Hello MHC;

Yes, the dealerships will charge list price, and they will charge what the labor guide allows them to charge as far as time goes, in most cases. I have never seen one charge extra for a lifetime warranty though. I guess it can, and does happen.

Most of the time, the specialty shops charge a lot less for repairs in their area of specialization, such as brakes. It is too bad that you had a bad experience with Just Brakes, because you could have saved over 100 bux there. There are other shops out there that charge about 100 dollars to do the front brakes, such as Sears, Firestone, Goodyear, etc.

All of those shops, including Just Brakes, do mostly good work, or they wouldn't be abl to stay in business for long.

Here is an example of the price difference between a dealership and a specialty shop:

Dealer:

Labor to R & R front brakes................................1 hr........$65.00
Remove & Replace front rotors............................1/2 hr......33.00
Resurface front rotors.......................................1 hr.........65.00

Front pads.............................................. .....................$79.00

Shop supplies charge............................................ ...........10.00

Total labor............................................. ........2 1/2 hrs $166.00
Parts and supplies.......................................... ..................89.00

Total............................................. .............................$255.00


Specialty shop:

Replace front pads, resurface rotors, Lifetime warrany...........$99.99

The specialty shops don't, and usually can't compete with dealerships. They are too busy competing with the other specialty shop. They have to or they wouldn't stand a snowflake's chance in h*ll in the market.

It is too bad you had a bad experience with Just Brakes, or your mother could have saved a bundle of money. Of course, there are also those who won't take there vehicle to anywhere but the dealership for repairs.

Happy motoring,

Dan Harriman 84 F150 lwb
Orange, Texas

 

I am a little dumber after reading that.

 

I understand the additional charges when going through the dealers, and usually willing to pay for such. I'm more than willing to pay for quality parts & service, but at what point is going to a dealer a waste of money versus a specialty shop?

By the time we got the Nissan out of the shop yesterday, the bill was almost $800 (front pads, fuel filter, cv boot, idle adjustment & oil change). Told my mother I could have done this for nearly 1/2 the price, but she didn't consult me prior to agreeing to have all the work completed.

Well, it's not just me who has problems with Just Brakes, simply do a google search on Just Brakes complaints and tons of results will pop up.

Our example is in Oct. '07, I had the pads and rotors replaced, fluid flushed and calipers rebuilt. At the cost of roughly $500-$600. Not even a year later (Mar/Apr '08), the car was back in due to excessive squeal and pedal travel. They stated the calipers needed rebuilt (again), the brake fluid hose was clogged and rotors were starting to warp. Of course I wasn't there, but the wife agreed to pay something like $200-$250 for fixing the above. Then this summer (Jul/Aug '08) the car was back in for the same issues. They stated rotors needed turned, but there was very little life left and this would be the last turn before needing replaced, plus the calipers needed built again (3rd time in less than a year). Which we declined this service, I purchased new rotors and pads, installed myself and have been trouble free since. So in less than a year we spent nearly $1K for brakes on a 4yr old car. Which per the complaints on the net about Just Brakes, sound to be a very common theme with this company.

Just my history. Results may very, but I advise to be careful when selecting any specialty shop and watch out for the dealer mark ups.

 

The complaint you listed above is not uncommon with these places that charge 99.99 for a brake job.. More like a pad slap.. They use very low quality parts, alot of times have some kid doing the job and don't really re-surface the rotor they hit it with a "grinding wheel". I see it all the time.

My shop uses OEM quality or better brakes for every car that comes in. We replace the rotors, because by the time the rotors are turned they are at discard or very close. When you take metal off the rotor you remove some of its structural rigidity.

Alot of the new brake pads have such an agressive material to shorten stopping distance that they wear the rotor past discard anyway.

One more thing to consider. Your life depends on those pads. Do you want some one who was trained on your car and will use parts specificaly designed for your car working on it or do you want Joe Blows kid brother putting 9.00 white box pads on the car. They offer a lifetime warranty going on averages that most ppl trade their cars every 3 years.

My techs are dealer trained in each line that we work on. I don't bring in a Honda and give it to the VW tech.

I don't offer brake specials because of the high quality parts I use. I hope other shops that are worth their name feel the same way.

 

This is my experience and why I usually complete such services myself or thru the dealer.

Familiar with this issue with these supposed "lifetime" pads. The materials used are much more as you put it, aggressive, that the rotor life is diminished due to the pads being so much harder.

+1. Why I much prefer the dealer, or myself doing the work rather than some snot nosed kid. Usually keep my cars for quite a while, so the better service is always my preference than cost.

 

I have, unfortunately, seen both sides of this argument. I have worked as a tech and as an advisor and I have sacrificed some profit in order to work a deal with the customer. I have given up time on jobs and have talked techs into giving up a few tenths here and there, it sucks, but it helped the deal and won some repeat customers.

I have also seen shops straight up rip people off. A customer brings in a truck with a vibration. After the tech balanced the tires, rebuilt both diffs, and the transfer case the vibration was still there. I talked to the tech and found out that even though Ford had released a bulleting on the driveshafts he didn't check them. The back driveshaft was broken internally and cost $145 to repair it. I ran every warranty trick with Ford that I could to try to eat the cost and was still left with a $1500 bill. I refused to charge the customer for this. The service manager charged them $2000 for the services and never told the customer what fixed the problem. I was fired within a week.

 

11.17.08 was the last post, wow and you thought this thread had died eh? lol I will keep this short & simple, so to speak.
1) Each situation is as different as the person seeking service.
2) Workers are only as good as their Boss or managers
3) The society we live in today, do a favor for someone, accept $10 just because, that changes the favor into a business deal and you are now liable for a law suit, small claims or otherwise.
4) With the above said, (for a business), each service offered, all parts & labor mark up has to include $$ for possible damages. Such as brake job, if parts or labor goes wrong an accident with injuries & or death is possible, not to mention property damage. So something you can do for $50, a shop charges $300 to include the liability you would not have.
5) A shop has guidelines they have to follow as well, consider the things we allow that if a shop allowed, we would own the shop for doing so. You may understand & accept this or that not being done to save a few bucks & Ralph may as well, but While you would understand that in doing so tomorrow you may then have go ahead & buy what ever you did not in hopes of getting by a few more years, while Ralph goes back to the shop threatens a law suit if not re-done for free.
6) Mark up is needed for a business to survive & be here next week should you have to return for warranty work. Mark up is a price built to ensure a business is indeed a business & hopefully will be here for some time. If a business does not make a profit at the end of the day or can survive a slow day, one might as well take down that business sign.
7) Look at the friends in your life, 10 may be the best people ever, you may have one that is in your circle because he is a decent person, yet you know there is not a day goes by where he/she is not being ripped off, even if he/she wins the lotto, somehow they got ripped off and threaten a law suit, we all pay extra for this one person because each crowd has one of these people in it.
8) Warrenty is not free & goes back to # 6, mark up, depending on the use of a part the possibility of it going bad with in a period of time it has a higher mark up than another part.
8) I could go on & on but I will end it on this last note, the cost of doing business, business taxes & all the insurances needed to operate a business alone adds to mark up on parts & labor. The type of business plays a part in cost as well, specialy work or full service, determines the skilled workers needed costing more or less for these workers. And "if" a business is not competitive in prices they will not be in business long!
It is how they handle customer complaints & customer service as a whole, this also can refer back to # 2.

--=phew, see I kept it short, hahaha
Yes I could offer my bad experiences with dealers as well as service shops like many others here have. It is no fun whe you are the one i the situation of having paid good money and ended up with less than satisfactory work. But as you would like someone to look at you as a whole person before judging you, just please do the same towards a business & understand the true problem.

Thanks guys & for those who thought or was glad this post was dead, --=oops si daisy. The one who started this thread did have good intentions.
You could also look at this site, as great as it is, assure you they have had complaints, silly as they may be & even offering it for free to us, some, I bet cha, have had complaints.
Most do not even know or consider the cost to offer a site as this, I know I do not, but I totally appreciate this site being "Free", even though it is indeed a grea expense to others. And thank you to the builders & operators of this site!

 

Look, I don't have the time or inclination to read all the wordy posts. From my experience, I know that two different dealerships tried to rip me off before.

First, I had a Mazda B2300. Gas gauge inop. Went to the dealership and they told me they had to take the bed off, blah, blah, blah. $500.

I did it myself and all I had to do was drop the tank and change the fuel sending unit.

Second time, I took my wife's Nissan Altima to the dealership. AC inop. They told me blah, blah, blah. $740.

I went to a local repair shop to get a second opinion. He charged me $35 to blow out leaves from who knows where with compressed air.

This is my experience and there's no wordy mumbo-jumbo that's going to change my opinion of dealerships.


Wow, I didn't know the post was this old!

 

Same thang I wuz gonna say.

 

hahaha, yeah Arm, it was that old. No, not trying to change your opinion in any way, I was adding to the cost of doing business today & seriously with any business today, depending on liability of your business, cost of law suits is the first $$ added to overhead, sad eh? And in my opinion, auto dealers today are parts replacement shops. The more parts they replace the more money they earn.
ex: Took my Ford to a ford dealer, simple, new Ford motor swap out. IN doing so the guy pinched the wire harness. brought it back a # of times & each time charged me $300 plus for a new sensor. I ? this from the start as it never ran worth a crap from 1st trip out of shop. After the 3rd time I called the 1-800 # that comes with warranty info for the new motor, spoke with them, gave them the codes I was getting each time & listed new sensors I was being charged for. Over the phone with codes I gave, the guy stated, a wire harness had been pinched during the swap out, tell them & they should make needed corrections. I explained this to the service manager, they took it back in & did they listen? hail no. Charged me for yet another sensor, $300 plus. 2 days later, another cold drizzle and truck back to running like chit with CEL on. This time I went back and demanded to speak to the district manager or i was going to a lawyer. They wanted neither & this time offered to "give" me a rental car and go thru the engine install.
5 days later they called me to come i to pick up my truck. Once there, they were so happy to tell me they found a pinched wire harness, all fixed, no charge. I, hated to burst their bubble, but had to. I said why did you not do this over a $1000.00 back when I came in and said the Ford guy I spoke with on the phone told me this? Check my paper work, I insisted the Service Manager write this on it, they did & sure enough it was there. Did they pay me back, nope, sure wouldn't. I could have sued, but that is not me, I was just happy to have problem fixed, but it did cost me total between parts, labor & rental cars each time they kept the truck over a day just under $5,000, not tomention loss of work as I need my truck for work.
One time, they cost me a motor on my limo. going on a trip I had them give it a once over & change intake gasket, included in the request was to ensure all pcv filters be changed or cleaned. This Ford dealer did not know this Ford engine had a screen in the back of the intake that needed to be changed as well, (nor did I until after I bought a new engine), being clogged and ore so now they disturbed the top of the engine, even when I picked it up and drove 2 miles from dealer I had blown all my oil out of my dipstick, smoke liek the high hevans or cheek & chong at a free pot party. Returned right away, they stated it was my engine and coincidense this happened. Talking to a small service station mechanic after the new motor was installed, (used my same intake), and the same thing, oil blowing out my dipstick & them saying they are not responsible. While they still had the car trying to figure out the problem, I left this other service station & ran to the dealer, explained about the intake screen, they said no way it had one, only the pcv valve & they installed a new one. I took the service manager to my limo, opened the hood & with a hook the SS mechanic gave me, reach in & pulled out one clogged up, oil filled screen, started engin and no more blowing of oil! Was I reimburssed for my old engine, the new engine & labor cost? No I was not! I forget the thousands of dollars this one cost me, but it was not cheap. The service manager said "wow, that's a new one on us". talk bout something that makes ya want to slap someone... Yes, this was an actual Ford Dealer selling new ford mercury & Lincoln, my limo was a 48 inch stretch, gloss black, my baby! I think it was an '85 5.0, ole age & memory ya know.
Then a few more times this happened but only a few more times. Never gone back to a dealer, but I do not associate all to these 3 dealers I had bad experiences at. If we allow ourselves to do this to a dealer or service shop, we begin to do this in all walks of life & people as well. I still believe in people, service shops, dealers alike, just because that is who I am.
--=dern it, did I get wordy again?? ughhh, these dang fangers