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View Full Version : Tons of fun at the tire shop



Tuuvi
08-10-2011, 08:04
So I drive an old 1985 Volkswagen Cabriolet. The wheel bearing on the front right hand side blew out and had to be replaced. After months of driving around with a bad bearing making all sorts of awful grinding noises whenever I went around a turn my dad finally got around to fixing it. The bearing had been grinding down the inside of the rim and my dad told me to replace it with a spare I had sitting in the garage because he was afraid it could shatter while I was driving. The process of fixing the wheel had also put it out of alignment so that needed to be done as well.

There's a Big-O tires next to the barbershop where I get my hair cut, so I decided to go there so I could get a hair cut and hang out at the shop while I waited. I wanted to keep the old rim so I could sell it somewhere for scrap metal, so when I got there, I asked the guy if they would let me keep it, fearing they were gonna do me a "service" and take it off my hands. He was kind of an ass about it and was just like "yea, sure, I don't care.". I hand them the keys and then I go chill at the barbershop for a while.

After about 45 minutes or so I went out to see if they were working on my car yet. I looked into the bay and I noticed the tire had been taken off the rear wheel. The shop was making me nervous and I was a afraid there was a communication error or the shop was trying to rip me off by giving me more services than I had asked for so I went in and asked them if they were mounting the front right hand side tire on the new rim. They said yes, it turned out they were just rotating the tires. Then they wanted me to come out and look at my car, and they started telling me all these things that were wrong with it.

"The battery is bad and you need a new one." No, there's nothing wrong with the battery. I'm already aware that it has some electrical issues, not a big deal. "The oil is leaking" already knew that. "It's leaking fuel" Not a surprise, it's been smelling like gasoline when I drive lately. "look at this strut, it's blown out, in fact, that's the worst blow out I've ever seen. You should get this fixed right away." Whatever, I already knew that and my car handles just fine. (I didn't actually say any of that to them that's just what I was thinking.) The guy said it was all just simple maintenance, but then him and the other technicians working on my car were crowding around it talking in panicked voices trying to make it hard for me to think and seem like my car is going to blow up tomorrow. It was really annoying and I had to suppress a laugh because I already know my car is a piece of ****, they didn't need to show me every little thing that was wrong with it. They offered to give me a quote and I turned them down, I can't afford it and I didn't trust them to work on my car.

So I went back to the barbershop, got my hair cut, and waited a while longer. After 2 1/2 hours of waiting, they were finally done with my car. One of the guys made a joke about having to teach the others how to jump a car. I got in and started it up, the needle on the voltage meter was all the way at the bottom (yes, my car is that old and it has a voltage meter). I was adjusting the seat when one of the technicians (the one that was a jerk when I asked to keep the old rim, btw he was also really cocky) noticed that my car was leaking fuel really bad. I got out to look at it and it was gushing fuel all over the parking lot. The guy was like "huh, maybe it did that when I popped the clutch" I asked him if they could fix it for me, he said he could pull it in and see if he could replace the fuel line; at that point I knew he was going to try to charge me for it so I said no thanks I'll just get it home ASAP. As soon as I got in my car it died because of the low battery. I went back to the barbershop and they were all wondering what was happening because I'd already said bye to everyone.

Luckily my barber is a good friend of mine so he went over to the shop and pretended to be my uncle. He :daisy: them out and demanded to know why I went in with a minor fuel leak and ended up with it flowing all over the place. He got them to agree to fix it and that was that.

I don't know how widespread the Big-O franchise is but if you have one in your area stay away.

A Nerd
08-10-2011, 09:49
That's terrible.

I had an experience where I went to a Midas car repair shop. I went there from time to time so I thought we had a good relationship. I had my brakes done once as fluid was leaking from one of the rear tires and my emergency brake light was on. They told me I needed all sorts of stuff done, but I am naive and said OK and had them do a boat load of work. After that, the brakes never seemed to work well and when I would pull up the emergency brake, it would do nothing at all, no tension what so ever. I would bring it back, I think I did this at least twice, and have them fix it, for a fee. It would get a little better, briefly, then back to Midas I went. Finally, I decided to get a tune up and brought it to a Honda dealership. The did a once over of the car to see what it needed and proceeded to tell me that some part of my brake system (can't remember what) was on backwards! Which told me why the brakes were always wacky and also that the professionals at Midas should have known this and fixed it up. I never went back there, obviously. It just would seem odd, that I didn't get in an accident or anything with my brakes not on properly.

Also, once I was driving by a Town Fair Tire at night, and some of the lights on the letters were out, it read : Town Fa r T . No Joke!

Centurion1
08-10-2011, 18:25
car repair shops are like that and even worse if your a woman. My father does all te car reapirs possible unless he cannot figure it out or it requires a jack and heavy lifting.

Tuuvi
08-11-2011, 01:22
car repair shops are like that and even worse if your a woman. My father does all te car reapirs possible unless he cannot figure it out or it requires a jack and heavy lifting.

Yea so does mine, but my dad doesn't have the equipment to work on tires so I had to take it to a shop.

My dad is a genius at fixing Volkswagens, I wish he would've passed his skills on to me but he didn't. I hate having to rely on someone else to fix my car, especially when it's old like the one I have now.

Centurion1
08-11-2011, 01:53
Yea so does mine, but my dad doesn't have the equipment to work on tires so I had to take it to a shop.

My dad is a genius at fixing Volkswagens, I wish he would've passed his skills on to me but he didn't. I hate having to rely on someone else to fix my car, especially when it's old like the one I have now.

yeah theres only so much you can do when you have to change tires or do serious engine work or replace large parts.