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  • Report:  #424297

Complaint Review: Kauffman Tire - Tampa Florida

Reported By:
- Tampa, Florida,
Submitted:
Updated:

Kauffman Tire
5660 Waters Tampa, 33634 Florida, U.S.A.
Web:
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Stay away!!

I am an Honest ASE certified Technician and in 18 years of being in the business I've never seen such blatent thievery.I worked at this location for a very short time.Every customer that comes in for tires or an oil change gets the hard sell on an alignment.O.K. alignments are good if they are needed.it keeps your vehicle from wearing out the tires prematurely,and makes it handle on the road better.

BUT-the first thing you do when performing this service is check the front end for loose parts,like ball joints and tie rods.If it has loose parts an alignment cannot be performed-period.I had car after car with alignments,with bad parts,and after doing the check was told to just align them.They don't care if a vehicle is not safe,if the ball joints or tie rods are ready to separate and cause the vehicle to crash.They just want the $79.99 for the alignment because it is pure profit.They won't tell the customer about the bad parts because they will probably lose the profit from the alignment if the customer cannot afford to repair the vehicle.I was told that their rationalization of this was that the customer gets a warranty and if they fix the bad parts they can get it aligned for free.But they don't get an alignment when its purchased!

Each store has a "plan" or amount of gross profit they need to reach each day for the manager and salesman to get their bonuses.That's all they want here,to pad their paychecks.After bumping heads with the management about sending out vehicles that were unsafe,may even crash and kill someone,without even letting the customers know their vehicle was unsafe,I was fired.That didn't bother me because I really don't want to be associated with that kind of business.I have seen other techs pull cars in but never perform the services the customers were being charged for.Also selling unknowing customers services that they really didn't need just to boost the gross profits.

Brake jobs are another way they rip customers off.I was forced to machine rotors that were way to thin to be safely machined,making the vehicle unsafe.These rotors will warp very fast causing the vehicle to shake violently when the brakes are applied,or the rotors may break causing the brakes to fail completely!But they would rather take $159.99 for the brake job than tell the customer they need more parts, than lose the sale.I also was forced to change brake pads that were still in very good condition.Nothing wrong with them at all.Padding those profits!

None of the techs are certified,and it doesn't matter here,beacause you don't get what you pay for anyway.There are honest repair shops out there.I will find one to work at.In the meantime I am going to write a letter to the main office in Geogia and asked them if this is normal business for their company,Not that it will do any good!

Pissed off

Tampa, Florida

U.S.A.


1 Updates & Rebuttals

Thdarkknight

Guess,
Florida,
U.S.A.
the flip side

#2UPDATE EX-employee responds

Mon, April 20, 2009

As another former employee of this location I do have to say that there are always another side to a story. I have a good sense about what happens in that shop. The manager of that shop would never let a car leave if was not safe to drive whether it has low rotors. The manager of this location is one of the most customer minded managers I have seen in the business. You speak of the gross profit margins. The concern about the alignments and having loose parts. Hmmm there can be a degree of play in the front end of certian cars. Example the S-!0 series, and Astro series vans including the GMC counterpart. How many idler arms have you recommended for play... let's see there is a bulletin from GM stating that there is a tolerance for movement of about 1/2" either up or down. Lubing these arms will tighten them right up according to GM. Yes the customer gets a warranty on thier alignment and they are told about the issues seen with the front end and given an estimate and told the alignment is set as best as it could, and as an incentive the people up front will tell the customer if the repairs are done they will reset it for free under thier warranty. Lets go back to the brakes for a little bit. Depending on certian situations at hand and what may be going on each day i can tell you there may be reasons why they would rather turn a rotor or drum other than suggesting it and selling it to the customer... and this goes to what is happening up front once again... the recommendation is made to the customer and depending on how the conversation goes or depends on what has taken place up front will determine what happens in the shop. if you where told to turn them it has been done with the customer knowing that they are being turned. let me ask a question, if you are turning rotors to get rid of a noise in the brakes and if the pads have 50% life to them or less i will recomend the pads based solely on 2 reasons, 1. Customer Convienence (since we a putting a new surface on the rotors the pads allready have a wear pattern wore into them so by using the same pads will cause noises and excessive heat creating another customer inconvienence) 2. to extend the life of the rotors that have been turned. In this time and problems with the economy and in order to survive as a service writer and manager it is our job to get what we can sold on a car that is required to be done and do it to the best of our ability. From october to february the slowest time of the year for any auto repair shop so we take what we can take. So before you smear someones name all over the internet and accuse them of fraud you gatta look at the whole picture. I have to share something as far as how far these people will go to make sure a customer is happy. We had a Lincoln Aviator come in for an inspection for the struts and the complaint was that the truck bounced all over the road when it went over bumpy roads. I test drove the car and determined the rear struts have failed. We lifted the truck up on the back alignment rack and checked the struts and found the rears completely blown and fronts are starting to leak after the inspection was done the customer was given an estimate for the repair and wanted the truck backed out because it was something they wanted to discuss with thier spouse. I had one of the GS's back the truck out but it would not go out of park. The store manager looked at it and was trying to release the shifter. I was asked to look at the car and see if i could do anything about it. we then told the customer about this complication and like everyone else states "it wasnt like that when we brought it in here!!" we told her to get a ride and we would call you you when we got it repaired. so i continued to to work on it trying to release the shifter interlock soleniod, at that time the tech we had at the time come over and wanted to try working on it so i let him... he then tried it and he couldnt do anything with it as matter of fact it was made worse ( he broke the handle ), at this point we contacted the dealer and foud out the solenoid is part of the entire shifter assembly. Long story short the truck was taken to to northgate lincoln and repaired, also replaced the bezel surounding the shifter because we were blamed for that as well even though it was previously cracked (from someone fooling with it before) ( pre existing condition ) we reimbursed the customer by check for the repairs and then they had the struts done by us. moral of the above stated fact, in the event of an awww s__t, they will make it right. To those who read this that live in the Town and Country area I assure you that you can feel safe leaving your car there for any service you need.

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