Firestone Complete Auto Care

Last summer I was looking for tires and an alignment for a freightliner sprinter cargo van 3500 model. The front tires wore out prematurely due to an alignment issue. A made local inquiries, giving the year, make, model, etc details to each possible service company. Firestone told me that they could supply, balance, and install the tires and perform an alignment and complete the work the same day and they quoted a price.. I dropped off the truck, they contacted later and told me it was done. I picked it up, paid by check. Later in the day after looking over the invoice and wondered if they had really done the alignment. I phone the business and the mgr. Told me that the alignment had not been done. He told me he would refund the amount paid for the alignment. After a week or so I did get a refund. It turned out to be a refund for the wheel balancing. They told me that the truck and the wheels did not fit their equipment and that they could not perform those services. They also claimed that I had declined the alignment. I contend that they were deceptive, manipulative, and lied. I know what I ordered. Why would I purchase new tires if they could not balance the wheels. Why would I install new tires on a vehicle that badly needed an alignment. Then 30 days later I found that they had cashed our check twice. I called the store and I called the corp. Headquarters and both told me that they would refund quickly. More than 30 days later still no refund from the company. I called my bank and pointed our the issue and complained that the bank should not have processed a payment twice (same date, same check #, same amount). The bank credited my account within a week or so for the amount due us. Not sure how they did it. They probably took the money back from firestone. Then... With $60k in our checking account we tried to purchase $2.09 item at home depot. The store would not accept our check. The used telechex to process check payments. Apparently telechex was notified by firestone that we owed firestone the $524.71. They really wanted the double payment. Telechex did not do their homework. Then my brother spent 1.5 hrs. At home depot shopping and when he tried to pay by check the check was again denied by home depot. Phone calls to telechex resulted only in their telling us to fill out a four page form and they would try to repair the situation. I told them to do their job correctly and I was not filling out their forms. Then we opened some mail and it was a collection company looking the collect the same amount ($524.71) for firestone. 15 min. Listening to their menu and them only wanting me to pay... I hung up. Two days later they called me (I had left a message) and want to collect payment. They listened to my story and they did not care. They only wanted payment. I told them to sue me immediately and I hoped they would really mess up our credit. Never heard from them again. Negligence and incompetance everywhere every step of the way. I decided to take them all the small claims court. Poorly trained employees, weak or worse research on the issue, pathetic customer service, deceptive business practices, no real regard for the customer or the customer's wishes. A real example the the direction this country is going as a whole. My anscesters would be appalled at the way the country is going after all they did to create and build it up. The last 20 years this country has declined very much. Declining work ethic, no sense of personal responsibility, less ability to focus on tasks at hand, everyone looking for handouts, less common courtesy and civility.