Just Brakes misquoted prices and totally lied to me Austin Texas

My cousin calls me from Austin,Texas.

She is telling me that she took her car into Just Brakes in Austin where most of the family still lives because she had heard their sappy radio commercial where they would replace the brakes and shoes for $99.99 for all four.

Or at least that is what I understood her to say.

Well, they got under the hood and they looked at other stuff besides the brakes and they told her she needed at least $800 worth of repairs,

She didn't tell them but she had just taken it out of the shop to our family mechanic who we know and trust and has given us honest repairs for an honest price for years.

I told her to look on theripoffreport,com since I never had occasion to use the Just Brakes stores to solve my brake issues.

She phoned me back and said that RipOffReport had $aved her some major money...

Thanks for posting this.

There are quite a few Austin businesses that are not quite on the up and up and maybe these guys DO treat MEN customers different than they do ladies.

Rip-Off Report readers, what say you?

I can't help but notice in the most recent JB commercials on the radio they've completely dropped even mentioning the $99.88 service and just use a disclaimer saying "additional parts may be needed at substantial cost". Well that just tells you something right there that JB is just way overpriced on brake work. In most cases huh? How about in NO cases and all cases are $500+ no matter what the work.

I pretty much guarantee that if I get a brake job at a real mechanic, take it to JB just to see what they would say, they would try to charge me $600 for "bad pads" or a leaking brake line, even though it's a brand new system. They may even try to do what they did to me about 6 years ago and replace my perfectly good master cylinder claiming it was "completely fried". This is exactly what happened when a local TV station here in Denver went on a JB sting a couple years ago. Read more about what they did at www.troubleshooter.com

If you've been in the brake and car mechanic business for 28 years, why are you with such a low company like Just Brakes? Why not open your own independent shop or work for a real company such as Goodyear? I'm sure Goodyear has some entries on this site as well, just like most companies do, but probably not to the extent that JB does. It's pretty much a given that most people who have had a bad experience with a company try to let as many people as possible know about it.

My advice to everyone is to just avoid JB altogether and go to a real mechanic. Not only will they you save money, but you'll get reliable work done and avoid all of the heartache and reading through all of these sickening reports on this site.

Well Joe you have answered my question, you must use Autozone pads. By the way MAP is the Motorist Assurance Program, look it up and you will see that Just Brakes has guidelines that we have to follow when we inspect the customers vehicles.

We cannot tell them a repair is needed or recommended, it is either required or suggested. If you do an advanced search for the Just Brakes in Waco, you will only find 1 or 2 reports on my store, and they are a couple of years old.

If a customer vehicle is not dangerous (i.e blown wheel cylinders, bearings or leaking calipers) and they decline the repairs that are either required or suggested by the MAP guidelines we follow, then yes we will do only the friction reline. As I posted earlier I treat my customers the same way I would want to be treated, FAIRLY AND HONESTLY.

You should know that a good set of pads for an Infinity are not as cheap as Autozone pads so of course the price is going to go up from the $99.88 that we advertise, that is why when a customers calls to check on the price we say IN MOST CASES, as not every vehicle will fall under the $99.88 friction reline.

By the way I have been working on cars for 28 years.

First off let me say that by writing a check and becoming a member of the BBB DOES NOT make you reputable. Anyone can join the BBB if they write the check. Second, I am a specialty shop that knows exactly what im talking about. Ive been in the exhaust/brake buissness for the last 30 years which is a whole lot longer then you have been around cars. Yes we do alot of brake repairs and NO, I do not pay 50.00 a set for pads. Now why dont you just run along and reply to the other 400+ complaints that you get paid for.

Just because you would put an Autozone pad in an infinity, does not mean we would. The reason the price went up is because we don not stock pads for Infinity's, and we sell any non stocking pads for whatever list price is pluss the 99.88 friction, as you claim bendix, or wagner pads are more expensive then autozone pads, so of course the price would go up, but even so we could still beat your price for the same friction reline.

By the way if we were a bait and switch company like you claim, the BBB would not have us listed as an accredited member. We could not be a member of MAP, and the FTC would have already closed us down,

Go look at our competitors and see how many complaints they have, Just Brakes is not the only Repair shop listed on this website with a lot of complaints.

You are becoming a waste of my time, since you know nothing about this company other than what you have read on this site. Learn about a company and how they stay in business before you start badmouthing them, or the people who work for them.
If you are doing frictions for $129.95 an axle you must not do very many brake jobs, if you are spending $50.00 or more for pads. Of course you are probably a general repair facility, not a speciality shop like we are.

Why did the price spike to 240.00 Mr. Lead tech? Because your 12.00 pads were not in stock? If as you claim that your pads are of high quality then why did you raise the price so high on a pad that you would pay 30.00 for? Scammer!!!!!! Your company is a bait and switch master. Now go and put out some more fires with your 400+ complaints.

Joe

Why did the price spike to 240.00 Mr. Lead tech? Because your 12.00 pads were not in stock? If as you claim that your pads are of high quality then why did you raise the price so high on a pad that you would pay 30.00 for? Scammer!!!!!! Your company is a bait and switch master. Now go and put out some more fires with your 400+ complaints.

Joe

You dont say what your Infiniti was doing wrong, but I can tell you that if you put Autozone pads in it, you will not be happy, as it will squeak,