I took my car to just breakes because I was hearing a squeaking sound. I took it there to get the $99.95 break job. The car was a 2007 Toyota Corolla. They looked at it and said that I would also need a hardware kit for another $50 which I obliged. I then took it home thinking I was ok since I had their lifetime warranty. About 2 months later I heard a grinding noise so I took it back and they looked at it and said all was ok, no problems. I asked them about why I was hearing the grinding and they said "some breaks just do that all the time". I obliged and took it home again.
Another 3 months passed and the grinding was getting worse so I took it back again. They looked again and said no problems and again told me that some cars just have breaks that sound like they are grinding and they told me that the Toyota Corolla is known for that. The manager even went on a rant telling me how Toyota's have the worst possible brakes of all the cars out there and how they get so many Toyotas in there. He condemned Toyota's braking system as really bad. I knew about Toyota's issue with cars not being able to stop due to the pedal issue but never were there complaints about noisy brakes and all the horrors he told about bad calipers and wheel cylinders and such. He was hell bent on hating Toyotas.
I wonder if Just Brakes has a union so they hate Japanese cars... LOL I have many friends that own Toyotas and have never had these issues.in fact I bought my Toyota based on all the good reports I had heard from my friends and how their cars lasted forever with very minimal repairs. I again obliged about the breaks being ok and left. About 2 weeks later I had taken my car to a Toyota dealership to get an oil change because this dealership was having a special on oil changes for $20. When they did the oil change they did a complimentary inspection and came back and told me that my front brake pads were down to 3 milimeters and that they usually recommend replacing them after they are down to 4 milimeters. I declined the dealership because I thought that my warranty would take care of them.
I took it back to Just brakes and told them this. When they looked at it they came back with a bill of around $1100. They said I needed new calipers, new rotors, new wheel cylinders, a new master cylinder, a new power booster, new drums, new hardware kits, and of course new pads. They told me that only one caliper was bad but that Toyota Motor Company has a rule that when one goes bad you need to replace both of them to keep within Toyota Motor Company guidelines. They then said that in order for the warranty they give out to be valid that you have to follow all of the standards of the vehicle manufacturer. I sort of thought this sounded fishy.
When I told them that I could not afford that and that I wanted only for them to do the warranty work for the $35 labor they had told me that it would cost they refused to do just that. I then told them fine and said I would not be getting the repairs and that they should let me have the car back. They then proceeded to tell me that my car was unsafe to drive and that if they let me drive home with the car the way it is that they would have liability issues so they could not let me do that. They offerred to call a towing truck. I found this hard to believe. I told them that was bullshit and that I would gladly sign any waiver of liability. They still refused to do this.
When I still refused they told me that they were going to have to call the cops to have my vehicle declared unsafe to drive to force me to keep from driving my unsafe vehicle. From my cell phone I called a buddy of mine that is a retired state patrolman for the state of Arizona who also use to work as a local Phoenix policeman before he joined the state patrol and he told me that that this is bullsh*t, that police officers NEVER come to repair shops to declare vehicles unsafe to drive. He said that if they called the police that they would laugh at them. I told them of my conversation with my friend and then they told me that things had changed since my friend was working as a policmenan as he was a retired state patrolman.
They said that the laws are now changed to the point where they will come over and that if they do not call the police when this happens that they can be fined for letting a customer drive out with an unsafe vehicle. At this point I lost it. I told them that they better f*kng give me my car right now or they would not need to call the police because I was going to do it for them. I started yelling in the lobby right in front of their other customers and the manager asked me to come into his office to discuss this so that the other customers did not have to deal with this. I refused to leave the lobby telling them that I wanted the other customers to hear what kind of unethical pricks that they were.
Indeed a few customers that were in line to talk to the person behind the counter walked out. They did finally put the car down and the manger kept telling me how bad a person I was because I was endangering the lives of all the other drivers on the road because I was driving a car that could lose its breaks at any moment. After I got home I first of all called the customer service line of Toyota Motors USA to ask them if Toyota really had a specification that when a caliper is replaced that both have to be. Just as I thought they told me that was not a rule. I then decided to take my car back to the Toyota dealership and ask them to look at my breaks. I also told the Toyota dealership about my experience at Just Brakes.
After all, during the original inspection during the oil change they had told me only the front breaks were bad. Toyota looked at it and said that the back breaks are completely fine and do not need to be replaced. They said the front breaks did need to be replaced and they looked at them and said that when Just Brakes did the original brake work that they used a really cheap crappy aftermarket hardware kit and that this kit was shot and needed to be replaced with an original Toyota OEM brake kit. Just Brakes had told me that there parts were just as good as dealer parts. They said my calipers are completely fine and no work was needed. My master cylinder, power booster and all of the components of the rear braking system were also completely fine and needed no work.
I paid the Toyota Dealership $225 to replace the front pads and turn the rotors plus another $70 to replace Just Brakes' sh*tty hardware kits. The brakes now work completely fine. I have had no issues for 6 months now. I am concerned though about my back breaks since I know that Just Brakes used crappy hardware kits in the front I am sure they did in the back too so I am concerned that they will go out again soon. Keep away from these unethical pricks as they will rip you off. Their lifetime warranty is a joke because first of all they only warranty the pads, not the labor to replace them if they go bad. The pads are like the cheapest part of the work.
Also, they use such cheap, crappy parts that they know that they will go bad so you have to come back and replace them spending money on other stuff. They know the pads are so crappy that they will go bad quickly and cause stuff like rotors, calipers, drums and wheel cylinders to go bad so that you have to come back to spend big dollars to replace them. They lead you in with the $99 brake job and make themselves appear honest because the first time they do not try to sell extra stuff but when you come back they try to tell you how everything else went bad and try to stick you with a $1100 bill. Keep away from Just Brakes!
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