TiresPlus? Oh-No!

[heimue]

I bought a new set of outer tie-rods for the Manta, and first I tried to take the old one's out without having the special fork tool. Didn't work. Well, I didn't want to buy that tool just for doing this once every blue moon on a different Opel, so I thought I go to TiresPlus and have them replace my tie-rods, since the front end needs to get aligned anyway. First disappointment: "We do not mount customer-supplied parts. Its company policy." I told him they are no longer available in stores, and after making three phone calls he agreed with me. It took him another 2 calls to get it approved by the company headquarters, to put in the parts in this case. He didn't know how much to charge me however, and I was under time pressure anyway. He wanted to find out and call me (yeah, right). He never looked at the tie-rods. On my way home I checked with Kauffman tire, they don't have those stupid policies, and after somebody actually looked under the Manta, I was told it would cost me around 100 bucks (give or take a few) for replacing them, and the standard rate of 69.95 for the alignment.
A week later I thought I had waited long enough for the TiresPlus call, and called them myself. I was told it would be 89.95 for the replacement ("or more or less", that's what he said!), and whether I wanted the 6-month ($69.95) or the 3-year ($129.95) alignment? Well, is the one better than the other? No, but it has a longer warranty... I told him I'll be right over. Its just in the neighborhood of my office, so I drove straight there. He entered everything in his computer, I was about ready to show him where reverse is on my car , then he said that will be "$ 249.85 including the 6-month alignment, plus taxes" . Well, if I learned something in school, then that this is wayyy too much. It turned out he wanted to sell it to me now for 89.95 (or more or less) per side! He said he needed at least 1 1/4 hours per side for replacing them, times $ 75 per hour, and he can't give it to me for less (so it is only "or more, but not less" now?). He was not the friendliest of mechanics/salesmen anyway. I walked away, got a fork tool for $ 10 at O'Reilly, went home and replaced the tie-rods myself. I didn't use any power tools since I was doing it in my garage, I was just too lazy to make room in the basement (where all my tools are). Including about 5 trips down to the basement to get the right tools, including the use of a small aluminum jack and a muscle-powered lug wrench, including telling this story to my wife, cleaning up the garage and washing my hands I needed 45 minutes - for both sides. And I didn't even hurry. Guess who will not make my wheel alignment? Definitely not TiresPlus!

Dieter

BTW - Thanks a lot to OpelGTSource for the great service with delivering the tie-rods! The Opel community would not be the same without you!

[vikesman101]

Dieter

Are you talking about removing the tie rod taper fitting to the hub? If so, I always use a 5 pound hammer and hit the hub on the outside of the taper while applying pressure to the tie rod. It has never failed me even when the old "pickle forks" didn't work. If that was not what you were referencing then I apologize in advance as I know you are a very competent mechanic.

Tom
71 GT
72 GT
73 GT
98 Catera (Omega)

[jlthunder]

Dieter

Remember, they sell tires as their main business, not auto repair. I saw them charge $10.00 to change a rear tail VW light bulb(.99 cent bulb) to a customer.

If you can't do it yourself, then go to your trusted independent mechanic. He will be up front and charge you the proper amount based on Time and Materials. Since he is an independent, he will do the job right or he will lose trust from his customers. No trust = no customers.

Chain stores don't care about trust. They want to work on the daily drivers so they can get them in and out as quickly as possible. That is just my 0.02 for the day.

I'm glad it worked out for you.

Jeff

[heimue]

Originally Posted by vikesman101 Dieter Are you talking about removing the tie rod taper fitting to the hub? If so, I always use a 5 pound hammer and hit the hub on the outside of the taper while applying pressure to the tie rod.

Tom,

that's exactly what I was talking about. I've done it your way before, on a Commodore B (in Germany), and you should have heard me cursing replacing the part with the inside taper on the hub...

Dieter

Originally Posted by jlthunder ... go to your trusted independent mechanic. He will be up front and charge you the proper amount based on Time and Materials. Since he is an independent, he will do the job right or he will lose trust from his customers. No trust = no customers.

Jeff,

the "problem" I'm having: people come to me as their independent mechanic, even knowing that I actually am no mechanic at all. Just a car nut. Nowadays they don't even bring a sixpack anymore, since they discovered that my fridge is full and I even offer them a free drink... ( again).

edit: PLEASE don't misunderstand: I always love to help out buddies and fellow Opelers, so keep coming. And I always like to share my reserve on adult beverages. They taste a lot better this way!!!

Dieter

[guyopel]

Dieter sounds like we need to have an alignment party.LOL I hate it when simple goes pig-dog ugly !
You would have had trouble with them as soon as they input you car info. into their machine for specs. not find them or input the wrong ones.
John

[DennisGardiner]

[QUOTE=heimue; 89.95 for the replacement ("or more or less", that's what he said!), .... I walked away, got a fork tool for $ 10 at O'Reilly, went home and replaced the tie-rods myself.

Dieter

[/QUOTE]

Yup, the average shop, chain store, etc. does not give me much confidence!!

The average mechanic scares me. And I used to be a shop foreman!!

Most shops I would not even trust to change the oil filter on my Opel, Ford or Buick!

But the cost of $75.00 the hour, at 2.5 hrs. for two "simple" Opel tie rods swaps!? I though the person who told me $280.00 to replace 4 shocks was nuts!

[wrangler]

I totally agree Jeff (jltunder), chain automotive stores only care about the bottom line and their profitability. On a road trip through W Va I had an alt go out on me and unfortunately, I had taken out my automotive tools before the trip. Thus I was at the mercy of Pep Boys and their then (1999) $69/hr labor rate. They charged me $80 to replace the dumb thing! For a 5 minute job ( I know this is how long it takes because i got to do it twice myself in the following 6 months due to the garbage alt).
The other benefit of tackling a job like tie-rods is the learning experience. I was scared to try taking on wheel bearing on my trailer, but when I found no one in town said they could even get to it for 2 weeks, I was left with no choice. And though it was a bit of a pain doing it for the first time, it wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it would be. Also taught me that I need to grease my bearing more often!

[namba209]

Originally Posted by jlthunder If you can't do it yourself, then go to your trusted independent mechanic. He will be up front and charge you the proper amount based on Time and Materials. Since he is an independent, he will do the job right or he will lose trust from his customers. No trust = no customers. Jeff

I'll have to reiterate what Jeff said. You all remember the "Bolt From Hell" on Willit?'s upper A-arm. I took the whole suspension beam to a local independent shop. Three days later they called me to come and get it. They removed the bolt, with a lot of heat, beating, penetrant, swearing, and a 20 ton hydraulic press. Total cost to me was $20. If you're a "regular" they'll treat you right.

[wrangler]

Originally Posted by namba209 Total cost to me was $20. If you're a "regular" they'll treat you right.

Ahh... well, then there lies my problem because I am more often refered to as 'irregular'!

[jlthunder]

Originally Posted by wrangler Ahh... well, then there lies my problem because I am more often refered to as 'irregular'!

They have medicine for that I like the work "unique" better

[jlthunder]

Originally Posted by heimue Tom, the "problem" I'm having: people come to me as their independent mechanic, even knowing that I actually am no mechanic at all. Just a car nut. edit: PLEASE don't misunderstand: I always love to help out buddies and fellow Opelers, so keep coming. And I always like to share my reserve on adult beverages. They taste a lot better this way!!! Dieter

I fully understand. I think 99% of us are in this boat. I am willing to teach what I have learned as long as the other party is willing to learn and visa versa. I love helping people out but if I'm being taken advantage of, then my tune changes quickly. Luckly, that hasn't happened with Opels.

[opelspyder]

Tires Plus is a chain of like stores that do strive on training their employees that to make more money in the business, you have to do some creative selling techniques. Like selling balljoints on a new car. When you get the free alighnment check, they will find that your tierods you might have purchased a month ago, need replacement to do a proper alighnment.
Nothing else needed to say
Keith

[officertyo]

I will first start by saying im sorry you ran into a problem with a tiresplus. I can not speak for other stores but i work for tiresplus just outside of tampa FL and most likly you just ran into a store under poor managment.

I have only been working for tiresplus for alittle under a year but i have 13 + years in this field of work with years of school and 30k worth of tools and 11 ASE ceritfcations to back me up. Tiresplus is owned by brigdestone/firestone and i cant say that this is the best company i have worked for but at least at the store i work at we are not there to rip custmours off.

There are reasons why there is a policy about installing customer parts. insurance reasons and liabilty reasons. Regardless if most of you dont like it most every auto repair shop has this policy. Its just like you bringing your own steak to any steak house and asking them to cook it for you. You dont do that and it doesnt make it ok if you do, even if you buy the rest of the meal. But that also said in some cases like yours where parts for our cars are very hard to come by, the manger of that tiresplus should have just charged you how long it would have been to install them. If that guy behind the counter had any clue about cars then he would of known that these cars are not very common and parts would be very hard to find. But thats where the bad mangement comes in.

And this goes out to jlthunder. Just because the word "TIRES" is in the name TIRESPLUS doesnt mean the main source of buissness is tires. you couldnt be more wrong. Most of our buissness is in services like oil,flushs and things of the like. And it is against the LAW (local and fedreal) to sell unneed parts or services to customer. period. When any of you can step out of being a shade tree mechanic and do this for a living with any of the skills most master mechanics have, you will understand how and why this works the way they do.

[jlthunder]

Originally Posted by officertyo I will first start by saying im sorry you ran into a problem with a tiresplus. I can not speak for other stores but i work for tiresplus just outside of tampa FL and most likly you just ran into a store under poor managment. And this goes out to jlthunder. Just because the word "TIRES" is in the name TIRESPLUS doesnt mean the main source of buissness is tires. you couldnt be more wrong. Most of our buissness is in services like oil,flushs and things of the like. And it is against the LAW (local and fedreal) to sell unneed parts or services to customer. period. When any of you can step out of being a shade tree mechanic and do this for a living with any of the skills most master mechanics have, you will understand how and why this works the way they do.

OK, When the name of business is "Tiresplus", the first thing that comes to my mind is Tires. I understand that they perform other items as you mentioned above. I think that this particular store exceeded their area of expertise but did not want to admit it. This leads to bad feelings to all of the other stores with the same name but that is the risk of being part of a chain. Yes, there are good mechanics at these chain stores, but you never know who will be working there compared to your trusted independent mechanic who knows your car.

Here is an example of how they can't even do tires correctly.
I got a set of performance tires at a "Tiresplus" for my daily driver and the front rims tend to get stuck to the Hub. I usually raise the tire off of the ground an inch or so and tap the tire from opposing sides with my feet to get it loose. It works everytime. When I took it to "Tiresplus", an older gentleman was wailing on the tires, from behind, with a sledgehammer. Is this standard equipment in a mechanic's tool box?? By the time I got to the manager to tell him to stop, he got the tire off. To no surprise, one new front tire leaked air from day one. I came back but was turned away because they were "too busy" working with customers. I guess I was no longer a customer since I had already paid my bill. I had to come back another day and they put in a new valve stem and slapped sealer around the bead. The tire was fixed, but they used the shot gun approach.

Yes, I'm a shade tree mechanic because I enjoy working on cars. I've been working on Opels for over 25 years now and I enjoy learing new things. I have seen the damage a PO can do to a car. Anytime anything goes wrong with any of my or my wife's cars, I can usually pinpoint it, talk to the mechanic, and 95% of the time, I'm correct. If it is beyond my abilities or I don't have time, it goes to the mechanic.

This will, hopefully, be my last response to this thread.

Jeff