repair shop rant

hello all, just trying to decompress a little....
so this weekend i purchased a set of used duratracs ( 235/85 ) and used a buddys tire machine to mount them. this morning i dropped the truck off at a repair shop near to where i work, and ask him very clearly, to balance my tires. hes says comme back at noon, your truck will be ready. so i show up at 11:50, truck is in the air, with the brake drums removed..... i was not happy, as i know my brakes are fine.... i believe hes was trying to sell up....
thanx
rant over...

 

did you ask them why the brake drums were removed?? Its fine if they are just checking the stuff for you for no cost BUT if they try to gank you for more money I'd decline their services in the future.

 

I'm curious as to the details. What did they tell you? If the price was unchanged and they're just late because they inspected your brakes that should be fine. I highly doubt they will charge you with anything not agreed upon but let us know

 

he said he was checking the shoes, he was very suprised to see me show up early, i didnt believe a word he said, but i never have my stuff repaired by anyone other than myself... other than the standard recalls

 

Yeah thats a little weird. Some places do check stuff just in case. Like my local tire shop does that, they found a brake pad on the driverside worn excessively and wanted to charge my wife $140 to fix it...while it was good they found that, I didnt want to pay the $140 for a set of brake pads and changed them myself for $40

 

At least they didn't charge you for something you didn't agree upon.

My mom just had her oil changed in her accord and got an extra $3 charge for windshield washer fluid. Only 3 bucks, but still.

 

there is about 4 repair shops on the same stretch of road, i think times are hard and they need any income they can find.
in our climate, with all the road salt, simply removing the rusted mess a brake drum becomes can turn into a real hastle....

 

If they wanted to inspect the brakes, they should have just pulled the inspection plug to see how much meat were on the shoes instead of removing the drums.

 

It's pretty much SOP to inspect brakes when you pull wheels off a vehicle. Sometimes the bring it to your attention occurs, sometimes they tell you your brakes look fine.

So nothing really happened? Are the tires balanced? All feeling well?

If yes, then forget about it. Life is too short to be fretting over someone looking under your drums.

 

Can't see leaky wheel cylinders that way. Or blow the crap out of the drums.

 

Well, at least they actually looked at the drums. Seems like a lot of places BS people by just saying crap like "when we had the wheels off we noticed your brakes are just about at the end of their life, want us to go ahead and replace them?" That once happened to me two weeks after I'd just put all new rotors and pads on a car. It's mind-boggling how swarmy some of these places can be.

 

...^^^... Was that at a Honda dealership, 3 bucks for windshield fluid??

 

It was a farmers co op.

 

This is very common, especially at chains.

I recently had something similar happen at a Firestone. Brought my truck in for an alignment and balance (two things I can't do at home). I waited while it was done. The Manager comes in after my truck was on the lift for about 10 minutes, giddy as a school girl, and tells me that he can perform my state inspection and emissions test for me while I'm here. I said "no thank you," so he tells me he's got a coupon that'll save me money. I said "look, I'll take your coupon, but I know I need new brake pads and rotors and I'll be replacing them myself before I have my truck inspected." He deflated faster than a popped balloon.

This kind of stuff used to piss me off. Now I just roll my eyes.

 

Same here, I mean I get it...they're running a business and like any of us, they want to increase their profit margin if they can. As long as they are asking you and not charging you for something you didn't know about, then there's no harm. Just gotta be comfortable saying "no thank you".

 

This.

And be helpful to others who aren't as DIY capable.

While I was in Costco for a tire mount, a lady came in and asked about alignment, which they don't do. They refereed her to her dealer, their SOP.

I followed her out and gave her the name and location of a great independent alignment shop, just in case she didn't want to mess with the dealer. She was very grateful; turns out she didn't like her dealership!