Awesome Goodyear staff!

[PepperElf]

First of all I'm in the doghouse for a bit. I didn't get rear brakes fixed and relied on the front only for too long. so, even though i had new pads n some new stuff on the front brakes they're not designed to take all of the abuse.

so the brakes finally went. my bf is paying the bill and i'm going to be saving up to pay him back.


but on the positive side... we took the car to the same place we always to - the local Gemini Goodyear. Thankfully it wasn't too far from where i worked... i just had to drive a little slowly, use my engine for braking, and refill the brake fluid once.


Things they did for us this time...

1) Gave me a lift home - even though it was over 20 MILES away. We'd dropped the car off sunday night and monday morning my BF dropped me off there on the way to work, so i waited about an hour for them to open... They checked it in, gave an estimate, let my bf apply for a ccard to make the payments easy, and ... then they realized i was stuck there until he got off of work.

instead of making me wait 7 hours or so they had one of the techs give me a lift home.

2) they did what they could to get the price down, recognizing that we were repeat customers, and former military (i'm a vet, bf is retired). granted it was a bit (which is why i'm in the doghouse for a bit) but they gave as much discount as they could.

and of course my brakes are all under their warranty for a year, yay.


and as a side note... the tech handling my car asked if I was from the north.

Me: Yes, upstate NY.
Tech: that explains it. (there was a bit of rust & salt damage to the bottom... from NY winter driving)



(in fact on the way down from ny to here we had to buy a new windshield wiper for the moving truck... the guy in the store claimed that the "winterized" ones with the rubber flap to push snow off "weren't made anymore"... which isn't really true. you can buy them up in the north where they get real snow.)


but now my car is happy and the brakes don't do weird things anymore. and i'll probably keep a spare bottle of brake fluid in the trunk just cos... it's already there. but i doubt i'll need it. the techs at this place do good work.

as my bf said "there are cheaper places but they do good work"

[Merriweather]

Having a mechanic you can trust is one of the most important things in life, I think. We've been lucky the last couple of places we've lived, to find a place right off. Where we are now, they're great. Decent prices, and they go a little extra to check out other things while it's there (and are up front about what they find that really needs doing, and what can easily be put off without risk). Have even told us it doesn't need something we think it did, and saved us money. And they offer free rides - we try not to take advantage of them, usually hubby takes the vehicle in, sets it all up, and I drive over and pick him up in our other vehicle. But now and then, we really need it and appreciate it. They've made us loyal customers, we won't go elsewhere even if we'd save a couple of bucks, and recommend them to anyone who asks.

[Teskeria]

It's more cost effective to go to someone who does it right the first time, and pay a little more for the quality work, than to go to someplace cheap and have to redo it at least once.
And when you find a good honest mechanic, you want to keep them a secret!