Mavis Discount Tire Charged me for work that they did not do. Middletown NY

December 2018, my Toyota was making noise and I suspected a problem with a wheel. However, I had just gotten new tires from Mavis and I thought it was possible that it was just a noisy brand of tire. They looked at it and gave me a long list of things the car needed including shocks, struts, both front wheel bearings (even though the driver's side had recently been replaced), rear rotors and rear brakes. They assured me that much of this work was urgent and, if I did not get the wheel bearings replaced, a wheel could fall off while I'm driving. So I gave them the go ahead.

They had the car up on the lift for several hours, while I was stuck in the waiting area, but it appeared that most of the time, they weren't actually working on it. Nevertheless, after a day in the waiting area, I was given back my car and a bill of almost $1000. I was told that there were two rebates that I could get for the shocks. I got one of them and the other one never came, but Mavis had no help for that. The two front wheel bearings cost about $600 for parts and labor.

We drove the car for a few weeks and it was still making that noise. In fact, it seemed to be getting worse, so I brought it back to Mavis. They did not drive it to hear the noise, but they lifted it up and looked at it again. They said that there was nothing wrong and sent me home reassured that my car would not fall apart on the highway. Over 2019, we drove it for about 10,000 miles with that noise, but we continued to assume it was noisy tires. This was backed up by the internet ratings on those particular tires. Then COVID hit. We parked the Toyota and drove only one car for over a year. Besides moving the Toyota in the driveway, it didn't go anywhere.

Once we started using the Toyota again it was more than two years since the "repair." By now, since we were used to another car, it had become obvious that this noise wasn't from the tires and we took it to a trustworthy local mechanic. He replaced the front passenger wheel bearing, which disintegrated when he removed it, and the noise went away. He said that, in his opinion, the front wheel bearing on the passenger side had never been taken apart and replaced. He had to use a blow torch to remove the bolt because it was so old. If it had been replaced in 2018, it would not have been that difficult to take out. It is clear to me that Mavis charged me for work that they did not do.

I went back to discuss it and they blamed me for not bringing it back on time to take advantage of the 1-year warranty. But I DID bring it back, and they assured me there was nothing wrong with it. They continued to blame me for taking it to another mechanic, but there's no way I would trust them with this car again. They claim that it is not uncommon for a wheel bearing to crumble after 10,000 miles and that I should have taken advantage of the warranty when I still had it, but since they told me there was nothing wrong with the car, and would have continued to do so, there was little point in doing that. They sent me out the door with a bad wheel bearing and charged me for the work. It is unlikely that they replaced the driver's side wheel bearing since that one wasn't making the noise. It makes me wonder if they did any of the work on that expensive list.