On June 29, I brought my 2007 Highlander to Koons Toyota for service. I'm one of those people who changes the oil every three thousand miles and religiously follow service guidelines. We were nearing that mark so I took it into Koons Toyota for service.
I dropped my car off in the morning with the expectation I would be picking it up at noon. I asked for an oil change and a safety review, knowing I would be on the road with my family on the 4th of July. The tire pressure light had been on continuously since my last service. I had complained about this matter before and was told everything looked fine but if the problem reoccurred to ask the service technicians to check the spare the next time I came in. I made that request thinking the last thing I needed on a family road trip was a tire problem without a spare.
I picked the car up two days, and considerable aggravation, later. My routine oil change had turned into a nightmare. Every call in from Koon's service manger extended the service time and increased my cost. As this chronology evolved, I had some doubt the repairs suggested were necessary but I went along because I did not want to put my family at risk.
The last phone call from the service manager gave me a $1875.99 price tag. It would have been more if I had gone along with his suggestion that I replace the tires. That came after he ran down all the wonderful things they had done to my car without mentioning the problem I asked them to address.
When I brought that up, the service manger said the tire pressure light was on because the tire had a nail it. Given the condition of the tires, he said, it would be prudent to replace them and, coincidently, Koons just happened to have a buy three get one free sale in progress. It would only cost me $800 more bringing my total to $2600.
I told him this was more than I could handle at the moment and it was. But given the concern he expressed and my decision not to replace the tires, I asked again if there was a problem with the spare.
He said no. He said this was something that happened periodically due to changing air pressure, that the
tire could be repaired (for a $20 additional charge), and everything would be fine.
I picked up the car and parked in my garage thinking the car had been repaired and was safe to drive. When I went out to load the vehicle for our family vacation the following morning, I found the tire Koons repaired flat. When I tried to change the tire, I was surprised to I find my jack was missing. Someone at Koons had used it and not put it back.
In frustration, I called a towing service. When they came out, they found the spare was also flat. Clearly, despite what I had asked and what I had been told, no one had bothered to check it.
I had the car towed to a tire service and I learned another disturbing fact. They showed me a hole in the tire Koons repaired. They said the repair was not well executed but more significantly should not have been attempted. The nail was on the perimeter of the tire. They said it is a violation of state law to try to plug a tire outside the tread line. They also said, and the towing service agreed, that there was plenty of tread left on my tires and no reason to replace them.
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