Briggs & Pearson Enterprises

Review: I brought in my car for an OIL CHANGE on Friday afternoon, August 16, 2013. For some reason, Meineke took the opportunity to inspect all other aspects of my car and proceeded to tell me I had a nail in my front passenger tire. I said I was aware of the nail, that I had been told about it before and I was planning on repairing it in the future, not at that time. I specifically told the mechanic "not to touch it." I took my trip up to the mountains where my car sat in the campground for the weekend. However, by Sunday night, the tire was flat and I was left stranded in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere. I called [redacted] and was back on the road. I then took the tire in to be repaired by a different mechanic who told me that the nail had been removed from the tire and that is why it leaked air all weekend and that is why my tire then "blew out" the sidewalls and could not be repaired at that point.I went to the new Meineke franchise and explained the situation, told them that the tire had been that way and, if it had been left untouched as instructed, it would have been fine. I talked to the male owners who claimed no responsibility and no fault by their mechanic. One of them kept approaching me as if he was going to physically harm me, being 6 months pregnant, I kept backing away. I was threatened, hence, ending the conversation and leaving the property.I contacted Meineke corporate headquarters who told me they would contact the owners to see if they would offer to better the situation. It was no surprise when they said no and Meineke corporate was unwilling to extend a hand because they are franchises.There was NO reason for the mechanic to touch ANY part of my car other than what I had signed on to do, and I'm pretty sure that legally they would be held accountable for doing so without permission. They were instructed to do an OIL CHANGE and that is it. They put me in extreme danger unnecessarily and should be held responsible for such careless actions.Desired Settlement: I would like the Goodyear Eagle tire replaced and put back on the car with no charges.

Business

Response:

October 10,2013 RE:ID#[redacted]

To Whom It May Concern at the Revdex.com

The customer in question, ID # [redacted], did visit our location on August 16,2013 for an oil change and to check her transmission to see if it could be flushed. She also wanted to see if we could reattach her air damn under her car which she has with her in the trunk of her car.

The customer came into our shop with a discount package that she had received from another Meineke location that had closed down a year ago. On that package customers got six free oil changes which is a promotion that was only good at that specific location. Since Meineke is a franchise, every individual store has their own promotions.

As a goodwill we did the basic oil change for free, we asked the customer if she wanted to put synthetic oil in the car (manufacturer recommended) but the customer declined because that would cost more money than the basic oil change.

We in formed the customer that she would have to go to the dealership to get the trans flush that her car specifically needed and that the air damn that she had for under the car could not be reattached because all the clips where broken off. At that time the customer requested disposal of the air damn in our dumpster because it was so big and we complied.

Every vehicle that comes Into our shop gets a free safety check with every oil change. The basic oil change is oil and a filter change In addition to checking the air pressure of the tires and checking the lights. When we checked the air pressure in tires of this customer's car we found that the right front tire was very low on air reading at 10psi while the rest of the tires had a reading of 32psi. With further investigation of the right front tire we found a nail in it, at this point we informed the-customer that she had a nail in her tire and it was causing the tire to leak air. We asked the customer if she would like us to repair the tire with a tire patch and she responded "don't worry about it", she stated that she knew about it and that she had been keeping an eye on it. We also informed the customer that her front rubber brake hoses were cracking, which is another safety issue. The customer declined the tire repair and got her invoice and left.

At Meineke of [redacted] we give every car a free safety check to help keep our customers safe and to cover our backs in case a customer should happen to get into a accident after visiting us we know that we have informed them of the safety concern and then there is no liability issues with us.

On August 20th the customer called and said that while she was camping that weekend her tire on her car had gone flat by Sunday night and that because of this she was stranded at the mountains. I told the customer that I was sorry to hear about her situation but that I did not understand why she was calling to tell me about this seeing how we had told her Friday about her tire problem and recommended that she get it patched which she declined responding that all we wanted to do was sell her a tire. The only way we would have recommended her buying a new tire would have been if the side wall of the tire was damaged and the only way to see that is by dismounting the tire from the rim. At that time the customer claimed that we owed her some sort of compensation for her tire going flat which I stated again that I was sorry for her inconvenience but did not understand how this was our fault since we had alerted her on that Friday to the fact that she needed a tire repair.

I believe that on September 13th the customer came back into our shop and walked up to the front counter demanding that we buy her a new tire since she had to get it replaced because it could not be repaired after she drove on it. When we declined her request she started shouting at the person at the front desk, which was [redacted], accusing us of pulling the nail out of her tire causing it to go flat. A point worth noting is that had we pulled a nail out of a tire that was leaking it would have went flat within ten minutes not 3 days. With all the inappropriate and foul language this customer was shouting in our showroom in front of other customers, we asked her to leave the premises and escorted her to the door. When she got outside of the shop she approached myself and one of our technicians, who were inside the shop, shouting "is this how you want to start this [redacted] relationship!" I was unaware of what had occurred inside the showroom and l asked her why she was shouting at me which she replied by yelling more profanity and calling [redacted] a lot of swear words. At this point, having heard all of the screaming, [redacted] came back to the shop area. Again, she was asked that if she is going to keep using all this profanity and acting indignant by screaming she would have to leave the premises.. At this point [redacted] pointed to her car and was limping (note [redacted] had a broken foot and was in a cast) towards the parking lot. The customer then replied "what do you want to fight me?" and came walking crazy-like towards [redacted] with her arms flailing. [redacted] replied "no I want you off our property" and turned around and walked back into the shop. After this the customer got in her car and was screaming at us that she was going to call Meineke Corporate, the Revdex.com, and her lawyer. As she sped out our parking lot she continued screaming and cursing. Five minutes later we had two other business owners walk over from other buildings asking what was up with the "crazy lady" that was so loud with all her screaming and swearing.

The customer claims that there was no nail in the tire when she took it to get repaired and accused us of removing it without her knowledge. We adamantly state that we did not remove any nail from the tire of this customer's care. It shocks us that the customer did not stop to think of the other possibilities that could have occurred to her tire, for example:

* Maybe with all the driving she did while going up to the mountains the nail could of come out especially when driving on uneven ground.

* Or when the tire was driven on the head of the nail could have worn down enough and while driving all those miles on it, it could have come off and that's possibly the reason that the person who replaced the tire did not find the nail.

But instead of looking at these or any other possibilities she decided to blame us. I feel that we are by no means responsible for replacing her tire; we did the right thing by telling the customer about the tire leaking air and it was her decision not to fix the problem. We are also attaching the invoice that the customer signed showing that she declined the tire repair.

Consumer

Response:

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]

Review: [redacted]

I am rejecting this response because: The story the repair shop provided is false on many accounts. I knew there was a nail in the tire and told them not to touch it. They went ahead and touched it anyway, with nor right at all to do anything to my car. Their customer service skills are obviously lacking and their version of the story is not correct. The manager of the store came at me as if he was going to physically attack me and did not listen to my side of the story at all. And this was the second attempt to resolve the issue with these men. The invoice and the coupon that I used, and the rejection of the repairs has nothing to do with the issue at hand. They were told to perform an oil change-- not a safety check, not a brake inspection, nothing but an oil change. I don't care what they claim is corporate policy, the fact is, though their story is a lie, they admitted to doing other things to the car and touching parts they had no right/approval to touch. Especially after being told not to! They removed the nail to be spiteful and rude and they knew exactly what they were setting out to do, just because I didn't put more money into their business by succumbing to the other service repairs they suggested.

They are responsible for damage to the tire and should be held accountable for the replacement of the tire.

Regards,