Please do your due diligence on whatever repair you are having these guys do... Had my car all day, for an alignment. To be fair I had recently replace the shocks, struts and tie rods both inner and outer so it needed to get aligned. My car (a.k.a. "deer slayer") was trying to go four different ways going down a one way street. I let the guy know at the desk the alignment was whack because of the recent repairs, no problem we'll have it ready by close of business (c.o.b.). Now I guess I could have had them do all the work I did myself, but I already got a quote of over $600 dollars from the Firestone over on Cave Springs...just to replace the two rear shocks. My rear shocks, name brand cost $68 dollars, and a couple hours of my time... done. Anyway back to these experts.. I drop my car off at around 0800hrs and haven't heard back from them and it's around 1330 now so I call... not finished but they'll have it ready by c.o.b. Ok they call back two hours later... guy tells me my car is ready to pick up, "BUT" the camber on the driver front tire was way off and couldn't be adjusted because it was put in wrong or is the wrong part. HAHAHA you have to be an idiot, I'm thinking...ok I'll play, so the guy is going to look up the parts and cost to fix while I am on my way to look at the sorriest excuse I have ever heard come out of someone's mouth. Get there, the guy at the desk show's me the print off, yep camber is off (tire is tilted) they got all four wheels pointed the same direction for the most part, but the back hasn't changed in the before and after readings. Guy at the desk says the strut was put in wrong or is wrong part, I said well there are 5 bolts, three at the top and two in the bottom and only one way for it to fit.. so B.S., it's the correct part number and the name brand they carry. He also provided me an estimate that was for $590 for the same front two struts on the car (buyer beware). He gets the "Technician" for me to explain... I ask the guy, you couldn't adjust the camber or it wouldn't adjust... He beats around the bush but eventually tells me that he hasn't been doing alignments that long and basically didn't have a clue, I move to the rear end alignment that hasn't changed. The guy tells me that he looked up how to adjust it and it required an 18mm socket. Then he gave me the excuse that while he was attempting to adjust the rear end alignment the socket fell off behind my gas tank and he didn't have another one???? I asked him if they only had one 18 mm socket in the whole shop, he said no the other guy had one but he was afraid he would lose his too... Good thing I bought the life time alignment from them, it didn't cost anything other than the wasted time I spent dealing with incompetency. The scary thing about the whole ordeal is to think that there are people who get charged for work that isn't done correctly. I have had Firestone adjust the alignment on the same vehicle several times now, super alarming is that I noticed that outer tie rod ends were rusted so tightly, that penetrating oil and a torch didn't loosen them and I had to eventually cut them off. Meaning the experts never thought to grease them at any point during the time they supposedly adjusted my alignments. Bad experience here....
TO SEE HOW THIS STORY ENDED SEE MY COMMENT ABOUT THE REAL MECHANICS AT PLAZA TIRE ON OLD HWY 94..... read more