***Negative Five Stars****
The classic definition of insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting a different result. This pretty much sums up my family's experience the past several years with Tires Plus. However, after my most recent encounter with Tires Plus in Annandale, I am going to break the cycle and avoid this business forever.
We brought in our car recently on a Sunday for a front-end alignment since the vehicle was noticeably pulling to the right during operation. For background, a family member purchased one of their vaunted "lifetime alignment" contracts in the early 2000's so the alignment should've been free. The Service Adviser (and I use this term loosely), "Joe", argued with us at first that the vehicle did not have the lifetime alignment warranty. It wasn't until we made him go into their system and check their database that he sheepishly admitted, "oh here it is, I found it".
This should've been our first warning to turn around immediately since every time we've taken the car in for an alignment, Tires Plus has hemmed and hawed about the lifetime alignment program, and in fact, the car usually drove WORSE after they supposedly serviced the vehicle.
We also provided Joe with the wheel lock nut (such as one found here: http://www.autozone.com/suspension-steering-tire-and-wheel/wheel-nut-lock) since this is a security measure we use to prevent people from stealing tires. When we went to pick up the car in the afternoon after the alignment had supposedly been "finished", once again Joe (indicated by employee code 02 on the invoice) argued with us that WE HAD NOT PROVIDED HIM with the wheel lock.
He even went the "extra step" and asked the technician who worked on our car (Craig Erwin, employee code 08) if he had received a wheel lock to which Craig denied ever receiving it. Oh really? So if we didn't provide them with a wheel lock nut how did the technician remove the tires in the first place? It is clear someone at in their shop stole this wheel lock since it costs around $75 - the only reason we know this is because that's how much we paid to get a replacement unit.
But we didn't have time to argue any further as we were late for a family function. As we drove away, as was the norm after having the vehicle "serviced" i.e. screwed up by Tires Plus, the car was still pulling to right. When we called Joe the next day, he referenced the report which indicated that the car was in alignment with only the rear left Camber (rear driver's side) being slightly off and within an acceptable range.
Wanting a second opinion, we took the car to a more reputable auto mechanic, and when he placed the car up on the alignment machine, what he told us was both shocking and illuminating. He first indicated that one of the tire rods was essentially "frozen" and needed to be repaired otherwise there was a real danger that it would eventually crack while driving. The other thing was, he demonstrated how the alignment results could easily be manipulated by simply pressing on a tire while it is hooked up for diagnostics to show a particular wheel going from the RED to GREEN rating, thus showing the wheel being in alignment.
So for years, it is pretty clear to me, this is what Tires Plus has been doing to show the car being in alignment when they knew about this dangerous issue which could've potentially resulted in injury and/or death to not only us but to other drivers on the road.
Thankfully, we were able to get not only the alignment fixed but also to resolve the root cause of the mis-alignment in the first place.
We placed a complaint with the state of Virginia and lodged a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. But these steps only go so far. I HIGHLY recommend to the Yelp community to avoid the Tires Plus chain, unless you want to be lied to and have your property and life placed in jeopardy.
But if you do decide for some reason to fork over your hard earned money to these crooks, I suggest whipping out your smartphone and recording your conversation with any service "adviser", especially if you are handing over any wheel locks, keys, or other personal property. At least this way, you will have a video record in case you need to refer to it to resolve any disputes. read more