On 29 Jul 2018 08:01:58 GMT, Vic Smith wrote:
Same thing happened to me at a Firestone shop. I bought a '66 F100 and it was pulling a
little to the left. I dropped it off for new front tires and an alignment. When I picked
it up from their parking lot, first thing I did was crawl under it. Same grunge on the tie
rod ends. Went back in and asked the desk guy why they didn't do the alignment.
He shouted to the mech and the mech shouted back. "We can't do twin I-beam."
I had him refund the charge. Pretty close to your experience.
THANK YOU!
The reason I say thank you is that I don't know if my experience is unique.
All I know is that it happened, and, worse, they didn't give a ****.
They charged me. They did nothing. When I brought it back, they didn't
blink an eye when I alleged that no bolt was twisted.
When they put it on the rack, the *only* thing even close was the toe
(which, remember, I had already done). I remember it was a 70 Dodge Dart,
and they said their charts (this is before the Internet, of course) only
went back ten years, so I think it was 1981 as I remember it being close to
those ten years.
What irks me is that they might be doing this for *thousands* of other
customers, which is really one of the major reasons I do my own work (I
haven't been to a mechanic in a decade).
Hence I THANK YOU for letting me know that I'm not the only one who has ben
screwed by alignment shops saying they do the work, and yet, not doing it.
Just as I brought my heavy flywheel with me to pick up the new flywheel
last week, I try to ameliorate this by WATCHING what they do (luckily we
always have cameras nowadays) where watching MIDAS caught them in so many
provable errors when they simply changed my tires that TireRack shipped
them, that they ended up mounting the four tires for the price of the valve
stem (it took them two hours for four tires because I kept stopping them to
tell them that they were doing it wrong - and they did _that_ many things
wrong - where I had a full-fledged SLR on my neck strap proving every
step).
TireRack called me back (they have a guy for this actually, who runs the
recommended installer program) and said they kicked that MIDAS out of the
recommended installer program - and even after that - MIDAS *still* said
they had a "tirerack" price (which TireRack doesn't allow them to
advertise) so I got them in trouble for that too.
I don't know if they were just screwing me, or if they screw almost anyone,
so that's why I THANK YOU for letting me know I'm not the only one, at
least with alignment, who got screwed by a shop that charged me and didn't
touch anything.
NOTE: I have a mom-and-pop local alignment shop I go to now, where I've
posted pictures in the past of what he does, and he's *GREAT*. He even lets
me bring my own 500 pounds of weight and doesn't complain that I follow him
around like a puppy, watching every bolt (he shows me what to twist) and he
sets the Bimmer's rear camber as close to 0 degrees at my request, even
though the spec is negative 2 degrees (which eats tires like you can't
believe and where I don't need to corner like a banshee).
My rule now is to *WATCH* them ... but I do thank you for confirming that
I'm not the only one who paid for an alignment and didn't get anything in
return.
Can you believe that they just didn't do it, and didn't give a ****?
Sure can.
That sucks.
Guys like you and me they won't fool too often (e.g., I'll never go to
Sears ever again) - but what about a young kid who goes there today. They
get ripped off because of these people you can't trust.
I heard the stories, so did some looking around when the trans went out on my '67 Skylark.
AAMCO wanted $700 - hell, I only paid $475 for the car.
Went to the used car dealer I bought it from and he told me what trans shop he used.
They rebuilt the trans for $125.
Thanks for confirming AAMCO is a ripoff, although, we have to remember, I
think they're like Burger Kings where they are owned by a person who isn't
really part of AAMCO per se.
In my case, it was the same Dodge Dart whose motor mounts (both of them)
had sheared such that the engine was tilted and the belts were making
noises.
I brought it *later* to K-Mart for something like a $10 checkup, where
K-Mart told me *exactly* what the problem was (which was easy to repair as
motor mounts were as simple as jacking the engine, removing the mount by a
single nut each, and then putting the new ones in).
So it was clearly easily diagnosed as broken motor mounts.
When I went to AAMCO, they put it on a lift without even looking at the
engine, and then showed me the gunk in the transmission pan, where they
literally swiped their finger in it and showed me the dirty finger
"proving" that the transmission was the culprit.
The charge, as I recall, for a new transmission (or rebuilt?) was $400
which was astronomical to me (I literally didn't have that much money in
the bank at that time), where they were literally livid that I told them to
button it up (it was the "free diagnosis").
They even put in the old mixed fluid from a billion cars!
Now I know how sadistic that act alone is, but then I didn't know any
better (all I did was notice it).
Can you believe that? They had already mixed my fluid in with everyone
else's (including, I'm sure, manual transmissions) and then they
sadistically replaced my fluid with that mess.
Again, I didn't realize at that time how horrid an act that is.
But back to the point, the problem was that the motor mounts were bad, and
yet they told me I needed a new (or rebuilt) transmission!
Being older and wiser, I can only conclude one of two possible things:
1. They are incredible inept, or,
2. They are thieves.
Pick one.
I taught my kids that very many are crooks (AAMCO is the worst, IMHO).
Sigh.
Just avoid the franchise operations. Still have to deal with finding a competent mechanic,
but when you do, you're set. Until they retire or die on you.
I do agree with you on finding someone you can trust. I was in the YMCA
Indian Princess years ago with my kids, where one of the Dads was a
mechanic, where I trusted him (and, since I still have those cars, two
decades later, I know that he replaced every bolt, he torqued them down,
etc and he used OEM parts like he said he did).
He retired, just as you predicted!
Sigh.
Luckily the mom-and-pop alignment shop still exists. The mother is
literally the lady in the front office, and this kid, who is about 30 or
so, is a nice guy who literally lets me under the car with him as he points
out the bolts I need to adjust to set the alignment.
I'm sure Clare would say that most mechanics are honest, and I'm sure most
are, but I didn't even finish telling you my stories of where they're not.
