Complaint Review: Scally's Lube & Go - Dunnellon Florida

Brought my vehicle in to have the tires replaced, and for a wheel alignment, ok easy enough, right?

I arrived at approximately 9:15AM and gave the guy my information. Five minutes after the car is on the lift, I get called out into the shop to show me a CV joint boot that has split, and grease was everywhere. After being quoted a price, I gave the OK to have it replaced.

Shortly thereafter, I was told that the rear brakes are "down to the metal" and I need rear rotors, rear pads, front pads, and the front rotors turned / cut. This was apparently found after a "routine inspection" of my vehicle. Again, after being quoted a price, I once again give the OK to have it done.

When asked how long it would take, he said if I wanted it done ASAP, he would SEND SOMEONE TO GET THE PARTS, and I would be out of there. So I ok'd everything to be done, instead of having to come back again after the alignment. Instead, I waited over an hour for the parts to be delivered, and the work began (turns out some of the parts were delivered from a local store, but not all).

So the mechanic replaces the tires, and performs the alignment, and even showed me the before and after numbers, and tests drives it. Ok, I can breathe easy, or so i thought.

There is my car, sitting on the lift, with no tires on it for about 2 hours, and no one is near it. When I asked the same guy who told me someone was GOING TO GO GET the parts, he said they were on the way. He could clearly see my disgust in him at this point when i inquired about why no one "went to get them".

The parts finally come, and my car is back together in about 30-40 minutes. Great, I get to leave this godforsaken place.

I go in to pay the bill, and the other person, a woman, tells me it's over $800. When I look at the invoice, I was charged 1.40 hours ($103.43) labor to replace the CV joint, and 3.20 hours ($236.42) labor to replace the brakes, $63 for front pads (no more than $25 from any local parts store), $63 for the rear pads (about $30 at any parts store) - funny how they are the same price though, eh? The rotors were cheap (some made in china things, that he swore were Wagner brand, but I didn't see any Wagner branding or anything on it, just a part number on a white box). Not to mention the $23.23 for "shop supplies", when the ONLY thing I saw the guy use was a $3 can of brake cleaner on the new rear rotors.

Sorry, but I may have been born at night - but it wasn't LAST night. First off, the front brakes have to be removed (well, they don't HAVE to be, but it certainly makes the job much easier) to get the CV joint out (I watched him do it, and have done the brakes myself on the same car). The front brakes are literally 2 bolts on each side. Remove the outer CV nut, take the 2 bolts out of the strut, and pop out the CV joint. The rear brakes are just as easy - 2 bolts each.

Low and behold, I didn't get out of there until 1:30PM - something i stressed I COULDN'T do to the guy before he even took my keys..

Why should I pay for the car sitting there for over 4 hours, when it was only worked on for less than 1? It is the customers fault that the parts weren't local and blatantly lied to about someone "going to get them" if I agreed to having the work done?

Why should I pay for the same labor twice if one of the parts being replaced has to be removed anyway to get to another part being replaced? The parts I can see them making a few bucks on, but not the labor.

I will be posting this on every site I can find, so some other sucker doesn't get burned by these people.