Complaint Review: Midas - Mississauga Ontario

I would like to share my stories with 2 separate Midas chain stores in Mississauga, which nearly destroyed my vehicle twice and risked my safety. I believe this is Midas’ systematic issue leading to, which the public should be aware.

The newest incident happened on May 21st, 2024 with the store at 880 Burnhamthorpe Rd W, Mississauga, ON L5C 2S3.

I did my 2013 Ford Escape oil change at this Midas location in last December. After which the vehicle is inundated with the smell whenever the circulation system was on. I thought it was just left over smell from a can of Gasoline I had in the trunk earlier in the year for the snow blower. However, when it rained in March, I noticed the oil spill trace below the car on the driveway. When I opened the hood to check, it was the engine oil cap had flipped. The Midas technician did not put the cap back on and tighten it when he did the oil change! The engine had been evaporating engine oil since then and the engine compartment was covered by oil mist!

The engine dipstick showed near empty, and I rushed to buy a pail of engine oil to top up 2.5 liters in! The engine was days away from seizing and being written off if it was not the rain or it rained later!

Fig 1. Oil leaking trace                                                          Fig 2. Oil cap left untightened & oily engine cover

Fig 3. Oil dipstick no oil

I went to the store on May 2nd ,2024 when it was time for oil change again and complained to the store manager of their technician’s mistake. He checked the service record and said sorry and “credit” me $49.99 for their mistake. BUT what he actually did was to add an extra $50 for the coolant top up and “credit” me $49.99, which almost everywhere is free for coolant top up!

Fig 4.  Added $50 extra then “Credit” $49.99 for the mistake almost cost my car engine!

Not only did they do this tricky to rob their client.

On May 17th afternoon , my car suddenly lost all power and the engine shut down while I was driving Eastbound on Highway 401 during rush hour. I performed an emergency pull off and the vehicle was towed to the nearby Applewood Repair Center in Mississauga.On Tuesday May 21st, the vehicle was repaired, and the technician identified the cause as the Alternator having been soaked from the engine oil that bubbled out of the engine for a period of time. Fig 5. Oil-soaked alternator I went to the store on May 21st and presented Applewood’s picture and the diagnose to the same manager who did the $49 “credit” to me on May 2nd for their fault. This time his reaction was so ridiculous and disgusting! What he said was on May 17th when my car broke down on HWY 401 I should’ve towed the car to their store and he for sure would waive at least the labor of the repair! I said how I should tow the car that far on 401 to his garage rather than to the closest Applewood repair center?! He said since the job was done by another garage. There was nothing he could do! When I told him I would be no choice but go public, he said go ahead be it; who cares, so many clients did this already! He even called police just because I told another client on site the story! Midas actually had a chance on May 2nd to prevent this incident not to putting my wife and me in the dangerous situation on HWY 401! The engine had expelled oil allover into the engine compartment and they did nothing during the May 2nd oil change without even a word to warn the risk! Instead, they suggested an $1819 repair estimation on the brake with the $834.94 parts before tax! Which the same grade parts is only $275 on Amazon! And less than half price from the Part Source or Canadian Tire! What you can see is, they don’t care at all the client’s safety risk raised by their fault. All their focus is to grab any chance to rob the client!  

After this I went to read other clients' google review on Midas and found another client named Ahmad Arnous posted his review for an exact same failure happened on him in mid of May, 2024! They forgot to put the oil cap on after oil change! How bad Midas management system could be to keep having the same low-level failure happening again and again!

This time I don’t even have a second to consider go to Midas HQ to report the incident. I have learned my lessons from my previous experience/incident with another Midas store in Mississauga that Midas HQ would do nothing to their chain store for the customer! The previous incident happened with Midas store at 2292A Dundas St W, Mississauga, ON L5K 1R5. I brought my 2014 Jeep compass to this store on the 3rd of January 2023 for rear brake service and ended up with a nightmare experience. On the day they took off the rear wheel and told me to wait an hour or so as it should be a quick job to replace the brake pads. They put an apprentice to work on the job. With me waiting in the office watching through the window, he didn't even know how to loosen the bolts in the right direction! I saw him hammering my car with a lot of effort and not being able fix it. After many hours the manager asked me to leave the car one more day to fix. Next day afternoon I was called in to pick up the "fixed" car. They charged me over a thousand in total just for the rear brake service and handed over the car to me. When I visual inspected the rear brake through the rim because of the concerns on the apprentice, I was scared to death seeing that the brake pads he installed had already fallen out half way from the caliper as the picture below shows!           Fig 6. Rear brake pad dispositioned.                                   Fig 7. Redo the rear brake If I was not an automotive manufacturing mechanical engineer and did my own inspection, and I drove away to hit the road as most of the customers would do, within less than a kilometer I would be for sure getting into an accident due to no brake!! I complained to Midas HQ customer service after the incident. Over half year they kept telling me that the location manager would contact me the next day but never happened. Eventually the service lady who picked up my call told me that HQ couldn’t do much to the store! Two separate Midas stores gave such terrible and dangerous service when they should’ve been the experts, brake service and oil change, as they advertised themselves, and with Midas HQ’s attitude to the customer, I would never ever try another Midas again in hoping they could be any different from these two stores! I do think my painful experience with Midas should go public’s awareness to avoid this kind of life threaten risks happening on others.  Paul