Complaint Review: Belle Tire

We took our 2005 Dodge Caravan to the Belle Tire location in Southgate, Michigan for an alignment.  When we arrived there, their mechanic told us the alignment could not done until $275+ in repairs had been completed.  We were a bit shocked at this extra charge, but NOT for the obvious reason. 

We called our normal mechanic who immediately came to Belle Tire.  I told the attendant / counter sales man that our mechanic was a friend and one of the mechanics took our mechanic out to the service bay and showed him the "damage" that had to be replaced.  Our mechanic came back to the counter / reception area where we waited.  We then told the attendant that our "friend" wasn't just our friend...he was our mechanic. 

We told the attendant that we KNEW the repairs were not necessary.  The attendant told us we didn't know what we were talking about.  We then divulged the fact that we knew the "repairs" weren't necessary because our mechanic had just done those exact repairs three days earlier. 

Our attendant told us they didn't appreciate being "set-up" and insisted our "repairs" were necessary.  We told him we didn't appreciate being ripped-off.  The attendant asked us to leave.

We immediately took our van to the area Firestone Store for an alignment.  We told Firestone nothing about what just happened at Belle Tire.  We asked if our friend could look around under the van after they had the van on a hoist.  They agreed.  Our mechanic went into Firestone's bay and asked the Firestone mechanic if the parts Belle Tire had just told us MUST be repaired really needed to be fixed / replaced.  His exact response was, "those parts are clearly brand new" and added "why would you want to replace new parts?"  We then told the Firestone mechanic what Belle Tire tried to pull and he laughed.

Belle Tire, you will NEVER get the chance to rip us off again.  You are crooks and liars.  Good riddence.