TM
Trent McOmber
6 days ago
My apologies for the wall of text. TLDR at the bottom if you don't want to read it all.
I have never experienced the levels of disgruntled unprofessionalism, gaslighting, and general disdain for the customer as I have at this shop.
I took my Infiniti M45 in for an alignment and was told it needed upper and lower tie rods. I usually do not let others work on my car, but I decided to take a chance as they offered to redo the alignment for free once the work was done. I was also told I'd get a 15% discount on this order.
The day comes around when I take the car in to have the job performed. The receipt was extremely vague and the 15% discount I was promised was not on there, but I was told the job was more difficult than expected, and they claimed to add some other discount on there, so I paid it and went on with my day.
2 weeks later, I was doing an oil change on my car when I took a look at the boots for the new tie rods. They were covered in tape and some sort of grease (or JB weld, or something. I'm not sure, regardless, it wasn't there before the work was performed and it is now.)
This didn't sit right with me, why would I replace some parts and then botch a fix for the boot to cover said brand new parts? And on top of this, absolutely none of this was communicated to me. I called them on the way home and asked what happened, the employee was confrontational and basically told me "there's no liquid in a tie rod, it can't possibly be related." I told him the boot has obviously been tampered with in some way, and I want them to look at it.
After bringing my car down yet again and waiting about 90 minutes, they called me to tell me the steering rack had a small leak, which was causing the boot to be wet. I was aware of the steering rack leak and knew it was minor, so I asked why there was tape and grease on the boot. Eventually the manager told me they had cut my OEM boots to replace the tie rods, and simply taped them back together instead of replacing them. He told me there were no boots in stock, which is why they didn't replace them. He also made sure to tell me he didn't charge me for boots.
My concern is not a word of this was communicated to me. And why would I want a botched boot that's supposed to be protecting my new parts? They offered to put new boots on for me for only the cost of parts, and said it would be $70 per boot. They're $40 a pop straight from Infiniti, so I have no idea where the hell they're getting that price. I told them I would consider my options.
Today, when I called, I got who I believe was the main store manager and he was extremely rude and confrontational. I asked if I could provide my parts and they install them (even though I shouldn't have to pay for something THEY CUT OPEN), and he laughed at me and accused me of trying to get free parts and labor out of them for nothing. This is post being offered the exact same deal the previous week, so it caught me off guard how hostile he was about it. He also told me this is a normal practice, resealing the original boot. I have never ever heard of this being the case. Every time I speak to the store, I am told different information.
So now I'm left with two options, pay $140 to have this store replace something that they sliced open on my car (and are worth $90 straight from the dealer, mind you), or do it myself. Completely unacceptable, I wonder if they would've done the same on their personal vehicle.
The most frustrating part of this to me is that I never even would have known if I didn't do work on my own car. Any normal person would have just had boots that are not up to standard, which could cause a premature failure of the parts I paid to replace. Just a ridiculous issue that didn't have to be anything more than a phone call, but Tire Choice refuses to take ownership.
TLDR: Had tie rod ends replaced, the shop sliced the boots open and "repaired" them with tape without communicating any part of this to me, and are expecting me to front 2x the cost of parts to fix their botched repair. Do not take your car here.