"Fundamental Honesty is the Keystone of Business" - Harvey Firestone
On September 20th, my wife noticed that a screw was stuck into one of her car's tires, and the Tire Pressure Meter Sensor (TPMS) indicated, it was losing pressure. Normally, we go to the Firestone Shop on W Maple street, but that day the place was very busy, thus, she decided to go to the shop, located in WEST CENTER Rd.
After a quick inspection, she was told the tire was impossible to repair. She had to buy a new one. By the way, she wasn't told of any other issue with the car. She was told that the model of the old tire was discontinued, but they will give her a similar, newer model.
She bought a new tire. As soon as she left the shop, the Tire Pressure display in her car's dashboard indicated that the TPMS for the new tire, was missing. She went back to the shop and told that to MIKE, the manager in charge, about the issue. He told her that the TPMS was already damaged when she brought the car. She requested a copy of the inspection log. After a while in the garage, MIKE returned with a piece of paper, with the inspection and repairs log, all of it written in PRINTED BLACK ink, except for a little HAND-WRITTEN note, in BLUE INK saying that he TPMS was "DAMAGED ON ARRIVAL". A clear evidence of trying to fool my wife. In addition, the sensor was working perfectly well that day because she noticed of the losing of pressure, by the same sensor. It was until the tire was replaced that the part failed.
Also, MIKE said that the sensor probably failed due to the "wear and tear". So, how can he explain, that the other sensors haven't fail yet?
So, MIKE said that he would charge $140 more to fix the sensor. I told my wife to forget about it, we would fix it later, since we were moving to Kansas City the next week. We would have it fixed there, never go back to MIKE's "FIRESTONE" shop.
During the week, we started to see weird behavior in the electronic system of the car. The pressure indicator in the dashboard displayed intermittently, sometimes on and others off. But when it gone off the radio gone completely mute. Then after a while, the dashboard gone completely off. Regarding the NEW TIRE, we also saw that it wasn't the correct width and height, but we weren't sure, since it was a "new model".
On the road, from Kansas City to Omaha, the Tire Pressure indicator started displaying a very quick lose of pressure in the NEW TIRE. I stopped to check it with a manual gauge and effectively, the tire was quickly losing a lot of pressure.
We continued our way to Kansas City, stopping every 20 or 30 miles to inflate the tire, until finally we arrived.
On the next day we went to a Firestone Shop in Kansas City. After an inspection, the manager at the shop told us that effectively:
- MIKE sold my wife the WRONG SIZE tire.
- MIKE lied about the model of the tire being discontinued.
- MIKE'S Technician BROKE THE TPMS of my wife's car.
- The "New" tire wasn't correctly balanced, nor aligned.
- The technician ripped the line of brakes fluid by forcing the tire in.
- The tire was incorrectly mounted, thus the loss of pressure.
The KC Firestone Manager said that after seeing all these issues, he had to call "MIKE" and reprimand him for his dishonesty and the unacceptable quality of work done.
The manager at KC Firestone, replaced the tire, replaced the TPMS and fixed the brakes line. Electronical issues, due to the faulty sensor, were fixed.
IN SUMMARY, MIKE doesn't respect the KEYSTONE TO FIRESTONE BUSINESS: HE WASN'T FUNDAMENTALLY HONEST TO MY WIFE.
After all this, I would not doubt that MIKE would be capable of TRICKING MY WIFE into buying a new tire and new sensor.
If you don't want to be tricked by MIKE, DON'T GO TO THIS SHOP. read more