Two different times I have had problems with Firestone automotive services. The first one was when I took a car in to have a transmission line replaced. A transmission line is a line that leads from or to the transmission going through the radiator for cooling, and mine was leaking. So they replaced the line, charged me the usual exorbitant fee and sent me on my way. The only problem was, I did not go far. It seemed that they had failed to fill up the transmission fluid, so my car's transmission was still running dry. When I confronted the manager about it, he acted surprised that I would want that filled up! It gets worse... Fed up with the high prices for parts, I decided to purchase a part ahead of time and have Firestone put it on. So I took the part to a local Firestone dealership, and it was a perfectly good part-- but they refused to install it. The manager insisted upon my buying their part(s). They gave me some excuse about liability and so forth but I used the same source of parts that they did. They do not buy most things at wholesale, but at retail, and tack a large fee on the part so they make a huge profit on both the part and labor, a standard policy of car repair shops. I have not been back since.
Wow. I used to visit Firestone all the tme, sorry to hear that things have gotten so bad. The name is supposed to be good.You want to trust a company, but if you can't, you must move on.
I cannot believe that they didn't think it was their responsibility to put transmission fluid in your car! It's not as if they wouldn't have charged you for it! That is absolutely incredible. How do they expect to stay in business?
Like most places, it's getting tighter to deal with. Of course, the individual managers of each store can make or break it, like any other chain. What I hate is to go online with them a check prices for tires. They tell you a nice sale price, and there are additional ads for sales (buy 3 get one free... etc.). Then you check it, and what they don't say is that the sale price listed ON the tire selection IS at the sale price - no additional discounts. Then be sure to get the online quote - it will have the additional fees for mounting, balancing, etc, to the tune of about $25 a tire (not unusual, but can be surprising). In the store, they tried to 'slam' a road hazard fee which is automatically added and you have to ask them to remove it (I live 30 miles away - wouldn't do me much good). But they honor the online quotes if you print them out, and you have the total in your hands...
