Firestone tried to rip me off over TPMS

lonniebear · March 22nd, 2012, 07:40

So I had a big screw in one of my rear tires. I usually use discount tire for patch work but Firestone was closer to my work. when i went to pick up the car they wanted to charge me $33 for the patch. I said that sounded a bit pricey (discount always does it for free) and the guy said it was because they have to rebuild the tire pressure monitor. sure enough on the work order there is parts and labor for rebuilding the tire pressure monitor. i told him that my car uses a passive system with the abs and he looked at me like i was crazy. then asked the tech if my car had pressure sensors and the tech said yes. i paid and left, called my dealer and talked to one of their techs to confirm that the 2011 golf uses the abs for the TPMS. called Firestone and told him he was a crook and had charged me for parts he didn't use and labor that wasn't done. he refunded the entire $33. needless to say, i will never use Firestone again.

veedubfreak · March 22nd, 2012, 07:55

2 things. The 2011 does use the ABS, made buying new wheels that much cheaper.
Second. Removing and repairing a tire does not require rebuilding the sensor even if it had one. You should probably call corporate and let them know that their office is scamming people, and or the BBB.

pknopp · March 22nd, 2012, 08:03

Just noting.......My daughter just had a bad experience with Firestone also. This seems to perhaps be their thing now.

dcc · March 22nd, 2012, 08:26

Discount tires do this also, except they may tell you up front if you ask for the fee breakdown.
Its just a way the tire shops have figured out how to make a coupld of extra dollars.
The story I got from Discount tire was that if they replace my tires, and don't service the tpms sensor seals...and there is a air leak, they will charge me again to repair the leak...

sfpegasus · March 22nd, 2012, 09:15

Tire shops are getting a bad name these days.

I had a Firestone dealer refuse to mount a (slightly) used tire on an new Porto alloy that I maintain as my spare. "Liability issue" or some trash like that.

After reading this, I'm glad they forsed me to go elsewhere.

Costco was not a problem when I put tires on the Rabbit. Decent work at a decent price.

BrShootr · March 22nd, 2012, 09:20

I had discount tire trying to charge me for the TPMS as well when I got a set of rims and winter tires. I just told them my car did not need it since it used the ABS. The guy simply apologized, said it's hard to keep track of how each brand does it, removed it from the bill and was done with it. They had it explicitly listed "TPMS rebuild" or some crap.

Maybe I have a particularly good shop where I get my tires, but what I do know is that now that I've found a good service place I'll keep coming back. Report the issue to corporate and they'll deal with it if they care. Remember that each shop is independent in the sense that you can't keep track of every crook that works in your company.

Cooper · March 23rd, 2012, 06:38

A friend also had an issue with Firestone in the 1980s when we were in grad school.

His car had no power. Firestone wanted to replace the transmission.

I went with him to a transmission shop for a second opinion. A person took the car for a ride with us and said, "I don't know what it is. But one thing I can tell you is that it's not the transmission."

He said to take it to another garage, tell the owner that he sent us, and ask the owner to loosen the exhaust manifold. He suspected that the catalytic converter had collapsed. That's what it was.

veedubfreak · March 23rd, 2012, 07:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrShootr

I had discount tire trying to charge me for the TPMS as well when I got a set of rims and winter tires. I just told them my car did not need it since it used the ABS. The guy simply apologized, said it's hard to keep track of how each brand does it, removed it from the bill and was done with it. They had it explicitly listed "TPMS rebuild" or some crap.

Maybe I have a particularly good shop where I get my tires, but what I do know is that now that I've found a good service place I'll keep coming back. Report the issue to corporate and they'll deal with it if they care. Remember that each shop is independent in the sense that you can't keep track of every crook that works in your company.

This is how the Discount near me is. Very upfront about everything. I ordered my 19"s from them, and due to it being a discontinued wheel they had to search around for them. Finally found another store that had ordered basically the last 20 sets in existence and had a set shipped to this store. Well, I go to pick them up and 1 of the wheels is the wrong wheel. Correct box, wrong wheel. So they had to order a 2nd entire set because the other store wouldn't just send 1 wheel. Well in the week or so between when the first set came in and the 2nd set, I got a nail in my factory tire. Of course the nail was "outside of the repair area". So the tech put my spare on and basically told me to pound sand. I came back the next day to see what the status of the wheels was and talked to the manager who was the one I had ordered my wheels through, and told him about my nail issue, brought the tire back in to show him. Due to the tire having a whole 800 miles on it, he ordered me a replacement tire, replaced it and didn't charge me a penny.

So not every one out there is a crook.

P0234 · March 23rd, 2012, 07:19

The car industry is full of crooks. What do you think happened to the kids in school that never paid attention to anything except stealing went? Most aren't working at NASA.

The thing is, the free or $12 repairs, they can't make money on it, so why not just raise the price? Same thing with the $10 oil changes....

lonniebear · March 23rd, 2012, 08:27

years ago, Discount over torqued my lugs so bad that half of the stems broke when i removed the wheels to replace the bearings. I fixed them and then took all my receipts to Discount. The manager not only paid me for the parts but gave me extra for my time. And like I said, Discount has never charged me for patch work, even when the tire isn't theirs. Shouldn't have been lazy and gone to Firestone. lesson learned.

Dariof · March 23rd, 2012, 10:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by P0234

The car industry is full of crooks. What do you think happened to the kids in school that never paid attention to anything except stealing went? Most aren't working at NASA.

The thing is, the free or $12 repairs, they can't make money on it, so why not just raise the price? Same thing with the $10 oil changes....

Good point!

Great thread.

lonniebear · March 23rd, 2012, 11:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by P0234

The car industry is full of crooks. What do you think happened to the kids in school that never paid attention to anything except stealing went? Most aren't working at NASA.

The thing is, the free or $12 repairs, they can't make money on it, so why not just raise the price? Same thing with the $10 oil changes....

Funny you said that. I worked at NASA and have always dreamed of being a mechanic and owning my own shop. I'm hoping one of my three boys will want to be a mechanic and share my dream. maybe it's a grass is always greener sort of thing.

Dunno513 · March 23rd, 2012, 11:22

So the shop fixing your car adds a few extra unnecessary fees.... hmm... wonder who else does that in everyday life?

$10 is a completely reasonable fee for plugging a tire. Any more is a complete rip. Some shops "require" them to remove the tire to put a patch which they claim is the "ONLY" way to do it right.

Best thing to do is carry a good plug kit. The key to telling the good ones from the bad ones... the more disgusting they look, the better they are.. Stay away from the neatly packaged ones. They dry out way to fast and don't stick to crap.

Problem isn't with the shops doing this to people. It's the people who let them get away with it. They just don't understand that the $10 oil change comes with pressure to rotate tires, do a coolant flush or differential service which are usually pure profit.. Especially when they don't even do the work.

Fools will come and go, and crooks will always have a business to run be it a repair shop or a ponzi scam. Screw home economics... time to start teaching kids about the real world... it kinda sucks!

P0234 · March 23rd, 2012, 12:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dunno513

$10 is a completely reasonable fee for plugging a tire. Any more is a complete rip. Some shops "require" them to remove the tire to put a patch which they claim is the "ONLY" way to do it right.

I do think that removing the tire and patching from behind is the best way to do it. Doing a decent patching job takes at least 15 minutes, if the tire is not on the car. That amounts to $40 an hour not including materials. Most people expect that price with the tire on the car, add another 5 minutes to that. Granted tire jockies aren't high paid employees, but add in benefits, overhead and materials, where is there room for profit?

I think people have prices fixed in their head, and as a result business keep having to reduce quality.

lonniebear · March 23rd, 2012, 13:56

like a said, discount will usually do it for free. it's just a good business move. they aren't paying the kid by the job, he's getting paid whether he's fixing my flat or standing around. only thing it cost them is the patch kit. and out of it, i buy my tires there.