I believe that Tire Plus Overcharges for it's Parts to pad the invoices to it's customers. I have recently had two repairs done to the same car at the same Tires Plus Shop that have led me to believe that anyone dealing with them is going to get a very raw and overpriced surprise. What follows is one of them:
See my other reportthat follows this one...
I was out of state when my wife's car stopped running at an intersection on the way home from shopping. She had my daughter in the car as well. Upon recieving her cell phone call that day, she described the symptoms as being no electricity anywhere (no lights, would not start and the seat belt dinging stopped). I said it sounds like a dead battery. After towing it home via AAA, which took an hour of horns beeping at her (she got stuck in a left turn lane) and people (drivers) yelling about putting the hazard lights on, I had my neighbor put my battery charger on the battery. About 2 hours later, the car started and ran fine. We discovered much later that the idot light about the voltage of the battery was burned out.
So, my wife drove the car to Tires Plus on Saturday afternoon for repairs. I had guessed beforehand that the alternator had gone bad. When the she got there, they mentioned that they were very busy and may not get to it, today.
My wife called that night to see if she could pick it up and they said to come tommorrow as they had the car on the rack and needed to get the right alternator. It would just have to wait until tommorrow.
My wife picked the car up on Sunday at around Noon, the bill was for $345.00.
I became very angry at this and asked my wife to go and get the bad part (s). She did and they said "NO" as they needed to turn the old alternator back in the supplier. (What they relly meant was to get the core charge back from wherever they got the alternator). My wife does not get involved with any thing on cars, as I take care of the vehicles entirely, so she didn't say anything and left.
When I got back from my trip, I visited Tires Plus to comment about waaranty. I wanted to know what kind of warranty there was on the alternator, because who knows when something like that might break down again?
They said it's a lifetime warranty and all I had to do was come to a Tires Plus Store and they would honor that warranty. I said, If it fails somewhere far away from a Tires Plus store, I may elect to have it repaired else where. I mean the towing bill may exceed the cost of a new alternator. I asked who supplied the alternator so I could get the warranty from them. Pep Boys are nation wide and most repair shops use them. They still denied giving me the supplier's name or the warranty. What they did say was this "No problem finding a Tires Plus shop, because we are nation wide and any Firestone Tire (repair) shop would take care of me. Firestone owns Tires Plus".
Now I understand why the change in thier business practice. I had dealt with this location before (Olsen Tires) without any problems. Could it be that since the chain has become Tires Plus under the Firestone umbrella, that the business practices have changed?
Anyway, I shopped around for an alternator, there were plenty of different prices and warranties, and Car Quest was the best price of $104.10 without the core. Tires Plus price was $239.99 a difference of $135.89. And they got the core (average core price was $65.00. So they made $135.89 plus $65.00 or $200.89 on and overpriced alternator.
Now this part I can't figure out, I talked with the mechanic about why they couldn't get the alternator and had to keep the car overnight. He said they had the alternator installed but they had to put the exhaust pipe back on, that was why it was still on the rack on Sunday morning.
I checked with Chrysler to find out if changing the alternator on my vehicle meant that the exhaust pipe had to come off. They laughed and said what are talking about? Of couse not they exclaimed.
Besides that, If the Exhaust pipe did have to come off. This could be done very, very quickly by fastening two nuts and bolts. I can't understand why they didn't finish the car Saturday and give my wife the car back. Did the people have to leave a 4:45PM sharp or did they break something and had to recover in order to look good?
So, I figure they owe me big time, Extra labor for exhaust pipe that didn't have to be removed and over charging the part cost.
An Alternator cost $104.10 plus 1 hour labor equals about $170.00
They charged me $345.00, so the overcharge was about $175.00.
Now comes the relly good part, about one week before this, the same car has had a repair by Tires Plus. I wonder if they didn't break the alternator so I would come back? See the other Orlando ripoff
Alan
Orlando, Florida
U.S.A.
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