The long story follows, but the first thing I should say is GO HERE. According to lots of people…read moreI've spoken to since my experience, this location had years of poor management and maybe some bad business practices. That's not the case anymore. Go in, call, get an estimate, whatever. Just don't skip it because someone told you years ago they had a bad experience. I am confident that this shop has a bottom line, as any business does, but I'm more confident that their bottom line doesn't include screwing people over who may not know any better than what the mechanic tells them.
Here's the longer story:
Last week I woke up to a completely flat tire, put the spare on and decided I would just go to Merchant's on Lee Hwy in Arlington, as they had just put two tires on my car about 8 weeks ago, and while I definitely didn't want to repeat the experience (where I paid almost $800 for the two tires, it took about 7 hours, and I was treated like an idiot for needing tires... cars need tires, they need maintenance, because they are driven. They. Are. Cars.), I was in a bind as my job requires a whole lot of driving. For a multitude of reasons, primarily because there were no parking spaces and when I asked where I could park the response was an eye roll and a "uhhh I dunno, try the street". So off I went, heading to the dealership, decided to stop at the Exxon at Lee & Washington Blvd. for a bottle of water. Looked up as I was walking back to my car and saw the Midas, that's been there for years and years, yet I always forget it's there. On a whim I went in to get an estimate. First words weren't "oh you've got to replace them" it was "Well, we'll take a look and see. If it's a hole, then to patch the tire would be about $40, if it's more intensive than a simple patch it could be $60 or $70, or, because they're pretty close to needing replacement, you could put that money towards two new ones, which would cost significantly more" (I had planned to replace them in the near future anyway because when I had the two tires put on a couple months ago I knew the other two would need replacement soon.) Told him (the store manager, Charlie Brown) I wanted to go ahead and replace them. Estimate was about $300 cheaper than what Merchant's had charged, for the *identical* tires. He told me he would need to go get the second tire, and it might take a couple of hours, since I had the spare on already I could do whatever I needed to do, go home and nap, run errands, whatever, I should just avoid going over 45 mph on the spare tire. Went home, took a shower (I had a personal training session before going to Merchant's and then Midas- hence wanting to stop for a bottle of water!), less than an hour after I had left Midas, I got a call from Charlie saying that the tire they had was mounted and balanced and the second tire was there and whenever I wanted to come back the could get them on and I'd be on my way. I returned to the shop and there was a man with a trailer on his truck who was clearly having some real issues, and I heard Charlie on the phone to at least 3 different places asking if they could help with this particular trailer tow hitch situation, something about some piece being welded on and causing a problem they weren't equipped to deal with. Over and over again I heard him explain the situation and I think getting the same answer "so you need a tow truck?" which is apparently not what the owner of the trailer needed, yet each time Charlie patiently responded with something along the lines of "well, I was calling to see if you all did this type of work, no need for a tow truck, just this other thing" no matter he had already said it several times. It was striking. *I* was annoyed *for* him! Anyway, for better or worse, I tend to expect mechanics especially at larger chains, to take advantage of their customers, especially ones in dire need (like me! And this trailer owner!) and it was just really shocking and delightful to hear Charlie saying "we can't do this particular thing" instead of "well we can do this fix and it's going to cost a couple grand. you're out of options though it's not safe to drive this at all, you need to us to fix it for you immediately". HONESTY! It was a beautiful thing to witness. Anyway, about 30 minutes later I drove off with my new tires and a shop I would feel comfortable taking my car to for just about anything. A shop where I didn't feel like I had just been robbed, or misled, or manipulated in any way. As a 28 year old woman, that's been almost always been how I feel leaving any place related to cars. I look forward to returning for any of my maintenance needs, and I recommend everyone to give this place a chance. They'll change any preconceived notions you may have.