Looking to give a local business some work instead of taking my car to a National chain to have winter tires mounted and balanced, I gave these guys a shot today. The intent was to also have them take care of a much-needed alignment at the same time, and kill two birds with one Firestone, so to speak.
I arrived a few minutes late to my appointment, though the place was already emptied out for the day. The only guys left in the place were one working behind the counter and one youngish filthy dirty kid in the shop. They promptly took care of me, and got my car inside and ready to work on, with specific instructions of what I wanted done.
After a few minutes, I was notified that, "my car has 17" wheels and with the 17" lugs, they didn't have anything that would work." Confused and a bit dazed, I said, "what?" He repeated the odd statement about having 17" lugnuts and confused me even more. After a few blunt seconds, I realized that he meant 17 millimeter lugnuts, which every German car I have ever owned used. What I was being told was that they didn't have a 17mm socket to remove my lugnuts to get the wheels off of the car. The *experienced* techs went home and locked up their personal tools, leaving Skippy the new guy with no tools but the ones he had purchased himself. Which apparently only included a set of Fisher-Price plastic screwdrivers and hammers.
At that point, I had fleeting thoughts of my THREE 1/2" drive 17mm sockets sitting in my socket drawer of my own toolbox. I was told, "he's young and hasn't bought all of his own tools yet." Wait, what?
First, I have had a full set of 1/4", 3/8" and 1/2" drive metric sockets since I was 14 and I don't work on cars for a living. Two, how did this kid get a job in a service shop without a set of tools that include simple metric sockets? Three, what kind of shop doesn't have basic metric sockets to use on cars that come in after the daytime techs go home? Four, all cars sold in the US since 1990 have used ALL METRIC fasteners... what the hell kind of automotive shop is this?
I immediately went into panic mode in my head, trying to figure out how to get my car off of the lift and the keys back in my hand as soon as possible. I needed to get out of this tire dealer as fast as I could. There is absolutely NO WAY IN HELL I will ever let this service shop touch a single thing on my car ever.
Like a restaurant without a dishwasher, a baker without ovens, a carpenter without a hammer, an electrician without wire cutters, a dentist without a toothbrush... this tire dealer and service center had no metric lugnut socket to remove the wheels from my car.
I can't fathom how they perform any work on anyone's car at any point throughout the day. And if the only person in the shop that can work on my car has no tools, then I will find some other place that can handle the simple task of removing a wheel.
Wow. Just. Wow.
Do yourself a favor if you are looking for tires, and go about 50 feet north of this Firestone dealer to the Discount Tire location a stone's throw from the parking lot. If they did alignments, I would have used them again already, and as it will play itself out, I'll be there tomorrow morning having the tires mounted by people who know what they are doing. read more