Man, do I wish I would have called my friend before I went to the Just Brakes in Atlanta on Howell Mill road. Here's my story; on 3/1/04 my boss said why don't you give just brakes a call, I don't know anything about them but they advertise the 99.88 special.
So I called that day right at 6pm and spoke to Troy, he seemed nice though his persistence questions of getting my name right kind of frustrated me. So, I really wanted to get my brakes looked at so I scheduled an appointment the next morning. When I got there I went through the spill of "four wheel friction reline, in most cases."
Two things, most cases, yeah right how about rarely ever. And the other nice wording I wonder how much money they paid a marketing guy to come up with that phrase.
Anyway back to the point, He stressed that $99 dollars in most cases and he would call me when the shop took a look at it. Well, guess what, they did and he came back with a $504.73.
This vehicle is a little over two years old and has only 48K miles. I was shocked and couldn't believe the price, at this point mind you I didn't think I was being scammed and thought they were on the up and up.
So, to my later regret I said go ahead, then Troy asked for something strange from me. He asked for my birthday. I thought that was very odd. Immediately after getting off the phone I went and spoke to my boss about it then I called my good friend.
Rob's first words were, "Adam tell me you are kidding, those guys are rip-off artist, they charge you for work you don't need." So within 10 minutes I call Troy back and say that I don't want you to do anything to my vehicle and I will be there in a few minutes to pick it up, I will pay him for any labor.
He states, "Well we've already finished the caliper rebuild, and they are almost finished with your vehicle." I said, "In ten minutes, you guys are almost done with the job in ten minutes"!
Troy's answer to this was, "Yeah we've got four guys on this and it goes really quickly. Five if you count me". I replied with "You guys make $500 in ten minutes, what kind of business is this"?
So, I head down there to pick up my vehicle and they have it already torn apart and still working on it. Never did they give any regard to me wanting them to put my vehicle back together or that I want them to stop.
They literally held me over the barrel and force me to pay. Troy keep fighting with me on the caliper re-build, the very thing I know wasn't needed. I finally got so frustrated with the whole situation, he knocked off some money and agreed to wait for them to finish. I told my friend I just made a $400 mistake.
I don't mind paying for a service provided but do not force me to pay for something that isn't needed.
On 3/2/04 I called the corporate office and spoke to Jim Ship the customer service manager, I left him a voicemail and he called me back. Before I was ever able to tell my side of what happened he told "how they do business" or let me paraphrase "how they rip people off, " He said that he will get back to me in a couple of days, after he reviews the work order. He states that he can tell pretty much what happened by the work order. Man he must be really smart to ascertain the whole situation from a work order.
It's been over a week and I'm still waiting, I'm going to call him now. Just Brakes is a corporation that makes money from ripping people off. They us their suggestive up sales to make people think that there are more problems then really are.
And the Howell Mill Store lies on their work orders. If you want specific examples please let me know I can provide them.
There is power in numbers, there needs to be a class action lawsuit against this company as a whole. I plan on providing some negative media against them thorough my friends in radio and tv. Also, depending on what Jim Ship does report them to BBB.
Please just follow the words of my good friend, "tell everyone you know, stay away from just brakes. They will rip you off"!!
Adam
Alpharetta, Georgia
U.S.A.
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