Shop expiernce - Your thoughts

beerdog

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I just rebuilt sharons front suspension. New upper arms,lower arms, strut rod bushings, links, and sway bar bushings. I took it to a local Midas for the $89 4 wheel alignment. I told them I just replaced everything and that the front will be off soo don't think it is because something is broken. The guy comes out after 15 minutes and says it is off and will take 3 extra hours to adjust at $90/hr. I am like huh??? Take me to the car and show me what you mean. He calls the tech over and the guy sais that since toe, camber, and caster are all off it will take a long time to get it in adjustment. So I ask him isn't that what an alignment is....you make the adjustments? He says...Ohhhh, but it will be alott of adjusting and your car has rear adjustments too. I am like...it is just turning turning nuts and bolts. He agreed on that, but then said the alignment price is only for when a single part is replaced. So basically he said it is $89 unless I have to actually adjust everything. Needless to say I left. Am I wrong in thinking they were trying to squeeze extra cash out of me? All previous times I have done front end work I have never had any issues, although this is the first time I tried an alignment at this shop.
 
Total BS... I had the entire front end rebuilt and the 4 wheel alignment was no more than if I just drove it in for an alignment.
 
Thanks. I just needed some reassurance that I was not the one being the Ahole.

That like charging extra for your tune up because it needs alott of tunning.
 
Hahaha sorry but that is too funny. I thought shops like that didn't exist anymore.

Do it yourself. It's really not that difficult.
 
3+ hours also sounds crazy... :rolleyes:

I've never found any of those 'chain shops' to be anything other then a rip off...
 
I agree, a total rip off.

Midas is terrible. I heard one of their ads for brake a pad "special" of 99 bucks per axle. What a scam, that only included new pads, any rotor resurfacing would, of course, be extra.

They offer free brake inspections too. Then they scare people into full brake rebuilds when it's not even needed. That's the oldest scam around, scare people into thinking their brakes will kill them if they don't get them totally rebuilt.

You did good leaving that shop.:)
 
LMAO.
That's crazy. Good job on leaving that place.

I think it works on women the most. My mom went to Firestone last year and walked out with a $500 bill :eek: .
I told her that I can do everything on that list. Couple months later I end up replacing radiator, radiator hoses, 4 shocks and front suspension parts.

My Boss girlfriend went to the dealer for a "Free Oil Change" and end up spending $300 on Fuel injecter cleaner and other crap for her 2011 Cadillac Escalade that is 9 months old :banghead:
 
A lot of the franchise places do that BS, the few good ones are few and far between. You need to find a good private owned shop that has been in business a long time where the owner is there every day and working.
 
I don't remember ever using Midas here, but I have had good experiences with both GoodYear and Meineke in town.

It really depends on the owner of the franchise.
 
here is a little story about midas for you. i used to work at midas, on king street in northampton massachusetts. my first day on the job i watched the shop manager pull an 87 chevy silverado short bed 4x4 into the shop, it was lifted with 35's on it and just freshly repainted, teddy was the manager, he managed alright, he managed to let the truck slip off the right side of the allignment rack and planted the fender and door into the exhaust bender, new fender and door skin for that truck on midas's dime. a month into me working there, my wife's best friend jessica had her step dad bring his truck to us for oil change and tune up. this was a 93 chevy Z-71 step side 350 4x4. this guy bruce drains the oil and then takes lunch. when he comes back, he changes the wires, plugs, fuel filter, cap rotor, the usual, he then fires the truck up to let it run and warm up and check fluids, but it wasnt running good, so he decides reving it up will clean it out, nope, it locked the engine up, oh, he drained the oil and went to lunch and never put oil back in it. so the scumbag supervisor john who was a part time hampshire county sheriff, calls up the local salvage yard and puts a used 305 in this guys truck, my buddy ron was dating jessica at the time, her step dad, the owner of the truck was the police seargant in our town. i got fired because i was telling people how shady john and midas were, so my buddy ron told him if you fire him, i quit, so we both got in rons car and left and went right to chris and told him about his truck, he ran the numbers on the engine and sure enough, he realized what we told him was true, he sued midas, got a brand new motor for his truck from gm, and john was canned from midas instantly and the sheriff's dept. he got what he deserved that place was so crooked.
 
The best thing you can do is keep telling this story to whomever you come in contact with. Word of mouth is the best tool against fraudulent shops.
 
The best thing you can do is keep telling this story to whomever you come in contact with. Word of mouth is the best tool against fraudulent shops.

Doing online reviews is good also. Google the shop and see what yellow page type sites have reviews and add your own.
 
I work for a local Goodyear shop as a tech, and I do A LOT of alignments. On the mark 8 it is so simple... First, adjust the rear camber, then toe. On the front, adjust Caster (non-wearing angle) with the strut rod's, adjust camber using the LCA eccentrics, then front Toe! With everything new, its entirely to simple! Nothing could be rusted or frozen in place! Thats a rip. Bring it to me, and Ill even check the alignment for free :D Doing an alignment at home is a pain in the a$$! :D
 
I think it depends on who works at the shop, or maybe who runs it, cause I had a fabulous experience with that Midas before, but Hubby keeps insisting on taking the cars to Firestone which totally screwed me over.
 
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