such a problem? The logical conclusion is that they broke the line somehow and won't admit it.
Lastly, and this made me extremely furious - but later that night (tonight as I am writing this) I was washing my car and noticed a dent in the hood that had not been there before - I had a $2220 custom paint job done on it too!!!
I warn EVERYONE; DO NOT go to Tires Plus. They are a giant scam that overcharges for EVERYTHING and CAUSES PROBLEMS in order to create business. They prey on people who don't know a lot about cars and combat those who do.
0 comments