Midas ripoff West Seattle Very unprofessional Seattle Washington

So I take my 1999 Toyota Tacoma 4x4 up to Midas for a quote on a 60,000 mile service. The local Toyota dealer quoted my $440.00, so I figured Midas would come in 20% or so, less.

The manager\owner calls me an hour later and quotes me $773.27!! I laughed and told the gentleman I'd be up momentarily to pick up my truck.

I get to the shop 10 minutes later, and a technician is working on my truck, changing the oil. I asked the owner what the guy was doing since I hadn't authorized ANY work, I had only authorized a QUOTE.

The owner apologizes and agrees that no work was authorized. The technician comes into the lobby and is extremely aggitated when he is told that no work had been authorized.

He turns to me and asks me if I'm going to pay for an oil change! The owner interjects, and tells the technician to just finish the job and that he, the owner, would eat the cost since the work was unauthorized.

The technician stomps back to my truck to finish his unauthorized work. Well by now I realize the technician is mentally unstable, and quite frankly I don't want him anywhere near my truck.

So I keep a very close eye on the tech while he completes the oil change. In the mean time, the owner is calculating away, and out of the blue announces that he can match the Toyota dealer's price! Good God I think, are these guys insane?

They totally destroyed any trust, displayed behavior that was just creepy, and now they think I'm going to let them work on my truck??!!

I politely tell the owner that it's ok, thanks for the offer but I'm going to have the work done elsewhere. Now my truck is ready to roll, and the mentally unstable tech drives it around to the front door.

I go out to my truck to take posession of it, and as he climbs out, he DEMANDS that I pay for an oil change! I said, "excuse me?". He then tells me that authorized or not, I should pay for the oil change.

OK, now the dude has PI**ED me off. I tell him in no uncertain terms that NO WORK HAD BEEN AUTHORIZED, GET IT?! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?! I'm not going to pay for work that I did not AUTHORIZE.

Geezus. IDIOTS! What really pi**es me off is that the previous owner of that Midas franchise was TRUSTWORTHY. I had a couple of very good experiences there, and thought I could entrust my vehicles to someone other than my pricey dealer.

Bottom line, stay AWAY from that Midas franchise! I have a feeling that there will be tons of consumer horror stories generated there.

Alan
Seattle, Washington
U.S.A.