Complaint Review: Monro Muffler Brake & Service - Uniontown Pennsylvania

Office of Attorney General 6th Floor, Manor Building 564 Forbes Avenue Pittsburgh Pa 15219 Dear Ms. Sarsfield This letter is in response to the reply from Terry Haschmann of Monro Muffler Break and Service concerning my complaint #C-006805-2005. I have enclosed a copy of a receipt dated 8/25/04 from a local shop Max Muffler & Brake. This receipt clearly states the left front wheel bearing is loose and a replacement is recommended. It is important to note that the Monro 1 year, 12,000-mile warranty was not expired at this time. This was a new bearing! I presented the receipt to Kevin Bounds. He was the manager at Monro Uniontown on 8/28/04. He is the manager the wheel bearing was originally installed under. Kevin Bounds discredited this finding and insisted nothing was wrong with the bearing. That is when he handed me the brake estimate. It is true that the brake rotors and pads were wearing out, but that was not the purpose of my visit 8/28/2004. As you can see, I did not have the work done at that time. Mr. Haschmann states the estimate on 8/28/04 says nothing about the wheel bearing. Why would it? Mr. Bounds refused do anything to the wheel bearing. The estimate proves I was at Monro Uniontown on 8/28/04. Why would I have a receipt 8/25/04 stating a loose wheel bearing and not present it to Monro on 8/28/04 as implied by Mr. Haschmann? I knew the part was under Monro's warranty. The more likely explanation is Monro will say anything to avoid full warranty obligations. I have also enclosed a copy of an invoice from Max Muffler & Brake 11/8/05 once again indicating a faulty wheel bearing. They also state to compare the left to the right wheel bearing. The right bearing has over 80,000 miles and is rock solid. The left had about 40,000 miles and loose. What I cannot get Monro to understand is I am not asking them to replace a 2-year-old 40,000-mile wheel bearing. I am asking them to replace and 9 month 10,000 mile wheel bearing that should have been replaced under warranty 8/28/04 when I asked. (Actually I first tried to get Kevin Bounds to replace it on January 2nd 2004 when it was 1 month old and had less than 400 miles! This was due to the helicopter like clicking noise it was making. Once again Kevin insisted there was no problem) Mr. Haschman stated they offered me a 50% discount on a new bearing. If you have done business with Monro as long as I, you would understand that this is an insult. They are actually trying to profit from their own mistake! Monro's invoicing has always been quite unclear. It is deliberatly designed so you can actually debate how much you really paid and for what. This is especially true when you have multiple services performed on the same invoice. It is full of over-priced line items combined with discounts and environmental/shop fees everywhere. This is so prices can be adjusted when they have a lifetime parts pay for labor warranty or when they offer coupons. I ask 50% off from what? The actual price or the over inflated pre-discount price, then remember to add the variable environmental fee? As I have stated multiple times this is not fair because I followed Monro's policy and returned the part to them twice within the warranty period. One visit included documentation from an independent shop indicating the problem. My mistake was to put my trust in Monro in the first place. It is a hard truth to learn that Monro would actually fight a long time customer on this matter. They should correct their own mistake. It shows the company has no integrity, interest in keeping their customers or care about the safety of their customers. It goes against their doctrine. Only what you need done right the first time guaranteed. They really need to re-evaluate this claim. Thank you

They did smoke you on the bearing. The full list price from NAPA is $295 for the hub assembly. You simply unbolt the assembly, and put the new one on. Takes less than an hour. I am sure they used some junk from Advance or the Zone however, so it should have been much cheaper. Do not go by what either of those two stores will sell you something for...all shops mark up the part. As you guessed, it is to pay for warranty repairs and shop expenses. Since they are not honoring their warranty, stay on Corporates back. If that fails you, call your state's consumer affairs department and file a complaint. Good Luck.