Firestone Complete Auto Care review: Services not performed 6

Firstone is no good they blow way to easily

Also purchased a "lifetime" wheel alignment from Firetone store in Scranton, Pa.

The 2nd year of the "contract" I took my car in for oil change and a "free" wheel alignment. The manager told me that they could no longer align the car, and that I needed a "kit" so they could align it properly; the kit's cost was $ 144 which was about $20 more than the lifetime wheel alignment package!

Another scam is the 5 free oil change et al discount services package (about $70). You get the free oil change but they also "inspect" the car for other problems. The manager then comes out (after oil change) with a computer print-out of other work the car needs, usually the "other work" came to several hundred dollars. Knew it was a scam when the print-out showed that my front tires were wearing unevenly and I needed new tires. Told him that the car was inspected (state law) by them just two weeks prior to the free oil change, and nothing was said about the tire wear (the car passed inspection). The manager then put on his sneakers and ran with a story that my tires didn't need to be replaced immediately!?

The scam that finished doing any further business with Firestone was a "low ball" estimate of the cost to repair oil leak on my 98 Neon. The service manager told me it wasn't the head gasket and it would cost me $750 to repair the leak; two hours later he called and said it WAS the head gasket and the price doubled to $1, 500. They already had the "head" off so I found myself between a rock and a hard place (call a lawyer and sue, complete the repair...)!

I contacted a few law firms (e-mail) after the head gasket fiasco, and explained all the scams to them but never got a reply; also contacted by e-mail the Pa Attorney General's office but again nothing happened.

Firestone is probably worse than the Sears Auto Stores who got caught years ago charging customers across the country for work (brake jobs) never done. They were fined and could no longer provide such services in their stores. Guess that until enough customers complain to the federal/state government or a law firm decides that there's enough money to file a class action lawsuit then Firestone will remain fat and happy scaming their customers!

Wanna here something scary I worked for them as a manager and everything your saying is true, I also have invoices proving they are scamming customers and I am no longer employed if I find the right way I am going to blow this company wide open. They even give training programs were they tell you to sell the lifetime brakes which includes calipers even if the calipers are fine. I have an email from the ADM when our alignment machine was down and he says sell them the lifetime we will align it later on the new machine HOLY CRAP. I have over 25 years in this business and have never seen anything like this in my life.

Firestone lifetime wheel alignment is a joke. Ever since I have purchased this package, I have taken my car multiple times to Firestone for free alignment. And interestingly, the technician comes back with all green reading; meaning the car is perfectly aligned, no need for any work. This is a big scam. In the cases when they do perform some work, they will never give you a copy of the original alignment report, so there is no way to find out if they did anything.

01-12-11
I just had the same type of horrible experineces with Firestone in Mckinney, Texas. My complaints with them are in line with everyone elses complaints that i've read in this blog. My story is an extremly long story too regarding their breach of service contract with the lifetime alignment.

I'll try to keep my story as short as i can without leaving out the critial information about their extremly poor service and fraudulant behavior. I took my car in to have it check because of a leak i had noticed from the radiator. While I was there, i wanted them to go ahead and install the real upper ball joint that they had said i needed in a previous visist to take advantage of my lifetime alignment package. However, they couldn't perfrom it then because they said they coudln't do it until i replace my rear upper ball joints.

I authorized them to repair the leak they said that i needed on my raditor and installed to upper ball joint that they said i needed before they would be able to perform an alignment. job. So i authorized them to installed two new ball joints along with installing a new raditor and hoses.

They claim in the process of taking off the old ball joints that they said was needed, they damaged the cross beam. According to them, they cut whole in it in an attemtp to to take off the upper right ball joints . they called me after failing to get them off and told me that something broke in their attempt to take the upper right ball joint off. They said they would repair all damanges at no cost to me. I question the issue but said ok however, I made a surprise visit to the shop and asked the service adviser to show me what was broken. He could not show me what was broken however, I did see where they had damaged the cross beam. If anyone doesn't know what a cross beam is, that is solid steel support beam that holds the rear end in place and it would have taken some really force to tear an rip into it as it was. Now, keep in mind that they said something broke, not that they had broken or damaged my car.

They said they would pay for it at no cost to me and replace the cross beam with a new OEM part. Trying to keep a long story short, that never happened. After waiting for days for the cross beam to arrive, the called me and told me that the cross beam had made it in and it would only take two hours. Four hours went by and i called them and asked if they were having more complications. They said yes because the part arrived with remmant of parts from where it was taken off of a car from a wrecking yard. I was shocked! I asked them if they were putting used parts on my car and they said yes. I told them that i'd be down their in a few minutes. When i got there i caught them beating an old cross beam with hammers trying to remove remnant of parts from the old car it came off of. I immediately told them to stop all work and asked them what in the heck are they doing. He told me that the part won't come off and they were making a last attemtp to get the remnant parts off. He acted as if they were doing nothing wrong. I asked the service adviser who authorized them to put used parts on my car. He said he did. I asked him why. He told me because my car was old. At the point i was done trying to reason with these idiots.

Listen, I can't say all but from what i've read many of Firestone shops are rats! They will break your car and then tell you they you need repairs. They will lie and their whole shop will support each other's lie. Don't even bother contacting their district manager because they will support thier shop and back their lies. I even took my complaints to the Firestone Consumer Affairs and the person that finally called me back even sided with them however, i did get better traction with them. After going round and around with them too, they finally offered a small settlement for "my trouble". Keep in mind I was out of my car for two weeks and had used up some of my vacation time thinking that they would have my car ready at least in two days which is still longer than the initial time of 4 hours they has quoted me. They even refused to pay for a rental car and all they could say was we've done enough and take it to small claims court if you refuse to take our generious customer satisfaction offer.

Nonetheless, between the district manager, the store manger, and Firestone Customer Rentention department, they ended up absorbing the entire rear in work and they called it "customer satisfaction" on the repair receipt. They claim they completed the alignment job however, the jury is still out on that. The rear wheels on my car now has positive camber which is a sign of an incorrect alignment job. I complained once again but again, they lied again and said the positive camber would level out after about two weeks. I was just ready to get the heck up out of there before i said or did something that that would have had high consequences.

I've read a lot of complaints about Firestone and i can't believe a majority of the complaints are the same type of claims. Firestone has about 1500 stores and the claims i read are all from different store locations. What in the heck is going on. Is this organized crime?

I will support anyone that's willing to sign for a class action lawsuit. Please contact me at lj3844_mlkc@att.net.

Bought a Free Lifetime Alignment contract at $199.50 less an automatic $20 discount. Brought the price down to their former real retail price of $179.95.

Received an appointment confirmation after 3 failed ones. Arrived on time for 10 am appointment. Waited 2 and 1/2 hours (till 12:30 pm) and my car was still sitting in the parking lot. No indication when they will start work so I asked for the key. Pointless appointment. A wasted morning, A total disappointing experience.