Never go to Firestone!

[Kingman]

My aunt took her '93 Explorer in for tire rotation from at Firestone. She called me, totally baffled that they had said she needed new ball joints. Funny thing there, you see, me my dad REPLACED the ball joints upper AND lower THREE MONTHS BEFORE TODAY!

 

My dad and I went in there absolutely fuming and asked them to prove why she needed them, the guy stuck a fxck!ng CROW BAR in the ball joint and FORCEFULLY pried to make them move. Then went and pointed out that the slight movement was not good and he should replace them IMMEDIATELY.

 

 

My dad then told them that we had replaced them three months ago, and man you should have seen that "mechanic's" face.

 

Never, ever ever, EVER go to Firestone!

[laxman0324]

damn man, thats like this local shop that told me i needed to have my rear drums adjusted and cleaned last weekend when it was getting inspected, i laughed at him and told him they were self adjusting and to show me where they needed cleaning...after fumbling around a little he showed me the drums and magically couldn't find what the mechanic said needed to be cleaned, the look on his face was priceless

 

 

 

I do however like the firestones i went to cuz they never try to sell me shiz when im getting my lifetime alignment done

[94extreme]

sounds to me like the mech is right. there should be NO movement in the bjs.

 

btw. the crowbar method is standard test for bjs.

[RedPath88]

Just a suggestion... right or wrong in this case, try not to base an entire chain on one experience at one shop... I have been to FS several times (a couple of them) and have never had an issue. In fact, here on this site, their Lifetime Alignment comes highly recommended, I had it done myself

[Kingman]

This isn't a one time experience, this would be the third time people I've known have had bad encounters with FS.

 

The movement on the ball joints was barely noticeable, but only moved because he was applying so much force. It looked like he was prying with all his might! It was extreme forced movement. I've seen bad ball joints before, these were no were near.

 

That alone could probably damage them.

 

No, if this was a one time thing, I wouldn't have been so mad.

Laxman, sounds like what happened with my buddy's truck at a shop a few months ago!

Edited December 4, 2008 by kingman92010

[94extreme]

The movement on the ball joints was barely noticeable, but only moved because he was applying so much force. It looked like he was prying with all his might! It was extreme forced movement.

 

i guarantee it that his force was nothing like chuckhole or a curb can exert not to mention centrifugal forces on a 2ton truck at 60mph.

 

yes, i wasn't there, still you ought to be fair to yourselves.

[vengeful]

OMG...I just got back from McDonald's. And they gave me SPRITE! I asked for COKE! NEVER GO TO MCDONALDS, EVER!!! Their employees give out the wrong stuff!!!

 

Isolated incidents such as the above should be taken as such. While I'm sure that your experience there may not have been 100% satisfying, I'm also sure that there have been thousands of satisfied customers at that particular Firestone location.

 

I, personally, have never had a problem with them. They know they can't pull the wool over my eyes, so to speak, so they don't bother trying. Sounds like the technician may have been trying to either get you to perform a service that may have been unnecessary, but wouldn't have caused you any harm in the long run. Let it go man. If you're that unhappy with the place, just find somewhere else to take your car next time.

[unccpathfinder]

OMG...I just got back from McDonald's. And they gave me SPRITE! I asked for COKE! NEVER GO TO MCDONALDS, EVER!!! Their employees give out the wrong stuff!!!

 

no @!*% i ordered chicken McNuggets last nigth and they gave me some QP w/ cheese plain...but the ticket on the outside of the bag was correct...i always check B4 leaving though and the guy was baffled os i was like look dude give me my damn mcnuggets and fries and drink and i'll be out of your hair

 

but yea I don't like to go to most shops b/c well some can give you bad info like one telling me i had a ripped CV boot and I had just greased everything so the upper BJ bled onto the boot i wiped it off with my hand and politely asked him to show me the rip which he couldnt then i politely told him to go fskc himself next time he tries to sell me $600 worth of parts

 

with the BJ case they shouldnt move and if they werent torqued on or set properly than that could be the reason for being loose which is bad right or wrong I donno you were there and have to be the judge of that but from my experience prying with all of my body weight (200+ pounds of it) was not near enough to unseat the BJ being that it sees probably 600lbs at static condition and probably 3-6X that in a dynamic condition

 

not trying to bash but yea I've been in your shoes when they were trying to dick me and then a couple of times when i took it in for tire rotation and they found something that I had over looked and told me about it and i took care of it myself so it can go either way just let them know whats up

 

I had an issue with discount tire the 2nd time around I went there and went there b/c the 1st set of tires (my mud rovers) the balanced perfectly) well I took some whacked out BFG ATs up there and told me that wheels were warped which i knew wasnt true and they refused to spin balance just the wheel for me...luckly the spare was full size so i had them spin it up and it came up to be like 1 oz out no biggie...had them swap that tire to a wheel that was 14 oz out and low and behold that wheel was now like 2 oz out and the tire that was on the wheel that was 1oz out was now like 12 or 13 oz out and the guy still argued with me that i had 2 bent wheels until another tech came over and was like give it up dude this guy just owned you and he's right your trying to dick him...but I will go back to discount tire just probably not that store or at least if its from that store it'll be tires that i purchased from them and not someone elses tires

[MY1PATH]

my supervisor worked @ sears auto for a while. he told me its common chain-automechanics practice to tell people thier ball joints are worn out. Since most people don't get under and look and because its sold with the line of "maintaining alignment and steering SABILITY" most people buy it.

[TerranoNZ]

OMG...I just got back from McDonald's. And they gave me SPRITE! I asked for COKE! NEVER GO TO MCDONALDS, EVER!!! Their employees give out the wrong stuff!!!

 

Yeah I see your point kingman, There are A$$HATS out there. Like the panel beaters that stole one of my Aunty's tyres. I fitted 4 of the same Firestone tyres, the next time I saw her she had 3 and the guys Casey T took his Pathy to and they stole his oil relo kit and messed with it.

 

Yes I worked at Firestone You will find rotten apples in any basket I NEVER ripped anyone off. Reason: That is some one's Sister, Mother, Brother, Uncle and I'm damn sure I wouldn't rip off my own family. I can't stand hearing about people being ripped off Karma should bite them in the ACE though

 

I had a guy come in one Saturday with a split radiator hose, right on closing time. He was an out of towner, no one to help him. We only did tyres and stuff like that. A mate of mine was also in, so I got him to take this guy to the local parts shop, didn't have one in stock.

I sliced about 2" off the hose (Split was close to the end) Stuck it back on. He was over the moon.

 

On the other side, I was (Politely) called a con man by one guy. I suggested to him that he should change all 4 tyres on his "FULL TIME 4WD" Subaru. I said "It makes no difference to me, I'm not on commission. I just think that an extra $400 is cheaper than a re-coned transfer box" He got 2 tyres.........THE NEXT NIGHT HE WAS BACK To get 2 more. He'd rung the dealer and found out that running 2 new tyres and 2 worn tyres wasn't good and would MOST LIKELY cost $2500 WHEN the transfer box went

[02silverpathy]

With the exception (removed) of loose 4x4 hub bearings, can't you test upper BJ's by pulling full body weight on the top of the tire outwardly and looking for movement? That would elminiate the chance of boots being ripped apart by a friggin pry-bar.

[Kingman]

If anything, I was mostly mad knowing that the guy was purposely trying to find something wrong, and doing whatever possible to make it look like that to squeeze a little money out of someone.

 

I find that pretty disgusting myself. Definitely not a way to build customer relations...

 

If anything, avoid the Firestone on HWY99 in Vancouver, because that's where all 3 bad incidents with them have happened.

 

What Terrano said is awesome service, kudos to you for that. I would worship your store up and down for that!

[alexrex20]

ok first of all, we need to stop referring to ball joints as BJs. i can't read the thread and keep a straight face!

[unccpathfinder]

i can't read the thread and keep a straight face!

 

its ok no1 is watching you...It took a while to get used to when I joined the site and was the same way and sometimes i'll read something and then see BJ and be like what ohh ok got it...

[Slick]

being female here, i get the "you need this, you need that" deal ALL THE TIME....... however, i know my sh!t and they don't get away with trying to sell me something i don't need.... however, THAT is how they make money/sell things........ females are a great target because most of them don't know sh!t and will allow unesessary (sp) work to be done to their vehicles.... ANY WHERE you go will try it...... that's business.....

you just have to be aware, let them know you want a specific task performed and NOTHING FURTHER. say thanks but not hanks and move on.

[Kingman]

ok first of all, we need to stop referring to ball joints as BJs. i can't read the thread and keep a straight face!

[unccpathfinder]

females are a great target because most of them don't know sh!t and will allow unesessary (sp) work to be done to their vehicles.

 

Yea if I'm in a shop and see anyone getting reamed (more so females than males though b/c i feel he should know better) I'll interject if I feel they are about to take them on a ride

 

My mom was getting taken for a ride with her brand new heep liberty that left her stranded with 200 miles on the odo and then several times after that...well she fought them for 4 or so months B4 i could go home (about a year ago) and I talked to the shop lead there at the stealership and told him he didnt want me to come in b/c it would no be pretty b/c if i was on that side of the country he would have already gotten a piece of me. So i video'd the cranking conditions and some otehr conditions that were unsafe like stalling and they could not duplicate the problem and erased the SES light...so he gave me BS for like 20 mins and i said well can i go out and show you and he was like yea...so i sit down crank it up and it doesnt do it and he's like see theres no problem and i pull out my phone and saw well check out these photos and videos and thats no problem? would you put your mom in this car? if you say yes i'm going to punch you in the face b/c that is ridiculous...he said hell no

 

So after investigating they had already changed her title over to a different heep that she told them that she wouldnt do a trade on b/c it was a bigger POS than her new one and it was used. I then find out that another manager that she delt with has some issue with me from HS b/c of the girl (really good friend still to this day) that i dated had left "his boy" like a year b4 we started dating so he recognized the last name and dicked my mom over in which he wasnt at the shop any of the time i was in town b/c me and the factory rep along with him were going to sit down and have a discussion...in the end she got to trade her 07 liberty in on a 08 new sebring that was maxed out

 

sorry to thread jack it just pisses me off when people try to take advantage and i guess the moral of the story is my mom knew better and stood her ground and got corporate assistance up in Detroit and they helped her out but if she would have been uneducated/experienced with getting ripped off at shops and stealerships then she would have been taken well advantage of and what pissed me off even more was her health was really bad at the time (still not great) but i was ready to kick some ass and was glad that i was able to get back and make them STFU and do the right thing once they realized they had a huge legal suit coming their way after their fraudulent actions with changing titles and falsifying documents (cutting and pasting signatures from the original bill of sale to an agreement to exchange the jeeps)

 

anywho [/rant] and sorry again for the thread jack

[Precise1]

My dad and I went in there absolutely fuming and asked them to prove why she needed them, the guy stuck a fxck!ng CROW BAR in the ball joint and FORCEFULLY pried to make them move. Then went and pointed out that the slight movement was not good and he should replace them IMMEDIATELY.

 

Been there, almost exactly with my old D720; the manager told me there was 3/8" play in the ball joints. I went down and they did the 6' steel bar crap and there was virtually no movement. I had then stop before they tweaked something!! I told the guy just to do the work I asked for unless he wanted me to start a claim with the BBB for lying. I drove the truck another 6 years with the same ball joints, but they were loose by the time I sold it...

 

I don't buy the 'do it just incase, cant hurt' mentality. Thats plain stupid.

 

B

[5523Pathfinder]

Well, as I have stated in other threads, there are some bad mechanics out there. Some are just trained wrong from the begining. They are also usually the ones who dont take pride in thier work and will screw anyone to make a buck. Lack of customer service in this industry is killing it. As for me, I worry about 3 things when interacting with customers. One- am I being professional enough to back my work if they want to come out and look at what I am doing for them. Two- How is what Im doing making my company look? Threee- how am I representing my product(in this case Infiniti).

As you can see, one guy who doesnt give a crap what he does, makes all three look bad. This is what drives customers away.

Oh, and if Im wrong, I got no problem figuring out what happend, for free. I will explain that if it is something else or a coincidence, it may cost them. But I will work with them so they come back.

So, anyway, dont judge one company on one idiot. Some may try to save you some money and give you excellent work. But if otherwise, try a different location or company all together.

Edited December 4, 2008 by 5523Pathfinder

[Kingman]

Yea if I'm in a shop and see anyone getting reamed (more so females than males though b/c i feel he should know better) I'll interject if I feel they are about to take them on a ride

 

My mom was getting taken for a ride with her brand new heep liberty that left her stranded with 200 miles on the odo and then several times after that...well she fought them for 4 or so months B4 i could go home (about a year ago) and I talked to the shop lead there at the stealership and told him he didnt want me to come in b/c it would no be pretty b/c if i was on that side of the country he would have already gotten a piece of me. So i video'd the cranking conditions and some otehr conditions that were unsafe like stalling and they could not duplicate the problem and erased the SES light...so he gave me BS for like 20 mins and i said well can i go out and show you and he was like yea...so i sit down crank it up and it doesnt do it and he's like see theres no problem and i pull out my phone and saw well check out these photos and videos and thats no problem? would you put your mom in this car? if you say yes i'm going to punch you in the face b/c that is ridiculous...he said hell no

 

So after investigating they had already changed her title over to a different heep that she told them that she wouldnt do a trade on b/c it was a bigger POS than her new one and it was used. I then find out that another manager that she delt with has some issue with me from HS b/c of the girl (really good friend still to this day) that i dated had left "his boy" like a year b4 we started dating so he recognized the last name and dicked my mom over in which he wasnt at the shop any of the time i was in town b/c me and the factory rep along with him were going to sit down and have a discussion...in the end she got to trade her 07 liberty in on a 08 new sebring that was maxed out

 

sorry to thread jack it just pisses me off when people try to take advantage and i guess the moral of the story is my mom knew better and stood her ground and got corporate assistance up in Detroit and they helped her out but if she would have been uneducated/experienced with getting ripped off at shops and stealerships then she would have been taken well advantage of and what pissed me off even more was her health was really bad at the time (still not great) but i was ready to kick some ass and was glad that i was able to get back and make them STFU and do the right thing once they realized they had a huge legal suit coming their way after their fraudulent actions with changing titles and falsifying documents (cutting and pasting signatures from the original bill of sale to an agreement to exchange the jeeps)

 

anywho [/rant] and sorry again for the thread jack

 

Chrysler did the same thing to my grandmother in her new 300c back in 2006. It took 4 months to get her into a new car. The new car they put her in has been flawless though, 26,000 miles and no issues of any kind. Hopefully it stays that way.

 

Sorry to hear about your horrid experience with the Liberty. My other aunt's has been flawless as well, she loves that little thing. I despise it

 

Chyrsler/Jeep/Dodge stealerships seems to be the absolute worst for customer satisfaction

[ctpathy]

Chrysler did the same thing to my grandmother in her new 300c back in 2006. It took 4 months to get her into a new car. The new car they put her in has been flawless though, 26,000 miles and no issues of any kind. Hopefully it stays that way.

 

Sorry to hear about your horrid experience with the Liberty. My other aunt's has been flawless as well, she loves that little thing. I despise it

 

Chyrsler/Jeep/Dodge stealerships seems to be the absolute worst for customer satisfaction

 

 

Kingman I agree with you on Chyrsler service. W e had 98 interpid the battery went dead so I said put a new one in. You wouid think the dealer would put the right size battery in wrong. They put the wrong size in and the battery was moving al around in the battery box. Thats when we switch to nissan instead of another mopar.

[laxman0324]

Chrysler did the same thing to my grandmother in her new 300c back in 2006. It took 4 months to get her into a new car. The new car they put her in has been flawless though, 26,000 miles and no issues of any kind. Hopefully it stays that way.

 

Sorry to hear about your horrid experience with the Liberty. My other aunt's has been flawless as well, she loves that little thing. I despise it

 

Chyrsler/Jeep/Dodge stealerships seems to be the absolute worst for customer satisfaction

I think Mercedes is the worst...unless you have the brand new AMG they dont give a crap about you...my 99 ML320 with 230k on it was a great truck, but when i took it in to get them to check something out it took them 3 days because they had "priority" customers, at least thats what the manager told me when i raised hell

[Kingman]

I think Mercedes is the worst...unless you have the brand new AMG they dont give a crap about you...my 99 ML320 with 230k on it was a great truck, but when i took it in to get them to check something out it took them 3 days because they had "priority" customers, at least thats what the manager told me when i raised hell

 

I think you corrected me. Mercedes is far worse than any Chrysler dealership. Snobby, and stuck up.

 

Also, it seems that unless they SEE you drive up in a fancy ass car, the salesman treat you like you have no money at all. When they find out that you do have a lot, their attitude changes.

 

My mother's friend, Cindy, took me with her to purchase a new SUV. Yes, she was "loaded" but did not act it at all. Dressed pretty low end, casual. At the time she was driving a 2004 745Li, and was looking for either a Cayenne, X5, or a ML-500.

 

The first place we went was the Mercedes dealership, and asked to look at the SUV. We weren't dressed nicely, so he was snub, uptight, and somewhat "know it all" like. During the first part of the test drive, she was trying to figure out buttons, and the salesman was barely of any help. Just sort of stared out the window. She then asked him on the test drive why she should buy this Mercedes over an X5 4.8is. His reply was "you'd have to be an idiot to buy a BMW. Mercedes outclasses every they car they have." (Can ya see the irony here?) A few miles down the road, he asked her what kind of car she drove. She casually replied, "oh, just a 2004 BMW 745Li." His face turned beat red, and he said a muffled "oh." His attitude COMPLETELY changed, and was nice, courteous, and somewhat respectful.

 

I was shocked. I came away totally unimpressed with the Mercedes its self. It was gutless, and the materials quality wasn't that wonderful. Add that to a snobby salesman, and that's a for sure NO GO.

 

The Porsche salesman on the other hand, didn't see what we drove up in either. He was very kind, greeted each of us by smiling and shaking our hands (even though I was 15 at the time, he didn't disregard me the slightest bit). He showed both of us the Cayenne's features in detail, and displayed it's enormous braking power, even saying "you might wanna grab on to the handles for this one, folks!" WE DID. lol. Truly a great experience. I later emailed the salesman, thanking him for his generosity and being a great salesman, and for making our experience a good one. He was pleased to hear back.

 

She ended up buying the X5 4.8is, amazing machine really. I love driving it. She purchased it from Rasmussen BMW, and sadly I didn't get to go with her on the initial test drive. I did go with her when she bought it. The salesman was very nice, and even bought me a Pepsi from the vending machine while I waited for her to sign papers.

 

I think the representatives, the REAL PEOPLE on the front line of each auto company selling the cars makes a HUGE difference on how the company is received as a whole.

Edited December 5, 2008 by kingman92010

[laxman0324]

wellllllll....you now sparked my MB owners pride...the MLs after 05 were gutless, the 98-05 is an amazing machine, much more capable than my stock R50, AND it had a real frame with the coil rear torsion front setup, so if I knew what I know now, I would have gotten some coil spacers and tweaked the Tbars more

[GrimGreg]

I would never go to a Firestone shop around here, I know what kind of idiots they hire and have had friends with horror stories. Doesn't mean the ones in the next town aren't good. I know a lot of Nissan owners like them for the lifetime alignment, but I'll string mine before I took it to one here.