I am so LIVID with this place! Carlos, the manager, if you are reading this do yourself a favor and stop because as soon as I get my car back from the other shop, I'm coming to your store to tell you exactly what I think about you and your piece of trash shop straight to your face.
As a woman I'm very cautious about where I bring my car. I used to take my 2005 Scion xA to the Scion dealership where the car was originally purchased but found that I was lied to and these people were trying to scare me into hundreds of dollars worth of service.
My mom has taken her car to this Midas a couple of times and said they give great, honest service. I decided to take it here for my oil change, which was much needed since I had been procrastinating taking it in before the service light came on. Oops! My car had been making a rumbling noise in the engine, but I attributed it to the needing an oil change and the cold. I did not mention the noise to the technician or to the manager at the time of the visit because I wanted to see if they found anything during inspection.
Carlos, the manager, suggested the$49 oil change for cars over 100,000 miles (which I had JUST gone over) and offered it for $39. I went ahead with it. After inspection, I was told everything was fine but I had just a few small problems, like corrosion around my battery and two bulbs which needed replacing. I was told if I did both of the bulbs he would give me the license plate bulb for free. So I thought oh, what the heck, go ahead. Doing this service here would be cheaper than doing it with the jerks at Scion anyways. Total cost of parts and labor was $86.44
After pulling out of the shop my car felt great. I didn't have the humming noise, I didn't notice any problems, and I had a lot of good faith in this place.
HOWEVER
The other night I noticed while braking that towards the end of my stop I heard this weird noise and felt something strange in the pedal. That was funny, I had my inspection done about a week ago and everything was fine according to my sheet. I disregarded it as part of this extreme cold we've had, maybe I had ice in them. The next night my brake light came on for a brief moment. Again last night it came on on my way to Des Plaines, but during my ride home it was off. I still heard this weird noise.
I decided to take my car over to Countryside Auto Parts on Bloomingdale and North Ave. for a second opinion since my mom did some work related stuff with the manager and said they really seemed like an honest, new, family owned parts store.
This is where I really get angry.
Chuck, one of the service guys asked me to come out to the floor to take a look at what he found. I was mortified when I saw my rotor was smooth up until about a half an inch around the rim. My brake pad? There was no brake pad. When Chuck asked when I had my last inspection was, his eyebrows met his hairline when I told him about a week. His eyebrows went even higher when I told him I was told there was nothing wrong with my brakes.
He said that at the very least I should have been told my front brakes were down to 10% and that if I wanted to salvage the rotors (and save some money) I should have them replaced as soon as possible.
It angers me that I had all this miscellaneous BS done to my car and paid more than I should have instead of putting my money towards something as essential as brakes. What makes me totally furious is the possibility that this guy who did my inspection didn't really look at my brakes at all. And what makes smoke come out of my ears is the possibility that the mechanic and shop owner KNEW about the brakes and didn't say anything to me, and lied to me, because they thought I would come back in there with this problem and that they would make some big money on four new brake pads and rotors.
How ever they managed to royally mess up, it isn't right and it is costing me money. The shop I'm going to now is nice enough to take the price down for me and is only charging me $240 for everything (parts, labor, time). It is inexcusable to not notify someone of their brakes being that low, to lie and say the brakes were in the green, and give me a false sense of security.
I'm going to blast the heck out of you and your shop, Carlos! I'll be going to corporate, every review outlet, Facebook, and then come down to your shop with the pictures of my shredded rotors and brake pads that even a 3 year old could distinguish as being low. And if your shop doesn't get put out of business I hope this blows the lid so far off your lousy mechanics and scheming service so you never lie to another woman about the condition of her car again in fear she'll be as, if not more, vocal as I am.
P.S. The plant in your lobby is moldy. Hope no one calls for a quality inspection for your dump of a shop. read more