Complaint Review: Meineke

I spent 7 months between November, 2004 and May, 2005 attempting to have my brakes fixed. The Meineke shop charged me over $1,000.00 during that period. Finally the brakes appeared to function though not perfect after 7 months. During that period, I lost many vacation days sitting at their store from opening to close. At one point, they even plugged the rear brakes and I drove a while with only front brakes. Then they used teflon tape to fix a brake fluid leak they had created on a rear disc brake caliper. Of course, it still leaked and needed constant re-filling for months. This prompted me to write Meineke Corporate and I sent a certified letter to Ken Walker, CEO. I had also sent several emails and made phone calls to the Meineke corporate office.

My vehicle is a 1986 TransAm and hasn't been driven much since that time. Last week I drove it to work to keep the battery charged. Three miles down the road I saw smoke and discovered my driver's side caliper was on fire with 5 inch flames. I know this is a firebird but I can do without the fire! I put out the fire with some windex and tried to get my car to a gas station nearby. Just as I arrived, the brake light came on. I again needed to get water and put out the fire. The rotor was glowing red. The caliper had let lose so I drove it down the street to the Meineke thinking they would certainly repair this at no cost. I was very wrong.

After 3 days it was not resurrected. Instead they said the car would be ready and I waited several hours for it only to find a glowing brake light, spongy pedal, and no working emergency brake. The manager was trying to charge me $355.00 before I had investigated the repair. He specifically quoted me $303.10 including tax as a final price earlier during a phone call. Now he says the front caliper has a stripped bleeder and may need replacing at my cost too. These may be different management at this store but it is former Meineke personnel who stripped it. It's almost a week now and the car's not ready this evening.

I am the sole owner of this vehicle with 147,000 original miles and had purchased it new. It only lists for about $1,200 to $1,600 in book value at this time. The day the brakes caught on fire, I was going to place an advertisement to sell it! I've spent a lot of money keeping my car in good mechanical shape but the last thing I suspected was to have a recurring brake problem again!

Margaret at the Corporate office suggested maybe a rat was chewing on a brake hose. Sounds like she is mocking the customer! She is right about there being a rat but it is more likely a Meineke employee. If only a rat had chewed at the hose, the caliper wouldn't stick and I wouldn't have had a fire!

I await a reasonable resolution but don't see one in sight so I just hope they can fix it and I can be done with them.

You would think a decent Christian and a pastor as George Foreman in Kingwood, Texas wouldn't let himself be associated with such a business as this that screws the customers.

Tim
Houston, Texas
U.S.A.