Tires Plus Fraud, bogus work order, scam Morrisville, Pennsylvania

Tires Plus tried to charge me about $1,500 for mostly unneeded repairs. I ended up getting the actually needed work at an independent mechanic for $258 --- less than 1/5th what the Tires Plus people wanted me to pay.

That's the bottom line of my dreadful experience the last time I went to the Morrisville, Pa., branch of Tires Plus, a Florida-based national tire and car-service center that is a subsidiary of Bridgestone/Firestone.

The attempted scam started after I had my car towed to the Morrisville Tires Plus earlier this month. I had been a customer of that Tires Plus location for about seven years and felt I was treated honestly before now. But after this last experience, I have no intention of going back and would urge others to stay away too.

Here's my story: My car developed a problem with its water pump/coolant system and became pretty much inoperable out of the blue. The Tires Plus technician(s) who looked it over determined that I needed new radiator hoses, a new water pump, a new thermostat, a new coolant-temperature sensor, new thermostat housing, a coolant flush and an oil change. They told me all the hardware just mentioned was broken and had to be replaced. It turns out I needed none of those things, so it's a good thing I had my car towed to an independent mechanic for a second opinion.

The only work my car needed was a new water pump belt tensioner, a new belt for the water pump and a coolant refill. The Tires Plus team had identified those needs as well, but they also tacked on the bogus stuff I listed in the previous paragraph.