recently bought 4 shaved Firestone SZ50's over the Internet. Saturday morning I took them to a Firestone retail center at Six Flags Mall in Arlington Texas to be installed. I thought my car would be well cared for at a national chain, but read on. I dropped the car off a little before 9:30 am. The sales person told me it would be 3-4 hours to mount & balance my tires. I called at 12:45 pm and was told 2 more hours. I got there about 3 pm and they had just pulled the car in. About 15 minutes later the manager (Gary) came over and sternly said he was missing an attachment for his tire machine and he would not be able to do this work. He then turned around and walked away. I went and asked if anything could be done, either getting the part from another store or arranging to squeeze me in at another store. Gary rudely replied no and once again walked away without a care about my situation. I had prepaid for an autocross today and the new tires were much needed. While the mechanic put my wheels back on the car I went inside and asked the counter guy for the number to a regional office. He went into the back and didn't come out. After the stock wheels & tires were back on my car, I went and found Gary and asked for his boss's number. He told me to leave right now. Well I got a little loud at this point and my intention was to alert other waiting customers to my situation, plain and simple. He once again told me to leave and I left. When I got out yo my car I noticed that the mechanics had leaned on the quarter panel when pulling out my tires out of the hatch and had scratched the black paint presumably with a rivet on his pants. I knew going in to complain was futile. It was after 3:30 pm now, 6 hours later and nothing but a paint blemish. I drove to the Grand Prairie store on Jefferson. On the way in I asked one of the employees if they were closing because he was rolling in a rack of tires. He said soon. I went in, asked for the manager, and explained the situation. I simply wanted the number to a main office and the name of a regional supervisor. The manager was very helpful and actually pulled the car in and did the work. I was very impressed by this. When I got home I washed the car and tried to wax out the scratch to no avail. I had asked that the two good tires that were on my car be placed in the hatch (the fronts had 18.5K miles and many races, the rears had 4K miles and one event). When I got home I had one good tire and one bald tire. I had planned to use them as front tires on my Formula 350, but if they don't still have it tomorrow I'm going to have to buy 2 more tires. I emailed Firestone about this problem and clearly told them I do not want anything from them other than an apology from Gary the manager. I simply wanted to make them aware of this problem.

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87 Formula 350 14.61@94.07
98 Z28 1LE 13.15@107.59

Take Gary outside. Explain to him, how you and his wife are having a hot affair. Make it seem realistic.......

I am also from grand prairie. I have had simalar bad experiences with that store. They really messed up my sisters car and jerked her around. Is gary the old guy that watches the front counter? Mean SOB! I was wondering where you AutoX? They only place I have heard about is a track in Grandbury, TX. It's a hundred bucks for a full day of racing.

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1989 GTA TRANS AM
305 TPI, 5 SPD
SWAPPING TO TPI 350 NEXT MONTH.

firestone is aweful, the very worst tire/general matenance chain on the face of this earth, all locations, not just yours.. i remember one time i took my camaro in to get a muffler, midpipe, and two tailpipes, they refused to give me an estemate without pulling the car in and looking, after i was informed the total would be in the 500 dollar range i exclaimed, nevermind, gimmie my car.. well that didnt go over too well, my car still on lift i was told to come inside and sign the estamate stating they didnt do any work, that i did not want the job done.. they let my car down, and enraged i procede to leave to find my steering drastically out of alignment (tires squeeling at like 15mph in parking lot, pulling like a mother) so i park it and go back in and proceed to explain the situation loudly in front of a roomfull of waiting customers, i was confronted my the manager that came outside with me acting all nice and courteous, soon as we were outside he was the biggest *****, looked at my tires and claimed his personal couldnt of done it, when i pointed out the yellow paint on the INSIDE sidewall of my tire from the lift i was told to leave before he called the police.. i took the car down the road and had it realigned (it was out11 degrees) and had my exhaust work done too, the total, including alignment was only 200 some bux.. well all said and done a month later what do i get in the mail, but a charge on my firestone card of 32.50 +tax, i called up the card center, they looked it up, and found it was a flat "rack" rate.. apparently firestone doesnt give free estimates.. so i refuse to pay my bill, get all kinda late charges.. call my lawyer who is a friend of the family.. he makes 2 phone calls, one to the store, one to the card center, and within a week my balance was nill and i recieved a card from firestone for a free alignment.. hehehe needless to say, never in my life will i ever deal with such a ****ty company..

That sound very familiar to a tireshop that i work for, ironically im located in Grande prairie canada :P
They try and pull that **** with people all the time, Gary sounds exactly like a guy that works at my shop as well. too weird.
After seeing all the **** they pull (even ripped ME off) i just sent in my letter of resignation.
It's a good thing your aware of such things, whats realy scary is you get elderly people in there, and they tell them anything, rack up a 1000 dollar bill for a 30 dollar fix, that really bothers me.

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1982 Camaro Z28
"Vortec 305"
-KIA
Project "VortecZ"
rebuilt 355, GM 9.5:1 pistons, GM Vortec crank
GM L31 Vortec heads, Competition xtreme energy cam, edelbrock Perormer rpm vortec, edelbrock 750 carb, dynomax shorty headers, accel ignition, bosch platniums,edelbrock ProFlo aircleaner, Flowmaster 3 chamber exhaust, Richmond 3.73 rear, rebuilt dif, rebuilt 700r4, modified shifter, homade ramair, factory fiberglass hood,
and some other stuff

"if its broke, dont fix it. just replace with it's high performance equivalent." -Me

I can relate to your problem, Chuck..... I had a similar experience with our local Goodyear store once..... which is probably why it isn't in business anymore.

As for Firestone, my local dealer that I use is not a company-supported store, but a independent dealer who treats me the same no matter what brand of tires I buy. So in that way, I'm lucky.....

We do have one "company" Firestone store here in town...... and they're the biggest rip-off artists in three counties. Good luck to you and hope you get it straightened out to your satisfaction.

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Frankie Rider, 2
The GTA Source Page
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1988 GTA Red 5.7L Hatchback
1988 GTA Black 5.7L Notchback
1988 GTA Gunmetal Metallic 5.0L Hatchback

Hate the chains...I think the ONLY way to get good service in a place like that is to find (and every now & then you'll find one) a manager that will let you get out there & work with the guys on it. Got a lifetime alignment with Firestone. Wasn't ever happy with it. Finally got out there with the guys and boy, they really worked it over - made it right as rain!

Still wasn't happy with it though (imagine!). Brought it home, cut the tower slots longer & pulled the strut dust cover, took a 2x4 & a level to the wheels, put tick marks on the towers, eyeballed the toe-in via rear wheels, and man - it's been nice! Rock steady, perfect steering center, perfect wear... Haven't been back since.

How are the tires for you, though? I have a set, like 'em a lot!

This thread is deviating a little from “Tech Only” so I am closing it.

Thanks for your understanding.