Just Brakes
Reviews and Complaints

Went to a Just Brakes in Houston, on HWY 6. They took my brakes apart, had me come into the garage and quoted me $800. I said I wanted a second opinion. They told me they didn't know if they could put it back together because they broke some part taking it apart. I didn't say anything, I just went and sat down. 45 minutes later the manager comes in and tries to tell me I need to walk down the road to a auto parts store and buy a part myself, out of pocket. I said, "No. If you couldn't get it back together, you shoudln't have taken it apart." They called some kind of general manager, or the main manager, and he can in and looked at the car and left. Then they ended up putting it back together. I can imagine that some people might just get intimidated by this stuff. The mechanic and the manager on duty, basically made it seem like if I didn't pay the $800 repair I would have an unusable car and that I couldn't drive it out of there. I was prepared to pay more than the 99.88 fee they advertise, I understand there's other stuff that often needs to be done. But they tried to charge me 8 times as much, and then tried to bully me into doing it by acting like they couldn't get my car to be driveable.

Stay away- avoid! This place is very shady.

My Tacoma needed new brake pads admittedly it had been about 45, 000 miles and I knew it needed done. Wanting to go to a place where they knew what they were doing I called the Toyota dealership the quoted $225.00 for new pads. Seemed high as dealerships are. So I got talking to a neighbor who just took her newer model honda in for a brake job, $149.99 she paid at just brakes with no problems. sounded good I took my truck in this morning. After getting the 149.99 quote I left and went home then the call came telling me the pressure cylindar was shot in the right side uneven wear on the left side and the the price would be a total of 514.54. I asked them to get the truck ready and I would come and get it. They told me that I would have to pay a 90.00 fee for trouble shooting the brake system to get my truck back. So I am out over half the cost of getting my brakes done, and no brake job. After getting over being mad I called and told them to just replace the brake pads for the 149.99. They refused to work on the truck unless I agreed to replace all the parts they said needed replace. Talk about a rock and a hard place. This is a scam business, do not patronize theis type of establishment they take advantage of consumers. Never again.

The $99 brake service is a scam. When i was in the store seven customers came in the store and Just Brakes had none of their pads in stock. Then they will charge you $160 for the brake pads that they have to order. After that they will walk you to your car and tell you that your caliper pistons are sticking, and that your entire brake system will need rebuilt. I got out at $450 because i wouldn't let them rebuild my two year old calipers. They installed and charged me for parts that i told them i did not want. I told the manager i would not pay for these and his response was "we can put your old parts back on but well have to charge you the labor to put them back on." which was the exact same price lol. It was a complete waste of time because i have to redo them only eight months later. Good luck with their customer service too. They don't warranty your vehicle if you decline any of their recommendations even though ninety percent of the time they are not needed. I

I dropped of my car at Just Brakes in N Richland Hills tx for a brake job. I received a call back and was told that my car needed $1000.00 worth of repairs and that by law he could not release my car. I demanded my car back and told him that was a lie. He said it would be ready in an hour. A co-worker dropped me off and my car was still in the air on the rack tires off. I was told everyone was on a break and I would just have to wait. I waited and waited. Finally my car was put back together and the man slammed my keys on the counter and walked off. I was afraid that he may have made my car dangerous. I took it to a local mechanic and got what I needed all along just a brake job.

I took my 2007 Nissan Sentara in Just Brakes. I dropped it off at 10 AM. I called at 1pm and the manager said it wasn’t done. he called an hour later and said the car didn’t need anything, shocks, etc. were all fine. He called at 3 and said the brakes sit on a “special” boot that they do not carry and it would be an extra $50.00. I finally picked up the car at 4. 4 days later, I hear squeaking from the brakes, worse than when I took it in.

I called the manager and he said they have to be broken in at least 300 miles. I said it’s been like 400 miles. He told me to give it another day or so and call him back if it repeats. So, after a couple more days, still squeaks, so I take it in. He changes the pads. 4 days later, still squeaks. I buy pads myself from AutoZone and have a bud replace them..no more squeak. $99.00 brake job comes out to $250.00. Just Brakes suck.

Just brakes promise a complete set of brakes for $99. When they get you in the door, they make up all kinds of other needs to get you to pay more. The parts they replaced on my sons car should have lasted the life of his car unless he was in a wreck which he wasn’t. I spoke with their regional office and they stood by the fact that he did indeed need these parts. I told them I felt screwed and they did nothing about it. I would never go there again and I don’t want anyone else to make the same mistake.

My fiance's car needed obvious brake work - all four pads, as well as machined rotors. Because they advertise for $99, we took it in. However, they told us the 2007 car also needed to have the rear calipers both rebuilt. OK, fine. $500 later (which we were reluctant about but ultimately OK with), my fiance picked the car up, drove it home, then asked me to drive it because the "brakes weren't working like they used to and sounded funny." Sure enough, there was a constant grinding sound with and without applying the brakes. They also functioned at about 40% of how they previously functioned only the day before (and this was WITH all the "necessary rebuilding and repairs" they said we needed to have done. On top of all that, the entire car reeked of cigarette smoke! Unprofessional and incompetent to the extreme! Avoid this shady franchise AT ALL COSTS!

The brakes ultimately were in FAR worse shape than when we brought the car in. Are you kidding me!?! These guys are a JOKE! I used to change brake pads when I was a kid, including properly bleeding the brakes like you should. I guess I should have not listened to their marketing campaigns b/c this was the MOST unprofessional experience I have ever had with any car shop, regardless of it being a small shop or national chain.

On 11/02/2010 my wife took our 2004 Lexus RX 330 in for repair. It was grinding a bit in the rear and I figured since I had gone in and had it repairs from their originally I would tell her to go back. The money wasn't so much the issue as Warranty Brake Pads save you $50 bucks, it was because they were located next door to her work. Even when I went in the past to them they always tried to upsell me so much garbage, but every time I had gone I knew what was wrong and what I needed. Not this time. She dropped it at 12 noon and they called her at 1 pm stating the following (I have it via email from them too) Replace all 4 roters and rear brake pads. Front Roters: $120.46/ roter Back Roters: $111.96/ roter Rebuild 2 calibers: $129 Bleed Brakes : $44.95 Front Brakes : $99.88 for just labor or $135 with pad and labor Back Brackes: $99.88 for just labor or $135 for pad and lobor The total came to about $900 + Tax and Shop Supplies. So basically $1000. I called and talked to the guy and told him I had just changed the Front Brakes, and this car goes from Georgia to North Carolina on a weekly basis (All Hwy). He said well you should be changing your brakes every 25, 000 miles. I told him I thought you change them when they are at 5% or less of pad left. I told him that he is ripping us off and we will come by and pick the car up. He said he will need 30 min to rebuild everything (famous lines). I told him I will be calling the police if the car is not ready in 15 min. He had it ready in 10 min, my wife picked up the car and drove straight to our local mechanic who we should have gone to anyways. Let me give you a side note of what he had also told my wife. He said she must bleed the brake system as the fluid is very dirty. 2 months earlier when getting an oil change my wife accidently changed the brake fluid in stead of the transmission fluid! So I instantly knew he was messing with me. The front brakes Rotor and Pads had just been changed, by this company! They couldn't turn the rotors even once? The calipers that were now messed up, these guys had put new ones in when I got the pads and rotors done! I've never heard of Calipers going bad twice in 1 year. Anyways, all in all, my actual mechanic who is so trust worthy was like, calipers are fine, the boot had loosened up and I tightened it. And your back brake pads need to be changed. The rotors on the back can be turned and are in perfect condition. The front brakes have 80% of the pad left and look brand new. $1000 down to $140 and I had him put LEXUS brakes back on it. Stay away from Just Brakes, I hope the local news team goes and investigates them.

I went to just brakes to get the 99 dollar deal and as I walked in the door, someone was already complaining about the price going up to 300 dollars! So, they took my car in and came out to tell me to come out and see what all they had to fix. The day before I had checked my brake fluid and it was clean and pink, and also it was about an inch away from the bottom of the cap. So he tells me that they have to flush my brake line and showed me the fluid, which was now all the way to the top and black, they poured something on top. Plus, they had to rebuild the calipers and turn the drums or whatever and what was once 99.98, turned into 330.00 dollars! They told me the reason it was so expensive is because they had to use honda brake pads. This all happened a month ago, my brakes are completely gone already, when I asked the dealership why that would happen, they said that just brakes put some 6 dollar cheap *** shooes on my car! Im going up there tomorrow, after finding out about this and im going to raise ***!

Boy after reading the complaints most people were dead on, that place is a rip off
the training I received to b/s people into buying needless repairs was to say the least unsettleing. I quit after 8months, and really want to help people with questions they may have before they visit or after they have visited.I will even answ. questions about brake work as well I am A.S.E. CERTIFIED. for 28 years.

I drive a 2008 Nissan Atltima that I took in to Just Brakes because like everyone else, the thought of $99 repairs sounded to good to be true . . . it was! Admittantly I know nothing about cars but I know enough about human nature to know when I am being lied to about something. When I walked in I asked simply to have my brakes looked at and given an estimate. I reiterated several times I wanted no work to be done without my approval. The person at the desk had me fill out forms for the inspection, which I thought was odd, but he assured me it was for insurance reasons. Afterwards he drove my car about 25 yards into the garage and then asked me "how long have your brakes be grinding like that?" I told him they havent been grinding (he must have heard the cash register grinding up my bill). After about a ten minute inspection he came out and told me the cost to fix my brakes would be $1400! He said the "grinding" was caused by metal on metal and they needed ceramic brakes or some such non sense. I told him to put the car back together (they had already began the job!) and give me back my car. After some back and forth arguing he finally gave me back my car. I drove it down the street to another garage for an inspection, cost for repair and labor $159! Save your time and money, don't ever go to Just Brakes, because they are really Just A Rip Off!

I expected an honest brake job. After all, they state "We really do care." I think they care only about running up the price, intimidating you to accept, then not honoring their warranty when you refuse to pay more than is needed. I turned down the over $300 repairs when their employee admitted it was not needed. When the manager got back he refused to honor the warranty and yelled a lot at me. He also said his employee would not say it was not needed. I hope the fellow did not get in trouble or fired for telling the truth.

I needed new brakes & I knew I'd pay at least $100.00. I saw an ad for Just Brakes Pads & shoes for just $99.88. I thought that was wonderful so I went there. Well, I knew that they would need to inspect the current brakes to see if I needed either new pads & shoes or both. But I was not prepared for them to destroy the front brakes just so that they may emphasize their explanation as to why I should get new ones! When I say destroy, they literally used a crow bar & hammer on them because they wouldn't just come right off. I was furious when I saw the mechanic do this! Well, after he managed to literally smash both to pieces he told me that I need new front rotors along with the brakes & I told him that if he didn't use the hammer & crowbar on them that I wouldn't need new rotors. I had new pads put on rotors that were in the same condition before on a different car. Granted the rotors were rusty, but they were still useable. Again he couldn't get the assembly to release so here comes the hammer again. Then the Manager comes out & says the total in materials & labor would be around $800.00! I told him I can't afford that price, which was true. I only had about $600 available in my checking account. He made it so that w/ taxes it came out just a few dollars under $600.

Stupid me, I let my husband take my van in for a brake check. The front brakes were just starting to rub and I understood that we'd need the front brakes replaced. Ok. But Just Brakes insisted that the back brakes had fused together - a blatant lie since I'd have felt the performance of my brakes change if the back brakes were fused. There was nothing wrong with the back brakes, but my husband okayed the repair (because I was very sick that day and he didn't want to bother me).

As if the $750 repair of the perfectly fine back brakes wasn't enough, the repair was totally botched. The brake light went on within a day and I took the van back to talk to the manager Adrian. He protested that the light wasn't his fault or his problem.

I took the van to another brake place who then told me that the master cylinder was going out because of the faulty repair by Just Brakes. Now I have to spend another $300 at another brake place to fix the repair because Adrian will NOT fix it. Not only did they destroy my master cylinder, the didn't install the back brakes correctly.

I'm not even sure where to begin. I have yet to recieve as poor service from any established business as I have recieved from Just Brakes.

From extremely poor workmanship, to unreliable parts, to even worse problem resolution and, on top of all of that, management and corporate employees that are not men of their word and have the worst customer service of all.

I had an issue with work that I had done, a little over a year ago, to a cost of over $600 needing to be redone at cost of just over $700 so I left a comment on their website. A few days later I receive a call from a regional manager (in Georgia) who I think his name was Drex who put me to task to prove my situation. Before I could get back to him I get a call from Bob Marshall in Dallas, TX after discussing the situation with him he informs me that he will call the store in Conyers, GA and have them redo the previously poorly done work. My wife took the car back this morning and the technicians there had no idea what she was talking about. They called Bob Marshall and when he finally got back to them he said he didn't recall the conversation either. (I've never been to Dallas, TX and I certainly don't have a knowledge of the corporate structure at Just Brakes - where in the *** else would I have gotten the name Bob Marshall from?!?

They need to stop using the tag line "WE REALLY DO CARE" because they REALLY don't. I have already shared this story, within minutes of getting off the phone with my wife, with 5 of my co-workers and I assure you I will be sharing it with many more. I will also be posting it to my Facebook and MySpace pages (several hundred people will see those) and my Blog (several hundred more) and I think I will create a YouTube Video -if I make it funny enough it should draw several thousand hits -thank God for the digital age.

This complaint has two parts, so bear with me and read on.

Being in the same shoes as all other penny pinchers (especially with the tough economy now), i had the misfortune of taking in my vehicle to Just Brakes, because i heard a slight vibration in my rear brakes when applying them. Mind you, I have a 2002 Accord with all four disc brakes, and the disc rotors are actually bolted to avoid unnecessary chatter upon braking. Car stopped fine and straight, brake pads had 80% life left on them (from the past brake job), and I knew that all i needed was machining the rotors to make them even. Comparing the price for rotor machining in the area, it came to around $80 to machine all four, plus the labor to install them (@$100). So, being a good samaritan to my pocket, here I end up at Just brakes. The same old rehearsed spiel from them, yadi yadi yada, $99.99 and I would be all set. Well, they open everything up, and suddenly, my master cylinder is gone, i need new calipers and brake lines, my caliper is busted, and all in all, it was going to be a $1989 and some change to finish all the work . Right? all this while I had NO squishiness on my brake pedals (disproving master cylinder failure), Car stopped fine with the slightest brake touch (which disproves their theory of the master cylinder failure), stopped straight (disproving that my calipers were bad), and upon putting the car on the ramp and applying the brakes, all four wheels stopped at the same time (disproving i needed new brake lines). Anyhow, since the car was old, i decided to have the master cylinder replaced regardless. They wanted to charge me $160 for a refurbished one. GUESS WHAT? i called the Honda dealer in my area and got it for $98. Told them where to stick the rest of the repair work, and to just machine my rotors and reinstall them. Well, they had a huge problem with that, and guess they thought that might as well get my money while they can, and i paid them a total of $188 for the labor to put in the master cylinder, and the regular brake job. Well, so far the total ran to approx. $300 (with the price of the new cylinder). Well, to this day, TWO YEARS LATER, the car still has no problems. Blame that on faulty calipers, master cylinders and brake lines. HEAR THAT JUST BRAKES? not only that, I have had to stop hard many many many times since then, and no problems still.
Okay, SO, recentlygot a good price on a brand new 2008 model year accord. Being it july 2009, dealership wanted to get rid of the previous year vehicle (i know, i am a stickler for honda's...but thats just me). Anyways, I drove the vehicle in the rain and slush for a few days, and had a few kids in the car eating while i took them for a drive, just so that it would look a little bit older. And THEN, i decide to go to Just Brakes at the same location. Just to try them out. Now, this is on a three day old brand new vehicle from the factory. Apparently, i was able to take out the fuse for the whole instrument cluster, so the mileage did not show. Well, guess what people? They wanted $788 for all that was wrong with the brakes. I needed new discs, more brake lines, and two calipers for the back. Of course, i refused everything, and was given the spiel how dangerous it would be for me to drive the car out of their lot. They tried playing on my wife's sympathies who was there with me, who had a hard time keeping a straight face and tried so hard not to laugh. UNTIL, we showed them the invoice for the purchase of the car, and their faces were PRICELESS. But then, they had the nerve to tell us how brakes on new cars cannot be trusted because all work is done by ROBOTS? And that is despite the fact that NONE and i repeat NONE of the 15 or so odd customers that came in for the brakes had a bill lower than $250. NONE.
Well, the decision is all yours now my friends. My only problem is that it was a spur of the moment thing with our spare time, and neither me nor my wife thought of recording it on film until after the fact.

DO NOT GO THERE! They lure everyone in with the $99 pads-for-life service, and then turn around and completely take advantage of you. I took in my 2006 Cobalt in Sept 08 for a break job since my pads were squeaking. I was told the calipers and rotors had to be replaced. I ended up spending $496. By January, I had to go because the problems were back. I was told it was a hose that needed replacing. They again claimed the calipers had to be replaced again and the rotors needed to be sanded. "Luckily" the visit was covered under warranty...minus the hose. Total cost for that visit $106. Forward a couple of monts, the issues are back again. This time, I've taken the car to the dealership. I was just told I need to replace the calipers (again!), the rotors, and the master cylinder. Total estimate at this point: $1, 057. The service center manager cautioned me about places like Just Brakes. Their bait-n-swich is apparently well-known as I see from this site. I've learned my lesson. Never trusting anyone but the dealer. Is anyone aware of any class-action suits? 'Cause you best believe I'm suing their butts for this! my email is [protected]@yahoo.com.