Tire Kingdom Ripoff Poor Service, Estimate Scam, Refused Responsibility of Workmanship Tampa Florida

I took in my car at the Tire Kingdom on 7602 W. Hillsborough Ave., Tampa, Florida phone number 813-885-1781 and what a nightmare.

It started when I drove the car to the shop for repair. I told the front desk that my steering was really bad and that I needed it fixed. Tire Kingdom offered me a free estimate and and 30-45 minutes later they told me it was the axles, cv joints, rack and pinions, and needed an alignment. The total repair would cost $750. I had to make a tough decision but I told them if this would fix my car problem go ahead with the job. I left the car with them at about 9:00am. They said it would take 3-4 hours.

I get a call from tire kingdom at around 3:30 aftering holding the car for about 6 hours telling me that my power steering pump is the cause of the problem and it would cost an additional $400 to replace. I was in shock and could not believe it. I told them I could not afford that and why did they tell me different earlier in the day. The excuse they gave me was that they did not know until they began working on the car that this was also going to be a problem.

I went to the shop and they tried to explain that the other repairs that were done were needed even though it was not what I took in the car for. After repeating the same thing to me over and over the guy told me the rack and pinions and cv joints were broken so that is why they fixed it. He told me the axles were bad and soon to give out but was not really necessary to fix the steering on the car. The axles are what keep the tires in place and moving foward and back. I told him the car was moving and I personally drove the car to the shop.

Tire Kingdom refused to take responsibility for there workmanship. They did not fix the problem with the steering on my car. I left tire kingdom paying them about $650 dollars and my steering is still terrible. I spoke to the manager at the store he only gave me off from the original price because they never did the alignment. I argued with them about 30 minutes to an hour that I could not believe I was giving them $650 and the problem still existed. I told them I could get a 2nd opinion from another mechanic that the workmanship was poor and that they failed to recognize the problem and make me waste my money unnecessarily. I told them I would contact there corporate office, and the better business bureau and they refused to resolve the situation because they dont think they messed up. He explained that sometimes when you are working on a car you dont know what the real problem is until you begin working on it. What a ripoff. Never again will I take my car to Tire Kingdom. Let the whole world know they ripped me off. If anyone goes there make sure you have money because the estimate don't mean nothing to them the price can change at any time because they could have failed to recognize the full problem, it could be because there mechanic are paid based on a percentage of the total price of the job that they are doing and they want to get paid more money.

Anonymous
Tampa, Florida
U.S.A.