I don't think I am. Firstly, I am not that rich. Or if I am, I didn't know about it.

Least I didn't quit my day job to be comedian.

 

you can't group all shops togather just because they are part of the same chain.. but you know what I mean.. why would anyone do something like that for a HUGE profit of $10.. if it were me I'd rather just fix what's actually wrong and earn the customers trust and have him come back when he needs something fixed again.. There's much more profit in return business than making a quick $10 off of something so stupid..

 

Lets talk history for a minute. 10 years ago. Remember the big rush to fix Y2K? WTF? We knew about it 20 years ago. Nobody fixed it then because the IT Chiefs didn't want to wreck their budget when they don't know where they will be in 99. Same here. People are so mobile today, they don't know where they will be in 4-5 years. So, today, it is about the quick buck NOW. IOW, Screw earning trust. I want to show a good quarter.

 

I disagree. They are all structured the same. They are all under corporate pressure. They take your money and get you out the door as fast as possible to take the next fools money. That's how they operate unlike some of the smaller local shops. Some people may not have had bad experiences but it's only a matter of time. IMO

 

Firestone here in Cartersville was (I said was) an exception. The service manager and assistant both have Vettes, plus they have 5 ASE master techs. They treated me great, got some very special deals, etc. Unfortunately the SM and his assistant both moved back to Colorado so my 'preferred shop' is no longer preferred. They still have an excellent reputation, I just rarely need any outside help.

 

I went to Firestone in North Phoenix Az to have the tires on my 86 balanced.
The manager took my information, and told me they wouldn't be able to get to it for approx. 4 hours, and that I should leave the key in it and park it on the street. Since they were the MAJOR business in the area, it wouldn't be bothered............HAH fat chance.......I told him to review his practice of leaving keys in cars, and he said they have so many cars go through there they can't keep the keys straight, so they leave the keys in the cars.
I left with my car, and never went back.
That was on a saturday. On the next Tuesday, there was a ditty in the newspaper about 3 cars stolen from the local FIRESTONE DEALER!!!!!

 

I was unfortunate enough to get caught in a downpour, and parked too close to a lightpole anchored in a 55 gallon drum full of concrete.
I started the car, and proceded to slowly go forward with the wheel in a left turn.
I hit the barrel dead on with the tire, just the tire sticking out of the fender enough so that the tread hit the barrel.
I took the car home, and found that the outer tie rod was bent. I changed the left outer tie rod, and the wheel still pulled to the left. I had the car aligned, and they said that the caster was way off, and it was not adjustable. I bought a book on the car at auto zone, and sure enough, no procedure to change caster.
I looked at the lower control arm, it looked a little tweaked, and so I changed it.
I took it back, and it was dead on. I believe certain people.

 

I think the "I's" have it!!



Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

I will NEVER EVER let ANYONE WORK on my VETTE, and heres why a few stories(quick ones ) that happened while I was out of the country.

Wife goes in to have tail light fixed they charged her $200 and said they had to pull bumper cover (what, I never had to he must have been obesely fat in the forearms) so I get back in a few months later and realize that half the torx screws are missing from the rear bumper cover Passenger fender flapping loose. (I fix myself shop denies liabilty)

Out of town again wife has tranny problem goes to see wtf is going on (slave needed replaced) Shop tells her you need a new Clutch and the tranny is shot we will see if we can find you a replacement (wanted to stick a 4 plus 3 back in car charge her a core because the bad tranny is not oem and keep the bad tranny) luckily she pulls the car out of there right away (wife knew tranny was Tremec and almost new told him G F yourself I'm not like most women and know a little more then most men about cars) so it gets towed to uncles place he rebuilds slave and bleeds it car drives like new.

Once again out of town wife feels bad vibration in rear of car, Shop says u-joint, do repair for reasonable amount. 2 weeks later I come home car sounds different reason Borla exhaust missing replaced with crappy OEM mufflers, confront shop (owner has C4 with Borla exhaust) funny same scratch on left pipe just like mine. He lies says I'm full of SH#t and that he did not take my exhuast, since I have no proof I am out exhaust.

So my experience is if ya want it done right do it yourself to many shops tax Vettes and High end cars and Upsell to women, most are predators like the A-hole wanting to replace my Tremec with a Doug Nash and keep the tremec for himself

Luckily for me a good friend owns an Autosalvage company and I take my tires there and he mounts them and balances for a case of beer, been this way for years, learned the hard way when I lost my front tire pulling out of discount years ago

Taking a regular commuter in for service is one thing but when it comes to a Vette your just better off to do it yourself

And anyone can, I learned thanks to my dad how to pretty much do it all myself when I got my first car (77 Camaro) he refused to fix it the first time it broke down, instead he went to town and bought me a manual on Camaros and said here figure it out, a few hours later he came out with some helpful hints and got me going in the right direction but I have never looked back since

 

WOW! I'd have probably spent more money getting out of jail than the new exhaust would cost after some bs like this.

 

Not trying to hi-jack this thread, but Hey Aklim: where in Madison is there a GM specialist you would trust? I'm in Belleville and I've been taking my recently purchased 92' to Ballweg Chevy for any/everything thus far that I can't or won't install myself. They seem to have done OK, but I'd love to find a C4(LT1) "specialist". Heard there were a couple shops in Milwaukee area but thats a bit far. And yes, planning on new Opti/water pump sometime in the future!!!!

 

I take it you didn't have an original receipt for the exhaust. I would have tried to take it to the police first and if not..

 

...

 

Not sure. The two good ones I had at Thorstad have gone so I am looking around again.

 

Thanks, Man. I was thinking of asking the guys at Mad City Vette club, but I have yet to attend a meeting to do so. My bad. If you spot a dark red metallic 92' around town, it's probably yours truly! Ran up on a red C5 coupe and a red 88" vert(white top) on Mineral Point road at 11:00am today. Nice days will do that!

 

Thinking of going to the club meeting one day myself. So far, for technical advice I either call LPE or Brian at Hitechmotorsport. They did tune my car and do some diagnostics on it before.

 

I had a shop charge me abit extra for mounting/balancing tires since the wheels were larger than normal cars. 18x8.5 and 19x10's...vette wheels. They dont normally do 295/30/19 tires so they charged extra. Not sure if thats the proper thing to do but they told me they'd take extra care with it so it would cost a few bucks more

 

i took my 87 last year to different body shops,i wanted to know the cost of paiting,so i went to 4 different body shops,they all said..ok we'll email you the quote,or call you back,NOT EVEN A SINGLE ONE !!!!!!!!!!!!
They were afraid..i donno what's on their minds when they see the Corvette !!!!!

 

Honestly knowing the way the Vette crowd is in general Id never touch one either. No offense guys..

 

had the original ebay reciepts and paper work for the exhaust (filed a police report but nothing was ever done)

As for fighting not worth the headache, though revenge came in a better form friend of mine owns Automotive Supply store and cancelled his account, another friend of mine was called to some repairs on his building (oops cost more then he thought it would) and OOPS another friend Pulled his business from him (fleet of about 45 trucks) and told him WHY

Better leaving it to KARMA to settle the score (really wanted to kick his butt but I think word of mouth did worse to him then I could have)