Complaint Review: Firestone Complete Auto Care

I took my car to Firestone to get the window fixed. It wouldn't roll up. I have a credit card with them and up to this point the balance was almost paid off. They fixed the door and the next day while driving on the freeway, the hood flipped open. My 5 year-old son was in the back seat and got to hear my surprised cursing.

It happened in a lucky spot. I got the car pulled over, put the hood back down and went on my way.
They fixed the hood for free. I took a look at the invoice. I was charged for an inspection I did not authorize. If they hadn't done the hokey, unauthorized inspection, they wouldn't have popped the hood in the first place.
All they had to do was get my window back to where it could roll up and down. Pleased that they repaired the hood for free and feeling fortunate that my son and I survived instantaneous vision obstruction at 70 miles an hour, I just decided I would not go back.
One year later, I am driving the same car and I notice that it sounds pretty rough up front. A friend of mine who is an excellent mechanic had told me that I would need to replace the front axles soon. Well, the car started sounding really bad. Imagine driving over millions of aluminum cans.

I took it in and they charged me $500 to replace the front axles. I would have given my friend the work, but he lives two hours away and the car didn't sound like it would make it that far. So, they charged me $500 for two axles (retail at about $80 a piece) and labor and set me on my way. An average mechanic can easily do that job in one hour.
So, that's a lot of money.
But that's not what has me writing this.
After $500, the car sounded exactly the same.

I asked why and they said they replaced the axles but the wheel bearings needed replaced and only a dealership for my brand of car could do that.
I called around asking a few different garages if they could do it and was told by several mechanics that any shop that couldn't do that should close their doors.
I should have returned to this garage.
I went there because I had a Firestone credit card and I had my back against the wall financially. Who among us can come up with $500 on the spot when their car pukes inconveniently?
By the time I got my car to a different garage, the car was absolutely terrifying to drive. It would act like I hit a major rut every few blocks and bounce me not entirely out of my lane, but definitely off course. I was going 20 m.p.h. and the car sounded like it would tear in half at any moment.

I explained to the manager at that garage that I went to Firestone but wasn't happy about it. I told him I needed the bearing replaced and he told me that they would drive the car and then diagnose the car and not just throw the parts and jobs at the problem.
I would be more than happy getting overcharged for parts and labor if they seemed to give a crap. Before and after a garage works on a car, they should test drive the car. Instead, they hurriedly replaced the parts, charged me for it, and put me back on the road in a car that was definitely not improved for the repairs.

Originally, when I told them that the car sounded no different, they said that it was probably snow and ice. My car spent two hours in a heated garage before the work was even done and any snow and ice would have been melted by the time they were done.
In fact, the car regressed from poor to dangerous in less than a week after they soaked me for the $500.
So, it seems to me that a lot of people like to blame the economy for what goes wrong these days.
I don't know about that.

What is wrong these days is when a garage takes your car, lifts it up, holds it for ransom because you don't know how to fix a car, shoot you a figure that you have to pay before you can get back on the road and ignore actually making the car drivable again.
This isn't a complete car care station. This is an outfit that wants as much money for as little effort or attention to detail as possible. A strong sales pitch makes a better employee for them than a competent mechanic. And this isn't isolated to one garage. The hood incident happened in a Des Moines garage and the axle incident took place at their West Des Moines location.
Does it occur to Firestone that if they charged less, did more competent work and kept me working, they could get the one thousand dollars that I have spent in more trips but in the same time frame?

If they wouldn't have bungled the window repair, I would have went back. If they wouldn't have been so expensive for the axle repair, I would consider going back for oil changes, radiator flushes, brake jobs and whatever else my car needs.
They could have made me happy if they would have noticed that their $500 repair bill didn't actually fix my car. It seems to me that they would rather circle a carcass to get as much out of it as they can before there is no money left instead of actually keeping a car and customer operational and running.

At this point, I can't afford another car repair. Having spent my credit limit at both Firestone garages, if my car breaks down now, I am out of options. Out of options means no more money to spend at this third rate chop shop.
So, if anyone tells me that they need their car worked on, I tell them to avoid Firestone like the plague.
Maybe they should just stick to tires.