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I am the wife of a 5 ase certified technician. I am very upset over this new flat rate system. My husband has been in this field for over 20 years and does the best work he can do for tire kingdom.
He works 50+ hours a week and is now making less money then before.
I know now that this company does not care about there employees, they've proven that. You've increased your store hours, your opened on Sundays and there are very few paid holidays.
I wish they would work side by side for a couple of weeks with a tech.just to see how back breaking it is, how they get cuts and burns, and the grease is so embedded in there skin that nothing takes it off. They are out in the heat, and cold as well.You try working in 90 degree weather and work on a car that engine just got shut off (the heat is unbearable).
Since this new flat rate went into effect my husband, on average makes a good $200 -$500 less than if it was still commission.It is causing alot of financial problems with my family.
We were struggling before this and now it's worse. We are down to 1 car, our other one was repossessed because we couldn't make the payments, and we are fighting to keep our home that we've had for 12 years. When he takes home only $1182. after working 2 weeks and our mortgage alone is $1200.that gives us(which is a family of 4) just about a $1000 a month to pay all other bills, groceries etc. IT'S NOT WORKING!
There is no going out to any fast food restaurant or steak for dinner in this house.
Even the morale in the shop is bad. I wish you higher ups could see what your doing to the men who work very hard for you.The district manager comes by and says keep up the good work, well that doesn't put food on the table or pay our bills. I wish you would come up with a better way to pay your employees.
I know the economy is bad but you found a way to take more money from your workers so your life style doesn't change and that's truly not fair.
My husband comes home and is very stressed over how little money he made and he hates the fact of going to work the next day only to work another 11 hours to make little money. It is putting a strain on our relationship and our family as well.
I truly hope that someone reads this that can make a difference as to what is going on.
Managers and service managers don't care, they are only interested in there weekly pay and there BONUSES. So if they cut some of the techs flat rate hours to get it that's what they do. So much goes on in the shops that you don't know about or don't care to know.
How store managers leave much earlier then there suppose to...then go in the next day and change there time. Or there to lazy to even try to sell recommendations on the estimate slip...then the otherworkers out front get mad at the boss so they don't do it either. It's like a big soap opera at times.
My husband has worked on cars and the part is defected only to have to do it again, or worked on cars that someone else did and not get paid.
But let him mess up and right away the manager will take flat rate time from him.
You want DNA's and PMA's and check this and do that but what do you pay your tech for doing all this?
Please...something has to give...you bet I'm mad...stressed, tired, worried, and most of all scared.
I went to the Tire Kingdom on West Colonial Drive on an AAA flatbed. Both my right tires had blown out, and I needed help. The manager quoted me $211 estimate, and that is what I initialed. I requested that they put the tires in the trunk. 1 hour later, the manager called and led me to believe that they could not fix the tires without fixing the shocks and break pads, too. I didn't understand why, but I didn't want my breaks to blow out on I-4, either, so I said ok, how much? He quoted me then $1100 plus the tires.
Five hours later, I left with a $1400 bill, half of which I did not understand. I left the tires on their showroom floor, because I was charged with the tire disposal fee, on top of a warranty I never asked for, and magically inflated fees.
I went to work the next day, and explained to a male coworker what had occurred. He got mad, and called on my behalf, and spoke to the same manager. He was an absolute ***!
Ladies: please be advised, unless you are in the most dire straights possible, do not take your cars to Tire Kingdom! I was taken advantage of, and you will be, too!
YUP, THEY ARE THE BIGGEST RIP OFF, SCAM ARTIST AROUND!
Never ever go to tire kingdom. I drove my car there for a $29 oil change but ended paying over $1000 and still towed my car out of there. They sold me a gas pump for $580. while the most expensive fuel pump for the car cost $326, I asked for the make of the fuel pump but they insted it was EOM from the dealer. I called the dealer and said they sell their Fuel pump for $176. On top of everything, tirekingdom charged me $460 to replace the fuel pump. To crown it all, the car never started after that and they blamed it on an elctrical problem and literally ordered me to get the car out of their garage since they had done all they could do. I had the car towed to a dealership, where the service manager was in disbelieve.
Remember I had asked for my old fuel pump back from tirekingdom, at the dealership they found the fuel pump was okay and never needed replacement. The dealership charged only $96 to diagnose the car an nothing extra to put back my old fuel pump.
Tirekindgom sold me a price broken fuel pump that i never needed in the first place. I am weighing my options if i shoudl sue the SOBS.
I WORKED FOR THE MIDDLEBURG FLORIDA STORE : if you care about your vehicle avoid this store .The so called mechanics had these come backs: this is what i seen in just two weeks oil filters too lose three times two of them same mechanic, oil drain plug bolts not tight and driping twice, timing belt improperly installed, brakes not bleed right 3 times, a major airconditioning job costing almost 3000 the guy came back 4 times with it not working ! wheel bearings on a trailor over tightend causing issues.Defective tires knowingly being sold! the oever priced trailor tires were known to be defective as told to me yet they still sold them to customers.Yes I worked there for only two weeks I HAD NO MECHNICAL COMBACKS .My service mgr lied to me saying they were laying off (because i asked to many questions about issues was the real reason im sure)he said three others were being laid off too and that work was very good but i was low man seniority wise.They told corprate I QUIT! One of the salesman even was low enough to get a freind a free set of rims for his truck saying I scratched them lol everyone in the store looked at those rims and seen no damage caused by me.I rarely complain about places and perfer to praise .THIS STORE IS A VERY BAD PLACE OF BUSINESS AS FROM WHAT i see all tire kingdoms are managed this way.They want their techs to work fast, sell services the customers do not need such as brake cleaning fluid changes which alot of times result in issues such as brake and transmission problems cause by poorly trained techs.I SEAR THIS TO BE TRUTHFUL ALL I STATED !
Update on middleburg tire kingdom .After posting here and other places they now say I was let go for lack of production .Company policy clearly states the first two weeks are training and they do not moniter your productivity besides I recieved well over 100 dollors in a productivity bonuses.1rst I WAS LAID OFF BECAUSE OF CUT BACKS WHICH THEY KEPT SAYING WERE COMING FROM DAY ONE, THEN AFTER POSTING HERE AND GOING OTHER PLACES THE DISTRICT MGR. CONTACTS ME AND STATES I WAS LET GO FOR LACK OF PRODUCTION.While I worked their the head mgr. praised my work daily and as I stated I had no come backs and their so called top mechanics were the ones with the issues I stated above.This place was a very poor environment to work in ans the 12 and 13 hr.shifts were no fun.the thanks I recieved were blatant lies.The service mgr. that laid me off is no longer employed at the middleburg location and the sales man that lied to get his freind a new set of rims took his job, if thats not enough none of the mechanic like this guy so he started moving his out cast buddies in from stores that transfered him away because of personal issuesand this fine gentleman claims to be a friend of the district mgr.wow small world.Consumer beware stay clear of tire kingdom in just two short weeks I seen the most careless group of techs and store employees I ever have and I have been a mechanic for several years and never had issue with any other place of employment .TELL EVERYONE TO AVOID TIRE KINGDOM OF ALL THE TIRE PLACES THEY BY FAR HAVE THE MOST COMPLAINTS I COULD NOT BELIEVE THE NUMBER OF SITES DEDICATED TO WARNING PEOPLE AND I SWEAR TO YOU THROUGH MY EXPERIANCE ITS TRUE TIRE KINGDOM IS UNTRUSTWORTHY AND A RIP OFF TO THEIR CUSTOMERS AS WELL AS EMPLOYEES!
It seems like you believe you were told something that you were. At any automotive repair facility it is the responsibility of the store employees to inspect the vehicle. Sometimes they miss things and sometimes they don't. In your case it seems that the service technician found the root cause of your tire failure and offered a solution to prevent further tire failure. You agreed and they repaired it. You did not have to agree to the repair.
If I was the service center and all I did was replace the tires and 6 months later your tires were damaged and needed to be replaced because of overworking brakes or malfunctioning shocks would you not be even more upset that I failed to inform you of obvious failed items and cost you and extra $211 so soon.
I am not sure what magically inflated fees mean? Most every shop, to my knowledge, charges a shop fee that you may be talking about. Tire Kingdoms should be topped out at $30 dollars. A shop fee is a general and uncomplicated way of saying cost of things like shop rags, cleaners, fluids (topped off), wheel weights, etc. There are tons of minuscule things in a shop environment that do not get charged to the customer. This is an attempt to recover it. If you think your bill is confusing now it would blow your mind to itemize. It would also be impractical.
I can not vouch for the shop that repaired your vehicle. I can say that being taken advantage of is very rare. It can happen of course but it seems you were called about repairs that need to be done.
If you ever doubt the validity of a repair it is good practice to call a third party for advice if you do not know yourself. It should be done before you okay the repair. Also, ask for you parts back. With a few exceptions they can be provided to you. And if they have to be core returned they can at least be held for your inspection that day.
wow awesome figured i would find something like this.
today 12/22/09 i went in to tire kingdom to have a simple oil change while i was at work just a block down
they asked if i wanted a call when it was. i said no because i will just get it when i get off work.
they call me anyway just to tell me blah blah blah all this stuff is wrong.
im a 18 year old male and i think they could have been trying to take advantage of me
the bill came out to be 30.99 when the blond girl leaving got it for 19.99 when i asked her why she said he told her he would help her out.
keep in mind i have a 2001 Chevy silverado never wrecked or crashed always taken care of.
the extra services they tried to add are as follows:
--URGENT--
---------parts-------------Labor-----------Total
Hub Bearings 209.84$ x2 152$ 571.86$
Inner tire rods 52.69$ x2 171$ 276.38$
outer tire rods 50.29$ x2 171$ 271.58$
wheel alignment 59.99$ 59.99$
they said i should do these right then and there^ ^ ^ ^ ^
and these could wait a month or 2 V-V-V-V
------IMPORTANT------
ball joints upper 53.82$ x2 133$
ball joints lower 91.69$ x2 361$
all coming up to a total of 1790.98 (including Florida tax of .07)
place is a scam avoid them at all costs
xBrian.ironsx@gmail.com if you want to contact me :)
Tire Kingdom sucks...bought a coupon book from there with them knowing I had a 3/4 ton Econoline...now they won't honor the free oil change because the coupon is not for vehicles over 1/2 Ton...WTF...I am trying to get my money back on the coupon book...it is no use to me...
I also went to The Kingdom on West Colonial Dr in Orlando, Fl for a simple tire issue on one of there tires, next thing i know is they said the issue was from bad struts in the car causes my issue, said it would cost about $981.00 to fix the problem and that did not include the bad tire ... Little did they know, i work on cars i just don't do tires ... I then went to the GOODYEAR people to replace the bad tire and replaced the other to match, I told them my issue with what they said about my bad struts issues and they laughed ... Said nothing was wrong with them ... Oh, by the way, the issue causing the loud sound is my tire that they say was a cupping issues was a nail deep in the thread of the tire, ( tire was ruined though ) The goodyear people fixed the real problem and a $180.00 later, im very happy ... The sound is no more ... Some Kindom they have over there ..
Comments in this email message are in reference to service performed at FL Tire Kingdom number 185, located at 11630 San Jose Blvd, Jacksonville, FL 32223, Invoice number [protected]-RI, 06/02/2011.
On June 2nd, 2011, I dropped my wife's car (1994 Ford Probe) off at my local Tire Kingdom for an oil and oil filter change and to have the tires rotated and balanced. This was at around 1:00pm, and I informed the service rep, Tiffany, that the wheel lock key for wheel removal was in the glove box and that she could call me when service requested was complete. Tiffany called me about 2 hours later and said that all requested service had been completed and that the car was ready to be picked up. I returned directly to pick up the car and pay for the service. Before leaving the store I did a quick inspection of the car, and I noticed that the tires had not been rotated. Further inspection showed that there were no new balance weights on any of the wheels, the worn tires were still on the front, and that the wheel lock located in the glove box had not been disturbed at all. I immediately confronted your service rep, Tiffany, and she stated that the tires had been rotated and balanced as requested. When I pointed out to her that the tires and wheels had not even been removed from the car, she then stated that she wasn't sure if the work had been performed and that it would be taken care of immediately. About ten minutes later, a mechanic drove the car back onto a lift, and I watched as he set about to complete the work requested. As I watched the mechanic I saw that he was simply rotating the tires without checking the balance, so I confronted Tiffany again and asked her why he was not balancing the tires. She had the mechanic stop, remove the tires, and balance each one. Finally, after an additional forty five minute wait the service I had originally requested was completed. No apology or explanation of your mechanic's failure to perform all services listed on the invoice was ever offered to me; however, Tiffany did give me a coupon for three free oil-changes that I could use anytime in the future.
I've been doing business with your store for over seven years (tire purchases, oil changes, tire repair, etc..), but due to this experience I have lost the confidence that services performed at your store are done correctly (or at all) and the trust that my car is even safe to drive after having service performed there. I hope at the very least, that you will take disciplinary action on the employee or employees directly involved with this incident. Any mechanic or technician who would falsify an auto service work order is a liar, a cheat, and a thief, and should not be trusted to perform services on any vehicle components that affect the safety of that vehicle.
5 ase...find another job. It's that simple. No one's making him stay. And yes TK sucks, but his decision to stay is his decision.