CAR SAGA PART 2

OOOOH, THE CAR SAGA WAS DEFINITELY NOT OVER!

Yesterday (and the few days before that when it had been freezing outside) my car once again was having trouble starting. I got incredibly fed up and decided to shoot off an e-mail to Firestone's customer service. Keep in mind that I'm expecting a form/canned response back and I'm just having a grand old time being a passive-aggressive, self-depreciating twit. Read on:

I'm not a trusting person. I don't let anyone other than myself operate my vehicle and I've brought it to only two service locations in the past four years that I have owned it. But four days prior to Thanksgiving, it was a very cold day... and my engine wouldn't turn over. After being threatened with jumper cables and curse words, it reluctantly started. Fearing my car would shut down in rush hour, I brought it to the closest garage - your Erie Blvd. location (#002755).

The next day, a CSR called to tell me that my alternator needed to be replaced. Fair explanation - I know that if the alternator cannot bring power to the battery, the car will not start. The CSR also told me that my belt (no elaboration on which belt) was torn halfway through, causing my car to sound like a cricket, and I had a leak in my oil tank but "it's not crucial." I told him to fix the alternator and belt only and also to inspect my vehicle since my inspection had expired.

Later that afternoon, the CSR called back again - my vehicle couldn't pass inspection because my emergency brake "wouldn't pull" (and the back brakes would have to be replace) and my power steering would have to be removed and replaced because it was leaking. Because this is a "major hydraulic system" and brakes are "expensive," I was quoted $750. In less words, I told him to forget about it.

When I picked my vehicle up, I paid $615 for the repairs to my alternator and this elusive belt. My car started and sounded fine - it was a decent temperature outside. I promptly brought it to another garage that I trust to have the vehicle inspected.

The mechanic from the other garage called me back a day later and said my vehicle would pass inspection with two repairs - a new license plate light and a new fuse in my dashboard (my horn wouldn't work). I picked up my car and spoke directly with the mechanic: there was no problem with my power steering and no leak in my oil tank. My back brakes were a bit worn, but the e-brake pulled just fine. I paid $102 and drove off. Once again, my car started just fine; it was decent out.

(At this point, you can probably understand why I'm so leery of your operations. But wait... there's more!)

It was cold out yesterday - in the teens. And once again, my car wouldn't start! After a few minutes of shouting angry, the engine turned over. (Does this sound similar to my initial problem or what?) Not to mention that my car has since taken on this peculiar grating noise for the first few minutes it's running; in fact, it sounds quite similar to an aggravated cricket...

It's clear to me that I've been duped by your garage. The problems I had prior to alternator "repair" are still happening; I was told I had a plethora of problems inhibiting inspection that weren't even happening. Not surprisingly, I've been told by quite a few people not to trust a mainstream garage - I now understand why.

I take responsibility for not taking my car to another garage for a second opinion on the alternator "issue" - I believe I could have saved a lot of money and sanity by bringing my vehicle elsewhere. What I won't take responsibility for is being a young woman - and for what amounts to being taken advantage of by CSRs/ mechanics that think I'm too ignorant to know anything about cars. While I don't know why the alternator works, I know what it does. And while I can't go back in time and bring my car elsewhere, I cannot be duped in the future - and I can also tell my friends not to go anywhere near a Firestone.

Of course that's "not crucial" - taking away 30 customers isn't going to harm your gross revenue at all. But I refuse to be taken a fool by a corporation laden with dishonesty and shady practices. I don't doubt that you get many similar messages every day and that I'll get a canned response letter but maybe this will fall into the right hands and change will happen. (Oh wait... Firestone has plenty of spare change laying around after milking me for all I'm worth...)

YEAH.

I woke up this morning to a ringing phone - it was the customer service manager at the Erie Blvd location (I had put my phone number on the form because I figured I had nothing to lose except them selling it to telemarketers). Tim, the manager, says that he received a phone call from their district office this morning and asked him to contact me about the issues I'm having with their establishment. Tim apologized (for what? I'm not sure... he just said "I'm Sorry") and asked me to bring my car in today and we'd look over it together along with the mechanic that had worked on it. K, fine.

So I bring my car in. Tim drives it into the building and says "yup, your e-brake didn't pull. I just tried it." So I tell him to show me... and it pulls. Multiple times. Just fine. He swears "ON HIS LIFE" that it didn't pull the first time.

Then he puts my car on the tracks to lift it up. My power steering rack and pinion look a little schmucky, but nothing serious... and nothing that would cause an inspection NOT to pass. I ask why the mechanic didn't say anything about my horn not working, and he swore "ON HIS LIFE" that it beeped once. YEAH...

So Tim brings me inside. He was pretty ready for me to leave (making men uncomfortable by asking difficult questions for the win!) but I wasn't prepared to go yet... I wanted to talk about the alternator because my car is STILL having trouble with cold start. Supposedly the mechanic did a battery and electric test on my car that determined this alternator problem, so Tim shuffled through his paperwork to find the printout.... and he can't find it. He says that because it's in last month's paperwork, he would have to go dig through receipts in the back room. Fine, go for it!

THIRTY MINUTES LATER, Tim emerges... defeated. This elusive printout is nowhere to be found. He calls the district office, they tell him that if he can't find the receipt with PROOF that my alternator was faulty that he is REQUIRED to refund me.

So he refunds me... for the alternator, all the labor, the battery/electric test (the initial one and the one they did today to make sure the new alternator was fine) and the failed inspection... $382. The only thing I ended up paying for, in the end, was the new belt and labor for that.

WRITING LETTERS PAYS OFF, PEOPLE!