Life lessons and lying auto techs.
 

So, i have an 18 year old step son that needed an alignment on his truck. I told him why and how it's done and to have them rotate his tires prior to aligning the front end to make sure it's done right. I also told him to max out the camber so that the truck ran straight down the road with ease.

The Tire dealer had the truck for four hours today and charged him for the work. I asked him how it drove and he said that it pulled to the right still.

I walk out to my son's dirty truck and the front wheels are still the break dust covered front wheels that where on the truck in the morning and the Left front tire that has a wear from improper alignment is still on the left front.

Tomorrow he get's to go in and politly talk with the manager about the fraud that they have pulled. If they don't make good on it he'll go to corperate and let them know plus yelp, facebook and twitter.


They also gave him a list of $850 worth of stuff that needs to be done on the truck. Think that we should trust them?:p

typical tire store. they like to upsell bigtime.

When I was 19, I paid a very hard-earned $250 to get a valve adjustment.
I was afraid of moving mechanical things.

Bike died across town the next day.
I pushed the 600# beast back to my apt, up and down hills.
Opened a valve cover port and there was a freaking nut sitting in the spring.
Called the shop.
They said they'd tow it for $50, then decide if they wanted to charge me more. Plain rude.

Dad stepped up, talked to the manager, and got some of the money back.
Bonding incident which lasted a lifetime.

Teach them how it's done.
Take pics. Explain rationale, proper steps, and why it should be done that way.
Go from there.
Once I was a ACE certified Master Mechanic (which doesn't mean squat) and could provide a professional opinion for legal matters.

Good luck.

After an alignment I was quoted ~$900 for new brakes on my Mini. "Unsafe" was their word. I ordered brakes online and figure I would put them on over the weekend. Of course once I pulled the wheels off the brakes had plenty of meat. This was about a year ago. Also, parts were $150 tops.

Crooks in my book.

I agree with the dirty wrench, but part of it is also your son. He needs to tell them and pay attention to what's going on before and after to see if they swap out the tires. I always tell people twice. I work with trades people enough that I know for a fact that they need to be told twice (sometimes more).

I just don't understand not doing the job that you're paid to do.

He called them and he said that they told him that there was another Ranger in the shop and they must have worked on the other one and thought it was his.

its just something we just have to accept or go to another place. I stop trying to understand these things. As far as maxing out the camber, I am sure that isn't done?

Onc I find someone good, I stick with them.

Well two things could have happened here. 1) Somewhere in the short chain of communication, the 'tech(s)' never looked at it and someone thought it was finished.
2) The 'tech' did look at it, and billed for the job but never did it, hoping that you would not care or notice.

BTW, it's 2013. All alignment equipment can give and print out: OE Specs, before and after readings of all measurements. Most places where I have worked in the past the tech had to present a valid 'before' and 'after' print-out for that vehicle with date and time stamped to get paid for the job.

another thing. just because the tires and pointed straight at the time of the alignment doesn't mean the car will drive straight. if there's s bad suspension bushing, a bad steering box, or even a dragging brake caliper, that'll do it as well. the shop will say "well we did an alignment, the wheels were straight"

+1

However, given the lack of rotation, its possible the truck was never worked on.

Life lessons and lying auto techs.
 

TireMeister? ;)

Als, wouldn't you want to max out the castor to get the most self-centering effect?

Last time something like this happened to me, I talked to the owner of the shop and mentioned I was seriously considering laying out all the details on Yelp.com.

While his story didn't change, he quickly refunded my money.

My '87 Carrera came with a receipt for a recent clutch job at a very reputable shop. A year later (2001-2002), when I needed a new clutch, imagine my surprise to find the engine had never been out of the car, the shaft/fork update hadn't been done and the clutch disc I pulled off there was stamped "12/86." Previous owner paid $2700 for that job that was never done.

Yes, I meant to say castor not camber.

so they fix it ..
t'was a mistake..
BS...
on to the next victim..

Rika

We're not all bad. Some of us try to be honest, professionals. It can be a rat race. I wonder if they set the truck up for alignment on the rack, and then found bad front end parts, that would not allow them to align it , until they were replaced, then billed you for the set up time on the rack? Just a thought.

Nada on the front end being bad the work that they wanted er recomended to do was all the oils ect, We did the diff a year ago and marked the date on it they wanted $90 to do it again.

I always like to give people the benefit of the doubt, but I will be honest when I say, that I have met some of the slimiest people I have ever known that are in this biz.