Firestone Complete Auto Care Store- Carmel

I have gone to Firestone and always been happy with their work and with the people who work there. It has become clear to me that the employees are personable in order to make customers feel comfortable while they scam on them. I took my car in and requested a brake inspection. I was told that my brakes were running metal on metal and that my rotors were warped. Thus, I would need full front brakes and they suggested replacing the rear as well. I thanked them and left with my quote. I have had previous experience with brakes and decided to do it myself. Boy was I surprised. Metal on metal is what happens when brake pads are completely gone and this friction causes bad rotors. When I removed my brake pads I saw that they were not gone. They were low. I was hearing a sound that was a high pitched squealing, but not a metal grinding sound. Brake pads have a metal sensor warning that alerts drivers that the pads need replacing. The sound I was hearing was the metal warning sensor on my brake pads. I was told I needed new rotors, as mine were warped and way too thin. Rotor thickness is measured in micrometers. I was told that the rotors on my car measured at 1. Brand new they measure at 9. When I took my brakes apart it was clear that the rotors were not warped in any way. I took my rotors to O'Riley and had them measure the micrometers. They gave me a measurement of just over 8. I had them turned only because my new pads were wider than my old ones. My old pads did not go all the way out to the edge of my rotors and my new ones did. Additionally, I was told my rear drums measured at 3/2 and there was no measurement provided for the rear shoes. Upon inspection, Firestone had not even removed my rear drums. Measurements are unable to be taken without first removing the drums. The number they gave me was made up and totally arbitrary. Finally, Firestone quoted me $65 for new rear brake pads. MY CAR DOESN'T EVEN HAVE REAR BRAKE PADS (because it has shoes). When I called to ask several of these questions I was told I would receive a call back; no one called. This was on a Friday. I followed up with another phone call on Monday and was treated awfully as soon as I started to ask questions. They had no answers. I was told that the brake pads were written up in the quote before the inspection report had been received from the technician working on my car and that they had not been removed once shoes and drums were added. I am not sure how you could miss something that is blatantly listed in a line of no more than 5 things. Furthermore, this means that even before they had any information about my vehicle they were already pricing the most that they could. DO NOT TAKE YOUR CAR HERE. There is no honesty and absolutely no accountability. They do seem like nice and genuine people, but it is only a means to an end.

Over the years, I've been to Firestone in Castleton, Carmel, and Noblesville. My best experience was definitely today at the Noblesville Indiana location. And my worst two experiences have absolutely been at the Carmel location. They were very dishonest with me once last year and then again last week. On both of these occasions, the same tech (named Tyler) worked on my car. The details of his dishonesty last year are described in the paragraph below. Noblesville fixed the problem today that he was dishonest about last week. -- 04/22/2016 -- Surprised me by saying my tires have Edgewear, Cracking, & Cupping. Said the tires were “Low on Tread” and Rated them 6 on a Scale of 10. Recommended replacement and gave me an estimate of around $415. Problem is my tires only have about 14,200 miles on them. They are high-quality Michelin and in Very Good condition. Shame on You Firestone!! You are Extremely Dishonest!!

I've used them for years and years.

unknown

They were honest and professional. They stood behind their word and did a great job.

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I scheduled an appointment and when I arrived they had triple booked so it took over an hour for a simple oil change. They also told me I had a nail in my tire and it would $20.00 more dollars to fix it. I elected to take it to the place I recently got my tires and there was no nail. I've driven my car for a month now without problems so I'm assuming they were hoping to get more money out of me without me knowing the difference.

It went great.

We have taken our cars to Firestone for years. They know what they're doing, prices are fair, and staff is always friendly. I would not hesitate to recommend them to anyone needing service on their car.

very good price and service

I contacted Firestone because I (stupidly) messed up a home-oil change, destroying the oil filter and leaving the vehicle without oil.
The service manager advised that the oil filter may be siezed, and if that were the case, I would have to take the vehicle to dealer. I stated that I didn't believe that was the case, as I could (barely) rotate the filter, and the cause was more likely due to the fact that I had a bad filter wrench and poor leverage having to work by crawling under the car.
He stated that if I had the vehicle towed in, he would be happy to look at it and fix it if he could, and I would only have to pay for an oil change.
When talking with the service manager:
- He told me they could not use my oil or filter. That was OK with me and not the cause for the bad review.
- He upsold me with the claim that since I do my home oil changes with synthetic oil, a conventional oil change would damage the vehicle. This is not true. NPR CarTalk guys and Popular Mechanics say there is no issue, so this was just an upsell based on false information and fear.
I agreed to a synthetic oil change, and walked home because the service manager said it would be several hours Over two hours later, I received a call that My Toyota Prius could not be pushed into the bay without causing damage, and I would have to have it towed to the dealer. This is false - A Prius can be pushed without damage, as long as it is on and in accessory mode. I told them this, but they insisted that they would not touch the vehicle. This is something they could have told me while the towtruck was still on premises, before I walked home, and before waiting two hours.
Then, I arranged for a SECOND towtruck to bring the car to the dealer, but I told the tow service to try the quick-lube place next door first, trying to avoid a trip to the dealer. I then walked to the quick-lube joint. These aren't ASE Mechanics - it's just a limited service quick lube place. They told me to cancel the tow, and their whole staff pushed the car from Firestone to their bays next door, slightly uphill, and didn't charge for the push. They spun off the filter and accomplished the oil change in short order, with no damage to the vehicle. Firestone was wrong every step of the way:
- The filter was not siezed, and no damage was done to the connector.
- A Prius can be pushed safely in accessory mode.
- You can use conventional oil in a vehicle that previously used synthetic without harm.
- If they had bothered to push the vehicle in, they could have easily accomplished the oil change.
If they had bothered to treat me like an adult and communicate any risks/fears they had, I would have been happy to sign off on and quot;OK - if it's siezed, you are not responsibleand quot;, and and quot;OK - if I help you push it in the right way, you aren't responsible for damage by pushing the car.and quot; Instead, they pedantically insisted on not touching the vehicle (after saying they would).
P.S. I previously gave Firestone an A-score on Angie's List for another service, but after this, I will not return. I am not rescinding the old review, as they did do a good job on that occasion.

I've used Firestone Complete Auto Care of Carmel and always have a good experience with them. The only problem I have with them is they're just a little slow.

I had a headlight bulb replaced that would have cost approximately twice as much at the dealer. I was quoted $54 for the replacement, including the bulb. I also warned the vendor that light bulb replacement on my vehicle was not simple.
I had to wait quite some time - I think they had to remove parts to get to the bulb, but they did not charge me for extra labor and stuck to their original estimate.

In the past they also have done brake and alignment work. People should know you can turn off the TV in the waiting room if you want to. However it is a waiting room in a place that works on your car so it is not luxurious but you get in and get out fairly quickly. They kept my little old Cavalier going for 14 years. They were good about working with women. I don't usually make an appointment ahead of time; I usually go in late. They are prompt about getting me in.

They corrected a front end alignment problem. They were on time and no extra charges.

Firestone was able to get me in quickly at the end of the day, within my time frame. Tested and replaced battery giving me credit for the life left under warranty of the previous battery.

The service was outstanding. The courtesy of all folks involved was exemplary, whether in person or via phone. I was given a friendly greeting even though I showed up at the end of the day, literally two minutes before they were to close. Brandon was very helpful and looked up all the records of past service and made sure I received all the warranty discounts. They repaired the tire at no charge and performed a courtesy check. They were proactive in their service, I did not have to remind them about my lifetime alignment/rotation warranty purchased years ago. They even honored an out of date $25 off coupon. They did not try to sell me more than I needed and acted in a very professional manner. The service was speedy even though I did not have an appointment and they were busy. I highly recommend their services. The positive, competent and solicitious attitude was highly refreshing. Thank you, Pat

unknown

They took my car in when promised and had it finished when promise. They went out of their way to make me aware of discounts I could find on line to help save me money, and other options to help me pay my bill. They also found a problem the dealership corrected wrong and because of that discovery, I was able to get my car back to dealership prior to that warranty item expiring. They in turn made an error in installation of the HUB which they promptly took my car back in to repair, soon as I called and repair completed within the same day. They were WOW on service!!

They are convenient. I rate them high overall and will continue using them.

They saw the vehicle on-time and completed in the time promised. Punctuality was not an issue. They did not find any issues in the maintenance inspections that required service. However, I have quality concerns: - When inspecting the vehicle, I noticed the oil was overfilled by about 1/4 quart. When I presented this to them, they gave me some c***-and-bull story that Priuses are designed to be overfilled. This is simply false. - Their inspection claimed that all four tires were 32PSI upon arrival. This was false - I keep my tires overinflated (around 40PSI) to conserve fuel. I also keep the front tires 2PSI higher than the rear per manufacturer suggestion. I doubt they did the pre-inflation check properly. I haven't checked the post-service pressure yet. Given these facts, I have my doubts as to the honesty and competence of the vendor, though I didn't give them a 'F' because they didn't do anything that I think was greedy-dishonest (just lazy-dishonest), or would do damage to my vehicle.

stay away from this place! They will lie in order to make money.

I had the oil changed. I warned the representative that the previous Firestone (in Noblesville) had overfilled the oil after the oil change and to be careful. Unfortunately they didn't listen as when I checked the oil at home, it was overfilled again. Overfilling the vehicle with oil is a common problem. However, The Mobil 1 Express oil change place always gets it right and seems to understand. The two Firestones I've been to both ignored the warning and overfilled it with oil. Also, the tech left a couple grease stains on the cloth covered console. This is a new vehicle. I was not pleased.

What I didn’t like about them was that there was a mistake made about clarifying what type of tire I needed. They also told me that I could pick up my car in two hours and when I went to pick it up, it was still being worked on. But they were professional and they made everything right. From a customer service stand point, they gave me a lower price and they threw in a couple of extra things because the car was not ready and for making the mistake. The oil change was free and they didn’t charge me for replacing the turning indicator.

We took my Kia Van into Firestone on Sunday 8/31 to get the oil changed as well as to have the brakes checked. They were very busy and the guy at the desk stated that it would probably not be done until 5:00 and if brake work need done it would not be done until Monday 9/1. The stated they would call to let us know. We did not get a call about our car on Sunday. When we did not get a call on Monday morning my husband called to see if the brakes needed replaced. He was told that they were just pulling it into the shop. They called back and stated that the rotors were ruined and need replaced with the pads. It is funny that when we had the vehicle in there in May that they were at 70%. We told them to go ahead and do the work but wonder how we had worn the brakes down that much since May. When my husband went in to pay he wanted to log a complaint that no one had called us on Sunday like they had stated they would as well as to see why in May the brakes were at 70 % and now they were into the rotors. The Manager Travis had him repeat his complaint 3 time and then my husband stated he would just go online and log the complaint at the company website. At that time he offered to give us a discount. My husband just want them to apologize and admit that they had not followed through and may have made a mistake however that was never voiced to him. Instead the manager grabbed the keys off of the counter and would not give them to my husband. At this point he just wanted to pay the bill and get out of there. My husband then called the police since he was not getting anywhere with the Manager. The police arrived and escorted my husband back into the store so he could pay the bill and receive the keys to the van. This manager was very unprofessional and should have taken the time to apologize for the inconvenience that they caused us instead of making it out that we wanted discounted service.