So I went camping in Allegany state park two weekends ago and by the end of the weekend I noticed there was a slow leak in my rear tire. The following Monday, I brought my car to the Goodyear/Gemini auto repair shop on Niagara falls blvd. to have my tire patched. They patched the tire and also said that both my inner and outer tie rods are dangerously loose and in need of immediate replacement and proceeded to give me a quotation for the required work in the amount of $463. Having known people who have had nightmares with shops like this doing work, I declined and called my regular mechanic to get an appt. for him to take a look at it. Well, I got it back and my mechanic says that not only are they not loose, they are in excellent condition - in fact everything in the front suspension, steering is in good shape. I’m sure there is a million stories similar to this but I figured I’d post this up here so people know that they may get bullied into some obnoxious repair that is not needed. The part that upset me the most was that he was saying “dangerous”, and “safety issue”….so much for business ethics…
happens anywhere you go … why did you not use said “regular mechanic” for the tire patch also
hes a small operation and very busy, I had to wait almost a week to get it in there. Goodyear is nice for in and out tire repair.
Do you have a written estimate from them? If so I’d do two things.
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Go here and file a complaint with corporate:
http://www.geminicarcare.com/customerCare/contact.html -
File a complaint with New York state.
I think it’s this form:
http://www.nydmv.state.ny.us/forms/vs35.pdf
But I’m sure Pauly will be in here eventually and let us know for sure.
The only way shops like this get taken care of is by people complaining.
I’m not surprised, reminds me my Caddy. It was randomly smoking & burning oil and 2 shops I took it to kept saying it was the engine, it was over heating, the block was warped, piston slap etc… :blah: and I swore up and down it wasn’t. The car ran perfect and didn’t over heat. So I finally just took a long weekend off of work, took the top half of the engine apart myself and come to find out one of the valve seal was bad. I went ahead and changed them all and look 1 year later and my caddy still runs like a brand new car.
Shoot both of the shops were caddy dealers, ARRGH Couldn’t file a complant because I’m not a Certifed Tech.
Go to WWW.NYSDMV.com punch vs35 into the search box and fill it out. The only way to do anything about it is to file a complaint. besides we could use the work
bingo
I’ll give it a try, the only thing against me in making a complaint is that my mechanic didnt bill me for his time in inspecting the front end, so I have nothing in writing from him stating that its all good. Ill still look into filing a complaint thru the links you guys provided. Thanks!
Ya there is a large value in having a personal mechanic. All these big places do this crap. I started looking after a few years ago when I was in college. Brought my car to Firestone on NFB with the 12.99 inspection coupon. They told me my steering track was broken, the tie rods were almost off and a bunch of other steering related issues totaling over $1,200.
I brought it to a family friend in Rochester and he told me the guy was nuts and looked at everything on the estimate and never found anything wrong with anything. Def file a complaint tho. Only way anything would consider changing.
I will give you the written prrof if you need it. I do free suspension estimates.Diddyh2h works at that location and when this shit goes on at a shop.
I would go elsewhere
We took a company truck there to get inspected. They want something like $1200 to do brakes and replace some front end parts before they would pass it. We then took it to our regular mechanic and he said alot of it was BS.
^ Umm… Nitro… WTF?!?
joe… you should be banned for that pic.
Valvoline Fleet Services FTW
Sears Auto FTW
It was on his facebook…
For the record guys.
Mr. Tire fixes any flat and patches tires for free.
They even fixed a bent rim for free, they only charge to rebalance the tire, because they patch from the inside. I paid 8 or 10 dollars.
Great service. I go to the one on Seneca in West Seneca.
wow, good to know, it appears goodyear did a decent job patching the tire but they charged me $42.
For a flat? Something shady a about that location.
Geeze, for $42 you could buy a patch kit, small compressor, and lunch.
We used to charge $5 if its on the car and $10 if we had to take the tire off at monro muffler when I worked there one summer. cash money! And honestly, we never did anything that wasnt needed. It really depends on who is running the shop