Firestone Service Rant

Firestone is still trying to sell me service my truck doesn't need.

15+ years ago I had a Ford Ranger that I took to Firestone for an inspection. They told me I needed a new gas cap in order to pass inspection. I doubted that, but agreed to the $15 cap just to get it done. When my truck was ready, I opened the gas door and saw that it was still the original gas cap. I asked to speak to the manager. He informed me that they did not have my cap in stock. I said, "ok, but you charged me for it". He replied that he had to still charge me in order for the truck to pass inspection. To which I replied, "What !!?? You charged me for something that you did not even do!" He still insisted that he still had to charge me or my truck would not pass inspection. I went ballistic at that point and he finally backed down and removed the gas cap charge.

Fast-forward to today. This past weekend, I installed new Bilstein 5100s, removed the alignment cams and greased them (see threads about cams freezing up b/c Toyota does not use any grease on them). I then took the truck to Firestone today for alignment because I bought their lifetime alignment and tire rotation deal a couple of year ago. They just called me back to tell me I needed a new brake job.....

Less than a year ago, I replaced the front brake pads and changed the brake fluid myself. They told me that I needed new front pads, rotors turned, rear brakes adjusted, and new brake fluid...all for just $698! I patiently waited while he explained all that was needed on my truck. Then I told him I had just changed the fluid last year and asked him why I needed new fluid. He mumbled something about I would need new fluid in order to get the extended warranty for the new brake pads....I told him I don't need new bake pads, I just put ultra-life pads less than a year ago.

This happened at a different Firestone shop than the one I used before. So it seems to be a corporate-wide directive.

This is why I do my own service work as much as possible. Be very wary of anything Firestone tells you that needs to be done to your truck. I guess this is how they make up their cost of offering lifetime alignments. To me, this is an unethical way to run a business. I will never take my truck to Firestone for anything, other than this lifetime alignment, and now I'm worried that they might do something to my truck to force some unneeded service. I don't trust them a damn bit now.

/rant

 

<rant>
Picked up my truck from Firestone. I guess I did an ok job re-assembling the front end after putting the shocks on because they hardly adjusted anything. Camber is at 1.0&deg; . I asked the front-counter guy if they could do better than that. "Your truck doesn't have camber", he replied. "What do you mean it doesn't have camber?", I asked. He said, "There are no camber adjustments." I told him my truck sure does have camber adjustments, as there are two alignment cams one each lower control arm. "Perfect!", he replied with a mixture of annoyance and cheerfullness. At that point I was done and really didn't want them f*cking with my truck anymore, so I left.

When I got back to work I realized he did not give me the alignment report, so I headed back after work to pick it up. He told me they no longer give the report to customers, to save ink. I told him I got reports the last two times I took my truck in. He agreed to make a copy of their report and gave it to me. Here it is:
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