Firestone Tire & Service Centers ripoff, diagnosed need for new transmission, $2266, car really only needed new sensors, $225 Aurora Illinois

I pass by that firestone on eola and new york everyday and was considering their lifetime alignment.
not anymore. another one bites the dust.

John,

Those guys you speak of would not be the ones diagnosing or changing the transmission.

They are the helpers and tire busters I was speaking of.

I like reading alot of your posts but I feel your last one may be a bit misguided.

While Firestone may indeed require "ASE certification" there are guys out there that are, that I wouldn't let check the air in my tires.

I think they erred in trying to make a quick buck by taking the easy way out and got jammed. Ethically, they should have refferred the consumer to a transmission shop.

I like reading alot of your posts but I feel your last one may be a bit misguided.

While Firestone may indeed require "ASE certification" there are guys out there that are, that I wouldn't let check the air in my tires.

I think they erred in trying to make a quick buck by taking the easy way out and got jammed. Ethically, they should have refferred the consumer to a transmission shop.

I like reading alot of your posts but I feel your last one may be a bit misguided.

While Firestone may indeed require "ASE certification" there are guys out there that are, that I wouldn't let check the air in my tires.

I think they erred in trying to make a quick buck by taking the easy way out and got jammed. Ethically, they should have refferred the consumer to a transmission shop.

Firestone only hires ASE certified mechanics with verifiable experience. The only exception here is helpers and tire busters.

They knew exactly what they were doing. They knew exactly what the problem was. They simply attempted a major rip off and got caught.

Like the other poster said, that problem was a dead giveaway with the instrumentation being out too.

No incompetence here at all. Just an intentional major rip off attempt. This is very common especially when a woman alone brings a car in.

And there is no new transmission available for that car for that price. Even a salvage yard tranny would be like $400 and then they would have to change filter, seals, fluid, etc and clean it up and paint it to make it look "new" and the labor is extensive on changing that tranny. It would take 2 techs at least a full workday to get it done. The car would have been in there at least 3-5 days if you were lucky.

At $80-$90/hour labor that Firestone charges, that would have been at least $1800 labor.

It would be unlikely to even get a good rebuild with a warranty, installed for that price, much less a new tranny.

I'm glad you found an honest shop.

It would be Overestimating thier abilities if you thought they were actually bright enough to have known it wasn't the transmission. Anyhow.

I think that having Autozone read codes for you is worthless. I have never heard a from a single person that Autozones free service is helpful. I have heard many complaints to the contrary though. Codes are pretty much useless to the average person, and even if they do find out what they code means they probably do not know how to check or test whatever the code indicates is the problem. I guess knowing a code is fine, but it doesn't exactly fix the problem.

Most auto shops will not go off of the codes you give them to repair your vehicle, they will want to check for themselves and verify. Otherwise they end up with a lot of mad customers when they replace something that didn't need to be replaced (based on the code or what they customer says needs to be replaced), or if there are other problems the shop was unaware of, but the customer believes it is the shops fault.

Shops don't offer this service just to make a ton of money. They invest a lot of money into the equipment and learning to use it. If they don't have it, how can they possibly repair modern vehicles correctly? It's pretty much a necessity if you want to offer anything more than oil changes.

Statiscally a shop loses money during that hour of diagnosis (unless they are charging more than the hourly rate) since they are not selling parts and labor during that same hour. My point being, it's not exactly a money maker, at least not at our shop, but it is a necessity. Nobody likes to pay it, but the alternative would be having the shop replace parts hoping to get lucky, at your expense.

Without a doubt I think the Autozone service is worthless, which explains why it is free. Although from this report we can see that even paid diagnosis is sometimes worthless too! Not just worthless, but could cost you a ton of money. So I second the idea that Firestone wasn't the place to go, they shouldn't offer that service. Mistakes happen, but if the repair was going to cost so much, a second opinion is deffinatly called for. Anyhow that has little to do with this report, I just wanted to point that out, in my opinion of course.

It does have a little to do with the idea that maybe the work performed at the second shop was worth the total price she paid. Although the prices you quote with labor should be much less than the amount she paid, she also said he kept it overnight and ran electrical tests on it the next day to confirm that there were no other problems. If so that could explain the extra cost involved. On the other hand of course, he could have known after she was told she needed a transmission, and with such a high price on that, she would be happy to pay anything less. So I guess it depends on what really happened and how she feels about it, but she may not have been overcharged. OK thats all!

Don't underestimate Firestone. They really may not have known that it was just the sensors. Some of their mechanics are really stupid enough to think that the transmission needed to be replaced.

I eliminated one moron from my local Corporate-owned Firestone store. The mechanic who was working on my car spilled some gasoline under my car which was up on the lift, so his buddy came over and took out his cigarette lighter and pretended he was going to light it.

They both thought it was real funny. I did not. I don't take threatening to set a gasoline fire under my car as a joke. Ever. The manager didn't think it was a big deal, so I called Firestone's corporate offices and told this story, was called back by their risk management dept., and gave them the mechanic's name.

The next time I went back for some work, the store Mgr. told me I had gotten Cory fired. Good. Wherever he is, I hope he's not working with flamable liquids.

Don't underestimate Firestone. They really may not have known that it was just the sensors. Some of their mechanics are really stupid enough to think that the transmission needed to be replaced.

I eliminated one moron from my local Corporate-owned Firestone store. The mechanic who was working on my car spilled some gasoline under my car which was up on the lift, so his buddy came over and took out his cigarette lighter and pretended he was going to light it.

They both thought it was real funny. I did not. I don't take threatening to set a gasoline fire under my car as a joke. Ever. The manager didn't think it was a big deal, so I called Firestone's corporate offices and told this story, was called back by their risk management dept., and gave them the mechanic's name.

The next time I went back for some work, the store Mgr. told me I had gotten Cory fired. Good. Wherever he is, I hope he's not working with flamable liquids.

Don't underestimate Firestone. They really may not have known that it was just the sensors. Some of their mechanics are really stupid enough to think that the transmission needed to be replaced.

I eliminated one moron from my local Corporate-owned Firestone store. The mechanic who was working on my car spilled some gasoline under my car which was up on the lift, so his buddy came over and took out his cigarette lighter and pretended he was going to light it.

They both thought it was real funny. I did not. I don't take threatening to set a gasoline fire under my car as a joke. Ever. The manager didn't think it was a big deal, so I called Firestone's corporate offices and told this story, was called back by their risk management dept., and gave them the mechanic's name.

The next time I went back for some work, the store Mgr. told me I had gotten Cory fired. Good. Wherever he is, I hope he's not working with flamable liquids.

Don't underestimate Firestone. They really may not have known that it was just the sensors. Some of their mechanics are really stupid enough to think that the transmission needed to be replaced.

I eliminated one moron from my local Corporate-owned Firestone store. The mechanic who was working on my car spilled some gasoline under my car which was up on the lift, so his buddy came over and took out his cigarette lighter and pretended he was going to light it.

They both thought it was real funny. I did not. I don't take threatening to set a gasoline fire under my car as a joke. Ever. The manager didn't think it was a big deal, so I called Firestone's corporate offices and told this story, was called back by their risk management dept., and gave them the mechanic's name.

The next time I went back for some work, the store Mgr. told me I had gotten Cory fired. Good. Wherever he is, I hope he's not working with flamable liquids.

I'm sorry, but your first mistake was going to a company that specializes in Tires for a Driveability problem. Your second mistake was not calling around for information. The way that today's cars are set up, makes it impossible for a consumer to determine if, in fact, they have a major or a minor problem.

Given that your Intrepid is a 1999, the MIL will illuminate upon most fault codes occurring. Autozone will read those codes for you at no charge. Secondly, the input speed sensor on Chryslers rarely fail. This is first-hand knowledge. The output sensor is the most common failure that we see with not only the Intrepids, but Cirrus, Stratus, Voyagers, Gr. Voyagers, T and Country, and any other Chrysler product with a 4Speed-front wheel drive transmission.

Always shop around, not just for prices, but for the reputation and character of the facilities in question.

Lastly, go back to the place that replaced your sensors and ask for some money back. The labor time listed for each sensor is 0.3hrs and list price on each sensor is $16.70 Input sensor and $17.50 Output sensor. Good Luck!

The fact that your speedometer was not working is almost a dead giveaway that it is just sensors that quit. Firestone also knew this. They would of replaced the sensors and charged you for a new transmission. this would have been at least a 2,000 profit for them. Yes the best bet is never never even walk through the door at this place.