Firestone claims that they can provide total auto care. They state that they can provide most services, and they have very convenient hours. It seems like a no brainer. If your car breaks down on a Sunday morning, most mechanics and service centers are not open, but Firestone is. You call them and they say the can get your car in by the end of the day. Why wait until Monday? Even if you take the car to the repair shop and leave the key in the drop box, you still have to wait until the next day to even talk to a person about your car. Firestone seems like a good option. Instead it can be your worst nightmare.
Firestone has a bad habit of “finding” additional things what are wrong with your car. This is especially dangerous for women who bring their cars in without a man present. You can go in for an oil change and the next thing you know you have nearly $600 in suggested repairs. I once took my car in for a tune up, and they told me I needed nearly $500 in brake work. I took my car to another mechanic, and he did the repairs for $75. While some things found in a “courtesy check” can be helpful, other times what they suggest can questionable.
Another issue with Firestone is that they encourage you to make appointments. In my mind, if I make an appointment to have a new tire installed at 11:00, my car will be in a bay by 11:20 at the latest. Instead 12:00 comes around and my car has not been looked at. Apparently they were seeing all the walk ins before they looked at my car. Instead of respecting my appointment, they were treating me like I had just walked in off the street. What was the point of making the appointment?
Customer Service is another area that Firestone is lacking in. If you say you will get to a car within a certain time, and that does not happen Firestone should call and let you know about the delay. Instead you have to call them and hound them to get any information. The last time I took my car there, they had my car for three and a half days. In that time, the only way I gained any information was from relentlessly calling them. One night, they did call me. However, the guy who called me was not the rep I talked to earlier, or the mechanic that was working on my car. They had both left. They had some random employee who knew nothing about my car to tell me it wasn’t done yet.
Finally, can they really fix the issue? The last time I took my car there, it took them forever to diagnose the problem. First the tech assigned to my car “called in sick” and they didn’t have anyone else who could look at it that day. Then they said they found the problem, but the dealer had given them the wrong part. Eventually they told me that they couldn’t fix it at all. Firestone advised me to have the car towed to a nearby dealership. When the mechanic at the dealership looked at my car, they found the issue. Much to my surprise the actual problem was not what Firestone said it was. Now the dealer had to fix the actual issue AND undo all the damage that Firestone had done. In the end, I was with out a car for a week, and what should have been an easy fix ended up costing me nearly $300.
What started out as a “no brainer” has turned into a “what was I thinking” moment. It was a nightmare, and I know others have had similar experiences. Is all the hassle worth the convenience Firestone claims?
