that is how they make money because some people will just say ok and not think about asking for a second opinion

 

Its so crazy because I drive the car hard and I know the brakes were in good working order.

 

ive only been to midas once had a similar issue took my car to a friends garage and they found the problem, costs a lot less then what they said.

 

Wow glad I'm not the only one whos had problems with midas. They a bunch of shit. Like I went there and had a wheel bearing replaced and the dude told me he's like your car is whistling bc your wheel bearing and so I got it fixed and left and halfway down the rd it started making the same sound so I drove back and the fat ass dude was stuffing his face with arbys like oh yeah you need new rear rotors it wasn't your wheel bearing. I'm like oh and you don't think to tell me that while I'm here? They're douche bags here I hate going to them but for garages up here it's slim pickens so sometimes I have no choice but I agree they're all scams

-- Sent from my Palm Pre using Forums

 

I sent my car to midas for an inspection and e test and had a great experience. Sucks to hear they did that most places figure you don't know anything about your car. They did my stuff with no hassle.

 

It varies alot from place to place. Not just Midas but all places like that. Alot of them are independently owned and operated so the quality of work and customer service is different at each separate location, just gotta find the good ones.

 

they make alot of money off unsuspecting people who don't know much about cars, I went to Jiffy Lube a few years back for an oil change, and they told me my licence plate light was out, I asked how much to replace, they said $10.00 WHAAAT, I went to Napa, bought one foe less than $1.00 and did it myself--- CHOP

 

There are good and bad mechanics everywhere. Went to a local shop to get a price on replacing my timing belt. Rough est was $850. And ciuld be a little more. Holy Crap. That is why I love that I can do the work myself.

If you have limited auto ability I highly recommend taking some clses, reading magazines and seeking friends help. You may end up with scraped knuckles and some bruses. But, you will save some money (most of the time) and enjoy your car more.

sent from anywhere with no spell check using Tapatalk.

 

Agreed, back Rob up on this. If you have any sort of mechanical inclination whatsoever, I would encourage you to grow that into a skill no different than learning how to tend to your own yard or work on your own home.

 

Yep. You have to know your car and the basics of how it operates. And you have to have a garage you trust. I'm weak on the first point, but very strong on the second. I have a trusted garage. They've come through for me too many times.

(not an Eclipse but a relevant story)

I stopped at the local Chrysler dealer for a couple of OEM parts for my Sebring. Part bought, time to leave, and the ignition refused to turn. What luck, I'm already at a Chrysler service shop, please look at this, I'm calling my wife for a ride home. The verdict? Needs new steering column for $1100. "Sir, the key cylinder has fallen into the steering column, and when that happens on these cars, they don't come back out. We have to replace the steering column." I'm no steering column expert and I about choked on that. They were thrilled with my response, which was, "That sounds like one shitty design for a steering column!"

The next morning I have it towed to the trusted garage who looks at it, and tells me that it needs a new key cylinder. I explain what the Chrysler dealer told me about the cylinder not coming back out. His reply, "Sir, I've already got the old lock cylinder pulled out of the steering column."

My reply, "Can you also change the oil while it is there?" I would have paid $750 too much if I'd left it at the Chrysler dealer, who should be the defacto, and absolute expert on the product in question, and allowed them to do their prescribed work.

While I paid Chrysler $50 for their "diagnosis", my trusted garage didn't charge me for the tow truck. They remember my name, even though I'm only in there once every 4-6 months. They remember my cars, and the work they've done on them. I've had 3 cars worked on there, It's uncanny, and it's impressive.

TOTAL CLASS ACT, I will never have another garage work on my car.

BTW, I'd have paid the $10 to have the license plate light replaced. I'm too busy and it would have been totally worth my time. :cool2:

 

^ wow that chrysler dealer tried to get u pretty bad on that key cylinder. It's actually pretty simple to remove and replace those. As far as paying $10 to change a license plate light, no way I'd pay someone $9 for 1 minute of work.

 

As far as paying $10 to change a license plate light, no way I'd pay someone $9 for 1 minute of work.

There's a threshold there, and it's different for everyone.

I've never replaced that bulb before, combined with how many times I'm likely to replace it, combined with I have to stop and pick up the bulb and make sure it is the right one (I might have to stop at more than one parts store for a stupid bulb!), it's more than a minute.

It's at least 15 minutes, and at that point, it becomes worth $10 to me to have the stupid thing replaced while it's in for an oil change and I didn't have to become an expert on my license plate bulb, which I may never touch again anyway.

And now I have more time to clean my own throttle body and MAF sensor and spray the tires with shiny stuff. And hopefully I'm not so busy that I spray shiny stuff on the MAF sensor and MAF cleaner on the tires.

:doh:

I'm not taking it anywhere if I know a bulb is burned out, but if they notice it and have the bulb and are ready to replace it NOW...have at it, man!

 

this is why I always mark my oil filters... so if I see the marking.. oh you guys didn't change my filter? guess what fuckers, you fucked with the wrong person

 

I LIKE that. I'm going to start doing that too.

 

People like me who know nothing about how to fix a car need to go to a place and expect to have good service and not being took advantage of. I don't understand how these people get away with trying to rip people off. There excuse is always "well my tech didn't did it, It was the other guy who worked on your car before" My skill set is in technology and working on computer systems and servers. When people come to me for computer repairs or technology advice I'm honest and I don't try to take advantage of people.

 

I kind of appreciated it when I took my saturn there for an oil change during the worst semester of my life, I just didn't have the time. They tried to tell me one of my tail lights was burned out... It was an LED bulb. Believe it or not, they actually unplugged it so I would believe them. They also tried to charge me for their replacement wipers when I didn't ask for them to be changed (I had replaced them like a week ago anyway!)

I found later they loosened the canister transmission filter and didn't retighten it.... Red drips all along my driveway. :facepalm:

 

I took my car to a local place like a few here that can do mecanical work and they did a good job changing my timing belt and they put in my air filter. One thing I do like about them is that they are joint with the auto body shop, really nice people that get the job done. I asked if I could bring my oil and plugs and they had no problme with them changing it for me.

One thing I do not like is taking my car to places like tiresplus since I always feel like they try to take advantage of you. All they are trained to do is to sell you repairs. Why is it that whenever I go in for information they always have different people there. Can no one maintain a job there? They must have strict corporate rules on repair services.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't think I'm alone when I prefer to stay away from corporate owned automotive repair stores.

 

Maybe it's just me, but I don't think I'm alone when I prefer to stay away from corporate owned automotive repair stores.

I somewhat second that, my local Firestone has never treated me wrong (in retrospect), at one point I was told that my battery negative cable that was deeply corroded, I didn't belive the mechanic, and then (a year and some change later) one saturday I need to leave for my welding class, the battery was completely drained. So I throw on the battery charger for ten minutes, the start the car to let it warm up (it 'twas winter), and then it died after 2 minutes, later that day in a diagnostic tear down with my dad we found that indeed the negative cable for the battery corroded to the point that there was no ground for the battery

however, I'm in a permanant feud with a local NTB due to the last experence with them (I get a sense that they all are not like this), this is on two seperate acts that caused me to faith in them, but first let me explain why there betrayal to me has resulted in me never going there again
I used to go to them a lot, they have changed my oil on more than one occasion, did my front&rear sway bar links (the left rear one is now dead, the right rear one is on its way now), shocks and alignment (which I'm pretty sure the warrenty for that is still valid). So, onward to the betrayals, I was told one time when I was in for a no cost alignment (because of the warrenty and that my junior college at the time had so truely awful roads), I was told my brakes were severally worn, for the fronts and backs (pads and rotors) I was quoted $800 for parts and labor. This was the beginning of my yeah+no treatment towards them, through tire rack I purchased carbon ceramic brake pads, OE parking brake shoes and Cenric OE style rotors for a fraction of the price of what I was quoted, one morning I went over to a mechanic buddy's house and installed the fronts (I was still waiting on the rear rotors and the parking brake pads), after taking the pads out we discovered that they weren't worn that much (betrayal #1ish, kind of #0, although I am not too angry about this, taking this as an overconfindent mechanic). About two days later the rear rotors and e brake pads showed up, so I attempted to take my rear wheels off, snapped an extension (I used to go through those like socks before I started buying everything for my ratchets impact grade and/or 1/2" drive), gave up, handed my car off to them, they changed the rear brakes out at a rather low price. Now here's the big one, my car wasn't running right early last year, so I drop it off at the NTB for diagnostics, the following day I get a call from my mom at school and she's ranting off that I'm never aloud to work on my car ever again, I took a class to cool off and develop a counter rant. I had a buddy drop me off at this blasted shop, and my favorite manager (he would frequently give me and memebers of my family huge reductions in labor just out of the fact that I know about as much as my car as any mechanic) was there, we talked, so the jackass mechanic that came up with the diagnosis walks up, so much bullshit, the radiator was installed incorrectly (I still had my OE radiator at the time), the front valve cover was leaking (another shop actually changed it), the motherfucking blinker fluid was leaking AND my intake was installed incorrectly causing oil to leak onto my crankshaft position sensor (which is physically impossible, and as with you guys, my intake is on the other side of the engine bay). The mechanic quickly got the death stare by the manager, he knows that I would frequently work on my own car, still, first one of your employees call me stupid and then call me incompetent, you sir have lost my business for life, however just to fuck with them, when I complete my car (the built engine, manual swap, coil overs...), I want to drop it off to them for diagonostics just to see how they react

 

Uhh, blinker fluid?

 

I think that's there way of getting return costumers. It's not hard learning how to replace parts, just take your time and pictures. Make sure you have a manual to guid you through it, and you'll be ok. Most local shops if you call and are stumped will give advice on how to get through your problem. For new learners have the proper tools ! Torque wrenches and a couple full sets if sockets and wrenches to start. Read through the manual to see if specail tools and liquids will be needed. Other then that it's as easy as bleeding a little and seeing how far you can control your temper lol it's good to be able to trust first hand the work was done right and too the book ! Not half assed or skipping steps ! This just my two cents lol

 

heck of a story there man. Yeah I mean I have no problem if you tell me straight up what's up, then I'll be a return customer as long as you don't fuck with something else or bs me. If that happens then I'll find someone else. There are plenty of small places in a simple garage that can do better work. I especially like where if i buy the parts then better for me since I know what goes in there. Saves them money haveing to buy the part for the joband all they have to charge me is labor.

Whenever I see places change employees like they change their underwear then something is amiss. What I dislike about tireplus is the fact that I used to have a 94 camaro before this car and they completely f'd up the installation of some kind of arm connection, I don't remember, but I do know there was a big thump when pulled into the driveway. Also when the uneven street literally pulls the wheel to the side.

To many places are too concerned about the $ and not about customer experience. It's simple you do what the customer wants and you'll get return business, word of mouth and increase business.

 

It's unfortunate that the bar is set so low in auto repair. (HVAC too!) My garage, when I had them fix my "steering column" issue, found the OEM parts that I bought at Chrysler in the front seat and asked me, "Would you like me to throw these on while we're working on it?" I did NOT see any charges for that on my bill.

Bottom line:

1. Be honest about what needs to be repaired. I'm GOING to be back with that car or another. There's no reason to "get me for all you can" on this trip.
2. Charge a fair fee. I've spent anywhere from $150 to $1100 at a time at this garage, but I always come back.
3. Be on time.
4. DO what you say you are going to do.

The rest:

• the freebies
• remembering my name
• remembering the work you've done on my cars (without looking in the computer first)

..are icing on the cake.

 

Be honest and on time are good ones. Most car shops don't keep to a schedule. They think you schedule for fun. I will never go to that Midas ever again and I will share my experience with more people.

 

I dont do mechanical work at my shop just audio and electrical but if any of my installers ever tried to screw a customer over like some of these mechanic shops do..I'd fire them on the spot. And when people have small issues that are quick fixes for me, i don't charge. Being honest and not screwing people over and not charging for the stupid 5 min things is what keeps me in business.

 

Dustin
Doing things like that your going to get more customers and customers who keep coming back which means more money for the business in the long run.

 

Exactly. Almost 60% of the people that come in are return customers or people whose friends have recommended me or one of my installers. It's all about the customer service.

 

kinda upset nobody else caught the leaking blinker fluid but dustin...erep to him anyways

 

Hahah thanks. Yea I'm a bit surprised no one else saw that

 

when that mechanic said that, what went through my mind went from 'wow you really don't know how this car goes together' straight to 'you sir are making all of this up', his statement of that counts as a betrayal itself as he basically called me a moron twice in the same statement and then said I didn't know how to work on my car, once again for the second time in the statement

in one of the yahoo reviews for this place, the exact words of one is: 'you should just give them you money so they don't have to go through the trouble of stealing it from you'

 

Ya that's pretty ridiculous. I would've lost it on the guy.