Oh, just let me do it

[DRIVEN]

Just got back from the little tire shop in town...again.

A few weeks ago I was replacing a defective rear strut on my daughter's Neon. Decided I'd get the tires balanced since I had them off the car anyway. Threw them in the back of the 510 and hauled them down to the tire shop. The guy was "busy" patching a tire and told me I'd have to leave them. Whatever. It would have literally been a 10 minute job and I was the only waiting customer there. Told him I'd grab lunch and come back. I gave him 2 hours. When I got back a different guy was just finishing up. 55 ****ing dollars later I get out with my loose 14" tires/wheels. Since I had to wait a couple days for my replacement strut I didn't get to actually drive the car for almost a week. Steering wheel was shaking like mad. Took the car back to the shop (why should I do another dismount?) and explained my problem. Original guy pulls it in and rebalances front tires. When I asked how far off they were he says, "a couple ounces." Then blames the new guy. So I ask if we should check the rears and he tells me they're really busy (they weren't) but if it still feels wrong to bring it back. I knew I would have to. Sure enough, at 62-65 the seats are shaking. So I finally get a chance to take it back in today. Tell the old guy at the counter I need my tires rebalanced...again. He takes my keys and pulls it in. Then tells new guy to clock in and handle it. I'm in the waiting and can see the back half of my car on the lift. After about 15 minutes goes by I notice the rear wheels are still on the car, stand up and walk to the window -- HE'S CHANGING MY ****ING OIL! Ask old guy WTF is happening out there and he goes out to the shop to straighten sh*t out. So, 45 minutes later I get out of there with my free oil change and decide to drive 10 miles to the next town over to do some shopping. Rear is smooth but the steering wheel still has a bit of a shake. I give up. If I take it back, God only knows what'll get done to it.

I really, really hate being a customer when it comes to all things automotive. I try really hard to be patient and not be that customer who says, "I'd do it myself but...". I've been on the other side for so long. Is that really what the industry is like now?

 

[ed1948]

I don't even trust my new car dealer to do things right the first time. I like to as much as I can on my cars. My future plans are to sell my new car while it's still under warranty and buy a 15 to 20 year old truck - parts are cheap and any fool can fix them.(including me)

 

[pontiacgp]

wow, I guess you don' have a permit to carry....

 

[DRIVEN]

wow, I guess you don' have a permit to carry....

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_Idaho

I guess my point is that having been on the service side of the equation for so long, I rarely have to be a customer. I would have been mortified if I'd screwed up so many times on one customer. I also would have been tripping over my own apologies rather than just blame a new guy. Lastly, I would have asked the customer if I could drive the car at speed myself to be sure it was right.
This is a similar experience I had with a transmission shop a few years ago with my Cutlass. Seems like customer service is not a high priority.
Maybe I need to keep an eye out for a tire machine and balancer.

 

[joesregalproject]

I totally know what you mean about hating being a customer. I don't trust any of these little tire shops or chain stores around me to balance tires or align a car. I dropped off four loose tires and wheels at a Mr. Tire store to get mounted and balanced. Was told I'd have to come back later to pick them up. Whatever, ok. I come back later to pick them up, and notice the 4 wheels have four different valve stems in them, and now I'm irritated but again, whatever.
I go to pay and I had $100 or so in cash on me thinking that would be more than enough to cover it. The kid at the counter (who looks like he's 14, maybe) tells me $150-something dollars.

I told him I wasn't paying it. I said I'll pay $80 (generally the going rate) or I'm just gonna take them. He said, the price is $15x.00 or I can talk to the manager when he gets back.

I told him no, walked right into the garage from the waiting area(all whilst them screaming at me "You can't go in there! Customers aren't allowed in the shop!"), Started wheeling my wheels and tires toward my car, and loaded them up.

They were saying I was stealing, and they were gonna call the police, blah, blah, blah.
I told them to go ahead and call the cops, I didn't give a sh*t at that point. They never called the cops, and I never went back to that damn store.

 

[DRIVEN]

You ever notice that they never volunteer pricing ahead of time and don't have pricing posted?
I realize it's a for-profit business but $55 to spin balance 4 little 14" tires that are already off the car? I've done that job 1000 times. It's a 10 minute deal. In fact, my previous boss would often just do something like that for free just to get/keep a good customer. It pays off in the long run.

 

[pontiacgp]

My friend does tires at his store and he charges $32 to balance wheels off the car. I've seen even change the orientation of the tire if he has a problem balancing the wheel with no extra charge. He keeps his machine at close tolerance and has seen wheels newly balanced at another shop out by a couple of ounces. The customer has told my friend that at the other shop the guy showed him the wheel was balanced at 0 so that shop has changed the tolerance of the machine to get the balancing job done quicker

 

[TURNA]

If I was you I would check the oil and make sure it ism't anti-freeze!!

 

[565bbchevy]

I told them to go ahead and call the cops, I didn't give a sh*t at that point. They never called the cops, and I never went back to that damn store.

I get that you might have been upset about the price but I personally think there would have been a better way to handle it and maybe wait for the manager and work it out with him, and if the police did come who's side do you think they are going to take the place that provided the service but charged more than the customer thought it should be or the customer who took his wheels back without paying for the service.
As always this is only my opinion others will vary.

 

[joesregalproject]

You ever notice that they never volunteer pricing ahead of time and don't have pricing posted?
I realize it's a for-profit business but $55 to spin balance 4 little 14" tires that are already off the car? I've done that job 1000 times. It's a 10 minute deal. In fact, my previous boss would often just do something like that for free just to get/keep a good customer. It pays off in the long run.

Yep, I'm fairly certain it's so they can change labor prices based on how business is doing. Independent shop labor usually runs $50-75 an hour, so they mean to tell me they needed 2-3 hours to mount and balance 4 loose tires? C'mon, I was born at night but not last night.

Everytime I walk into one of those places and see people in the waiting area I just think "Wow, all these people are getting screwed and don't even know it".

I found a small, locally owned and operated shop a couple years ago that I usually trust to do my state inspections and emissions, but I wouldn't really want them doing much more than basic repairs. It's a shame you can't have someone else change your oil without worrying that you are being swindled anymore.