Just brakes

[RussSchultz]

I know a lot of you don't live in America, but for the rest of you:

Yesterday my wife took her S10 truck with 60k miles on it into Just Brakes to get one of their advertised "$99" deals. After they inspected the car, they came up with about $400 in repairs, in addition to the brake job. We hadn't had any problem with the brakes prior to this, though to be fair, I did notice some fluid on the floor in the garage recently, and the pads were worn very unevenly (one front brake pad was nearly gone, the other barely touched). When we went to pick it up this morning, the bill had grown by another $300 for a master cylinder which they claim was bad and was preventing them from bleeding the brakes.

After doing some research on the web, I found out that there are repeated reports of predatory and inflationary work done by Just Brakes, particularly against women, and a pattern of bad service and $700+ bills for what started out a normal brake job on this website. (www.ripoffreport.com or search google or google groups). Of course, you're not going to see the good reports on a website like that, but we would have never given them business after seeing that many (100+ in the past year or so) similar complaints.

I'm not sure I've been ripped off, but it feels like it. I've learned my lesson: do your research on any national chain that advertises on the radio.

Just thought I'd share so nobody else ends up paying more than they should.

 

[Captain Chickenpants]

I think most chains are like this.

However I was quite impressed with Kwik-Fit.
My brother had just driven me from London to Manchester in his Mini with a broken exhaust, it sounded like a tank! So I suggested that he should get it fixed for the journey back, and I would lend him the money.
We drove to Kwik-Fit and told them we needed a new exhaust, as the mechanic was driving it onto the ramp, one of the other mechanics stopped him and had a look under the bonnet, turned out the engine mounts were worn and had we put on a new exhaust it would have come off in a matter of days.

CC

 

[Tahir2]

I got ripped of recently too with a repair job.

There are utter scumbags out there who work by overcharging people and do it so regularly that they dont even realise it is 'wrong.'

However I will have the last laugh.. oh yes!

 

[MrsSkywalker]

Russ, my sister just had a similar experience with her mechanic, and she found out some valuable information. Most states have strict guidelines for auto repair shops. For instance, every repair must be approved before they do it. If they went ahead and replaced your master cylinder without prior permission, then they must eat the cost, not you. Also, in most states they must present you with the defective parts they removed...in NH it's a crime not to, but I don't know about your state laws. It might be worth looking into. You may have a lawsuit, but even if you don't, you may be able to help get them shutdown. With my sister's truck (also an S10 ) the repair shop not only had to pay her for all the "work" they did on it, but they had to give her an extra $1500 for her troubles, and they also got their license revoked for a year.

I am not a suit happy person, but if it was me in that situation, I'd be really pissed off. I HATE when a company takes advantage of people because they think they can get away with it.

 

[covermye]

Not to lower the mentality of this discussion, but there may be a hidden message here: To avoid this sort of situation, BUY A FORD!

-Ex Ford Engineer

 

[MrsSkywalker]

To avoid this sort of situation, BUY A FORD!

My sister's truck initially went onto the shop b/c she ran over the antlers of a dead moose laying across the road and the antlers put a hole in her radiator and screwed up her axle...don't think it would have mattered what type of car she was driving. Moose antlers don't discriminate

 

[RussSchultz]

You think a moose would have done that to a Canadien car?

(What do Canadiens drive, anyways?)

 

[Humus]

Is there any Canadian car manufacturer at all?

Either way, hitting a moose will destroy any car.

Edit: Now that I think of it though, maybe the amount of mooses and even larger amount of reindeers running on the roads in Sweden is one of the reasons why Volvo and Saab traditionally has created quite stiff cars.

 

[Saem]

IIRC, one of our jack ass governments signed a deal with the US and royally screwed us over, Canada isn't allowed to have a native car company.

 

[Sabastian]

IIRC, one of our jack ass governments signed a deal with the US and royally screwed us over, Canada isn't allowed to have a native car company.

Whom did this? What deal was it? When? I don't know of any sort of restriction at all. Please I think you ought to elaborate. A link to this information would be good. (reliable sourses only please.)