I took my car to Hibdon after my wife set an appointment. They would NOT have been my first choice, but it was Saturday and the appointment was made. It had been dying in traffic, but would easily "restart" with dropping into neutral and turning ignition. About two hours after I explain the symptoms and drop off the car/keys, they call me back trying to push their Firestone "sister" racket and $500.00+ worth of tires! But the rudest thing of all was their refusal to focus on my issue. This girl told me they couldn't diagnose it, so they wanted Firestone to. No way, no how. I've been burned there too many times.
And the majority of the phonecall is spent trying to fear me into buying new tires. Oh yes sir, you need four new tires... but the left front is about to go. Is that what I brought it in for? The "script" with which you answer your phone is evidence of some type of "training." Too bad you were not trained in the basics of customer service. Basically my explanation of the bank trying to take our house and my needing as cheaply as possible to find out the answer to one issue... and one issue only... meant nothing to these people trained more in opportunism than customer service.
I told this pushy person that I didn't have funds for four new tires, nor even one. I headed back to Hibdon to get the car. She tells the guys in the back that I'm here to get the car, and that I'm not getting tires nor letting them take it to Firestone.
What do you think happened? The guy started backing my car out of the bay, and when he took it out of reverse... for the first time since I've owned the car, the ignition suddenly will not start the engine. For saying "no" to extortion, I bought myself a new problem that did not exist before I brought it in. (Hey, I drove it there without a problem.) By keeping overdrive off, I had for an entire day been able to keep from stalling out. But even that was met with ridicule, oh no, I had no idea what I was talking about. It was my imagination. And now that the car won't start? Oh well sir, the problem just "progressed..." magically, like that, while my car was in their service bay...
But even on the freeway, when it had stalled out, I just dropped into neutral and turned key once, and I was back in motion, every time it happened. Now after telling them I wanted to go somewhere else, for the first time ever, it will not start. Of course I am a little upset, I do let them know that it seems highly suspicious, but I try to stay out of their faces while I get back on my cell phone to let my wife know what has happene. She is at the grocery store with her mom. Hibdon guys push my car back into the service bay after trying for 15 straight minutes to start it.
I try to calm down and go back inside, where I continued my conversation with my wife on phone, and eventually sit in the waiting area by the TV. Make no mistake, I am in a state of shock now, but I am not being confrontational, just dismayed and upset. Now I'm trying to just calm down and breathe... watch some TV. Now my wife and mother in law pull up and come inside. Nobody confronts anybody. We're talking to each other, none of us believes it was coincidence or natural "progression" of the same problem. Within five minutes of my MIL uttering the words "attorney general," there is a police car pulling up behind the back door, FEET from where I am sitting.
I will never recommend Hibdon Tires Plus to anyone, nor will I ever go there again, for anything. I will go out of my way to tell people what you did to me and my family. You don't think I heard you calling the cops? You don't think I saw the police car over my shoulder that pulled up after wife and MIL left? You are what is wrong with America, assuming that everyone is a threat. We must protect that racket (and image) at all cost right? Did you think that 85 pound Italian woman was armed and dangerous? Did you think that I was?
You people make me sick.
Randy
Owasso,#2Author of original report
Tue, January 20, 2015
My car was diagnosed, and the failure to start was the result of a worn out crankshaft position sensor that caused both issues. I have too many old issues with Firestone to borrow ones that don't exist, and I still have plenty of issues with the way things went down that day. First off, if my wife or I had any idea that Hibdon and Firestone were connected, we never would have gone there.
The report titles are not editable here, nor do I believe reports can be deleted. So all I can do is tell the truth here. So if you experienced the same thing, you bring in a car with one symptom, and you decide not to have anything done there, then instantly have a new symptom that makes it impossible to leave? It is HARD to fathom that being a coincidence, even though apparently it was. I cannot edit the word SABOTAGE out of the title.
NO SABOTAGE TO THE CAR.
Let's talk about customer service though. The fact, that since symptom #2 entered the picture by way of immaculate progression I have been without transportation for five days already, having to be TOWED OFF YOUR LOT, should illustrate the dire importance of MY issue that day, and the utter incompetence (or greed) of that person pushing FOUR NEW TIRES ON ME while I had much more serious and immediate issues to even be bothered with a TIRE PITCH! OK? You don't try to "sell" viagra to a patient having a heart attack. It is just rude and greedy and most likely quota-driven.
But let's keep going. Put yourself in my shoes for A MOMENT. Your car has ONE symptom. You bring it in somewhere. They try to get you to spend anywhere from 500 to 700 dollars for things you had no intention of getting. You make it plain that you are POOR and are barely able to sustain whatever the IMMEDIATE issue is. You tell them you'd just rather go elsewhere. Then they return to you a car that... wait... no, they CAN'T return the car, because now it has a second and much more serious symptom... and nobody knows what the cause is... it's all on a chip in there... nobody can read it... would you not feel frustrated as I did? Would you not be incredulous to the AUDACITY of a salesperson now coming up to you, after all that has already happened, and telling you that it is all just a "coincidence?"
Now, be HUMAN for a minute. Imagine this happening to you. You just lost your way to work, to the job that doesn't cover the rent and wouldn't even if you didn't eat. Your wife is waiting to find out what the bad news is with the car. You call her, and she feels as suspicious as you do. She stops by the place on her way home, and you try to have a conversation with her about what has all transpired. You are both upset, and yes, like anyone would, you both naturally believe this is all TOO coincidental. But at no time do you verbally accuse anyone there, or even address the employees, it is a FAMILY conversation.
Imagine, after all that, having your wife labeled a "situation" on the phone within earshot, and having the cops called after you.
YOU PEOPLE STILL MAKE ME SICK.
BSRO Social
Bloomingdale,#3UPDATE Employee
Mon, January 19, 2015
Hello,
My name is Tom and I am from the Tires Plus Corporate Offices. I have read through your concens and would like to assure you that we take any claims of sabotage very seriously. We have processes in place the investigate your concerns that I would like to initiate. Please message me at [email protected] with your review posted here and the invoice number from service if available (or contact number). In addition, if you have since had the vehicle inspected for a cause of failure, any supporting documentation you may have that this was caused by our service would be helpful.
Randy
Owasso,#4Author of original report
Mon, January 19, 2015
Just in case I didn't make it obvious with a summation sentence of what transpired, I drove my car (which RAN) to Hibdon, to find out what was the cause of my car stalling and dying (but always starting back up easily). I had Firestone pushed on me. I don't do Firestone. I had tires pushed on me. I can't afford tires. After declining their offers and asking for my car back, they "tried" to drive it up the front, but it stalled out and wouldn't start. If it wasn't some kind of sabotage or manipulation, it was one hell of a "magic bullet" coincidence for my stalling issue to magically progress to the separate issue of engine not restarting, from a DRIVING CAR to NON DRIVING CAR... at the exact time they had it. When my wife and mil showed up and were overheard talking WITH ME about the sabotage possibilities, and calling the AG, they called the police, who came shortly after they left, talked with the staff out of sight, and sat there outside in the cop car staring at me and waiting for me to act upset. You are not allowed to be upset in this day and age, they will arrest you for being upset, and for scaring away customers who ARE willing to go to the cleaners with them.
The car has not driven since yesterday when I drove it in to Hibdon. We had insurance tow it to another mechanic shop, where hopefully we will get what we NEED.