I am a 20 year old female and drive a 2009 toyota corolla. I began going to firestone for two reasons, the first of which being that it was open on sundays, my only free day, and the second being that it was less than two miles away from my house. I was in a crunch and needed to get my oil changed before going out of town, so i went to Firestone Mall of Georgia. The Manager, Joe, assisted me there. I informed him that I needed an oil change and that was all. After bringing my car in, they checked the alignment and other aspects of the car as expected, and then he came back in and told me that my battery needed to be replaced, i needed a new air filter, i needed an alignment, and my brakes needed to be flushed.
I agreed to having the air filter replaced and my brakes flushed simply because the expense was not too much, and I would rather be safe than sorry. However, my battery was a completely different issue. The car was less than two years old, the headlights have never stayed on over night, and I have never had any problems with the battery. This was also a $100 expense, and being a college student, I did not have the money. I declined that service, but kept the paperwork in case something did go wrong.
I went back to firestone recently to get my oil changed and to purchase their lifetime alignment service. While there, Katie informed me that I needed new brakes and my rotors needed to be replaced. Also, somehow, my battery magically regained life, as it was not rough to my attention that it needed to be replaced.in fact, i asked to look at a copy of the battery report and it came out "marginal" and not needing to be replaced. But back to the brakes. Now, I may be young and I might be female, but Im not stupid when it comes to cars. The brakes had not been squeaking or grinding or anything of that sort to indicate that they needed to be replaced. Not to mention the fact that when I had visited that same store a month previous to get an oil change, no indication was made that my brakes were low. She wrote up a quote for the parts and labor for replacement of both and it totaled $430! Seriously? Over $400 on my tiny little car? It cost the exact same amount for a grand caravan on which the parts are much larger. I declined this service as well and got a second opinion from a different mechanic.
Shannon from Suburban Tire Co. Quoted me $235 for the same exact service. That is when I knew i was being ripped off. He also said that he did not believe that my rotors would need to be replaced since the car was still fairly new. When I had the service done on my car he told me "Whoever told you that you needed your rotors replaced was simply trying to make money off of you, they were not bad, and they did not even need to be rotated."
My total came to $130. That is $300 less than what Firestone wanted to charge me. I will not be taking my car back to Firestone, even though I have the lifetime alignment at their facility. I will not continue to take my vehicle to a facility where I cannot trust the people. I would not recommend anyone go to this Firestone, or any firestone for that matter. I will be taking my car to Sxxxx Tire Co. At Discover Mills from now on.
Sorry, allowing you to give a competitors name would instigate others to just file against their competition, to only come back later to suggest their company your comments on this policy are welcome!
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