I do my own brakes. A few times while getting tires I was told similar to OP, the fronts were done.
Depending on which car, I either get off the shelf pads or order performance pads.
I get the car in the air pull the rims and look at the brakes, they have 50% pads left. Pissed off, I out the pads on a shelf in garage and put the car back down.
I have an 04 Taco, I was told the pads were done, I drove it another 30k miles before I changed them. I kid of forgot about them and heard metal scraping one day so I decided it was time.
I got my money's worth out of those pads.
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