Alignment Check

[Dathaeus]

So I been going to this Firestone for their lifetime alignment deal at least once every 2 years for various reasons. For years they did a great job with some great guys there. Last year it was so so, service was not up to par but not horrible, but made me wait 90 minutes when I had an appointment.

This time, I hit a bad pothole and there were some things that didnt feel right so I decided to go in for another. The guy there today literally looked like he could not care if I were alive or dead right from the get go. Anyways, whatever right, just get the job done.

Took my keys, I asked how long might it take... he goes "I dont know." Thats it... that pissed me off obviously... so I was like, well I have to make another appointment after this so do you have any kind of approximation? Then he goes with that 'this is so obvious' tone of voice "Well these things usually take 60-90 minutes so..." And I was like, "...so 60-90 minutes?" and he says yes... WTF then say that in the first place.

Then about 25 minutes later, he says its done. I was like, huh? In the past even the fastest took at least 45 minutes. i asked him about this, and he said "Well we had a rush job so...." WTF that means? I didnt want to make a scene but anyways i asked to see the report to see if they even did any $hit today... he dint have it, and went back into the shop to "get it." He comes back, and as you can its laden with oil and dirt and crap, said it was dropped on the floor. Yea dont ask me my state of mind right now.

So I am not here to hear what I know some of you might may about Firestone even after I said I had like 7 years of great service there.... I just want to know, does the work they did in numbers look legit or does it look made up, or can they even make this stuff up?

Always wonder in this why cant things get better, why are things always getting worse, it is unreal.

[t.er]

They probably chucked the paper in the garbage, most people won't care about it. Looks like you had quite a bit of front toe before and they adjusted that out.

It is possible I guess to falsify the report; they can slightly bump the targets so the readings look 'good' but why would they do that?

[Dathaeus]

They probably chucked the paper in the garbage, most people won't care about it. Looks like you had quite a bit of front toe before and they adjusted that out.

It is possible I guess to falsify the report; they can slightly bump the targets so the readings look 'good' but why would they do that?

Actually the rear left should have had the most damage from the hole, but maybe it was not that bad?

Not sure about falsifying but I never had an alignment complete that fast, just seems like a real scam or something, I cannot be sure... just the whole experience there was shoddy so... thats why I am wondering if anything seems amiss... Maybe they were super focused and did the quickest most accurate alignment of their lives but I dont know enough about this process to judge anything for sure... but aligning 4 tires, 1-2 of them not in great shape, in 25 minutes total, including driving the car in and jacking it up, hooking up the machine, etc? I dunno but to my amateur brain and past experience, it seems literally impossible.

[John in VA]

All businesses are having trouble finding dedicated employees - maybe this fact finally hit your Firestone.

[Dathaeus]

All businesses are having trouble finding dedicated employees - maybe this fact finally hit your Firestone.

Truer word never said there... question is, WTF are all the good people?

Or as some of my friends and I say, the dumb people are spawning more babies than the smart people so the ratio gets worse every year... yes everywhere it seems things are getting worse... when someone actually does their job now, I am shocked, in any venue.

[Galapolis]

Getting a good alignment has been a challenge for me from day 1, so this issue existed many years ago and probably before that too. There have been times where I did a better alignment in my parking lot than some shops have been able to. In any case, 95% of places I went to were incompetent so I gave up years ago. Instead, I brought my car to a local autocross guy who had access to a dealer bay with Hunter machine for after hours alignments.

The alternative are motorsports and tuning shops who do alignments for race cars. They actually know what they are doing but easily charge hundreds of $. Might need to go that way though for my next alignment now that I'm back in Germany, where I have to start my search from 0 again.

[t.er]

Shameless plug, I'm still selling my corner balancing/alignment setup for anyone in the SF Bay.