Complaint Review: Tire Works Total Car Care

On August 5, 2008, my husband's 2002 Dodge Dakota truck died on his way home from work. We had it towed to Tire Works Total Car Care, which was close to where it broke down, and hoped that it would be a minor repair. The next morning, we received a call from Tire Works, telling us it was a bad fuel pump. My husband said to go ahead and replace it, along with 2 other sensors that supposedly were bad. The total cost of the repair was $1,075.45. We picked up the truck on the evening of August 6, 2008 at 5:17pm.

My husband drove the truck home, which is about 1/2 mile from Tire Works. He parked the truck for the evening and everything seemed fine. The next morning, he left for work. He got approximately 3 miles from the house and the truck died again. He proceeded to have the truck towed back to Tire Works and they said they would give us a call when they figured out what the problem was. My husband then proceeded to take my vehicle to work, as I had worked graveyard the night before.

I spoke with husband about 11am on the morning of August 7, and he proceeded to tell me that the engine compartment of the truck had caught fire. He was on his way to Tire Works when I spoke to him. The manager at Tire Works was very sympathetic, however never offered a refund on the repair.

He said that one of the guys in the shop had taken it for a drive, to see if he could figure out what was wrong with it. It backfired one time, then he smelled smoke. The truck then burst into flames. The fire department was called and extinguished the fire, but not before the truck was a total loss. The photos that we have of the truck after the fire are incredible. Due to not only the intense fire, but also the chemicals used by the fire department, nothing inside the truck was salvageable.

My husband has made numerous attempts at collecting a refund from Tire Works, but everytime that he calls, the manager says that he has informed the owner of the situation, and it has to be the owner who makes that decision.

I believe we are entitled to much more than our $1,075.45; we had only another year and a few months before our truck was paid for. We had never had any problems with this truck, other than your wearable items. We were looking forward to having a reliable vehicle, with no payments, for a few years and being able to save that money. Unfortunately, it was OUR insurance company, that paid off the note on the truck and gave us what they thought it was worth. However, it wasn't enough to buy a new vehicle with no payments.

Tire Works has not even made an effort to see if we've gotten things straightened out since this happened. We had to take time off work to deal with insurance issues, get a rental car, purchase a new vehicle, etc. The only contact that we have had with Tire Works has been at the initiation of my husband; we have not received one phone call from them. I am very disappointed that a company who we trusted with our vehicle, has not even made an attempt to rectify this situation.

Charissa
Las Vegas, Nevada
U.S.A.