Complaint Review: Just Brakes - saint petersburg Florida

July 10th, 2010, It's really hot here in Florida and although I have always changed my brakes, I just plain did not want to do it this time.  Knowing all too well the scams that Just Brakes runs and all of the horror stories, I decided to "test" if this really was true.  I called up and asked how much it costs to change the brakes and I got some questions about the grinding and what have you.  They immediately gave me the whole story about their $99 special and if I would like to bring it in now or at noon.  Typical salesman...  I set it for Noon and began to get ready to go.

I also double checked to make sure Just Brakes still had this "wrap" of being scam artists and definetly realized it was still a HUGE issue.  I took some pointers to make sure they did not take my car from me either or charge me more than the $99.

When I got there i should have just kept driving as the first sign of this being a bad business showed itself.  Dispite all of the other auto places being super busy on a Saturday morning (Aamco, tires Plus, little mom and pop shops), Just Tires was TOTALLY empty.  Every auto bay was completely empty.  I thought to myself Yeesh, this is totally scary.

I walk in and they are the nicest guys.  Tell them what I need and they even remembered my name on the phone.  I told them that I read that they have some pretty bad stories on the internet and hoped they were not true.  He pretended to not know what I was talking about.  I re-iterated that I didn't want to pay more than $99 and want to make sure that i walk out of here with my car if it goes more than $99.  He said of course... It's your car....

I signed the paperwork and they were off to work right away because their business was totally dead... lol...

About 10 minutes later, it begins.  The one guy comes in totally disturbed and shocked.  "Man, you need new rotars.  They are cracked and have pieces missing."...  I tell them to just do the job as the machining of the rotars would fix this.  He says no this is way too bad.  Their acting is so bad.  So animated...  OMG, I am thinking and tell them don't worry about it and just repace the brakes nicely.  He is still stunned and says no really you need to take a look at this but I say no it's alright, just replace the brakes.  Of course he says that he can't replace them as it's entirely too dangerous...  I laugh knowing this would happen and tell them just to put the tires back on.

Of course he says ok, and makes me feel stupid and bad that they can't believe I am going to go back onto the streets like this...  He walks back out to the garage and tells them to put the tires back on.  The mechanic has this distraught look on his face, turns to me in the bay as I look at them through the office window and then storms in.  He's like, "Man, you don't understand... You need to look at this. "  I tell them it's ok, and that i kinda expected this and to just put the tires on.  He does the same this as his other guy and really puts the pressure on by being astounded that I would drive away like this and says, "Oh my God.  Wow..."

Lastly, the first guy comes back in and starts writing up the paperwork and saying out loud, "customer wishes to not have brakes repaird and rather drive on dangerous brakes and holds harmless just brakes", and all of this other crap and makes me sign it..

Oh my gosh this was the funniest thing I have EVER seen.  Obviously all of the reports you read about Just Brakes are TOTALLY true.

It's my opinion that there is NO such thing of a $99 brake job from Just Brakes.  It's just not feasable and how they make their money is up selling with this scam.  If you refuse, they just don't provide a $99 special brake job.

Later on, I took my vehicle to Tire Plus and told them what happened.  They laughed and told me they knew all about their scams and a lot of people come to them after being at Just Tires and getting almost scammed.  They were more than happy to look at the rotars.  They did agree that the rotars did have surgace hairline cracks and there was some pitting but that is what the machining of the rotars was for and there was NO NEED for rotar replacement.

$99 for a brake job is simply not feasable. lol...