Firestone Complete Auto Care

The poor reviews don’t lie. How hard is it to screw up installing tires? Well I didnt let them even get that far. After they couldn’t locate my tires that I ordered from tirerack over a week and a half ago (tirerack had to call them) I got alot of wonderful attitude and lecture from firestone employee until i told them I’m taking my business else where and let me speak to the manager. At this point he wouldn’t tell me who the manager was and he changed his tune but by then it was too late. Pissing off a customer is not a good way to run a business including refusing to give me their managers name or number (they have the managers business card by the cashier)

5 stars for their customer service but they do alignments very bad. My 10 months old tires were worn out. I am looking for their improvements so I do not have to go to other Firestone Branches. Thank you.

I called them and got a quote on some Falken tires which they assured me they had in stock, I made an early morning appointment, when I got there they told me they did not have that tire in stock and wanted to sell me something else. Two hours wasted and a lot of inconvenience scheduling a ride etc etc.
Too bad, I like to support neighborhood businesses.

I had to come here to get a vehicle inspection for Über. They were available within a short time frame. The first time was with a new car with only a few thousand miles on it and new tires. They decided I needed two new tires or they wouldn’t pass the inspection. In frustration and considerable skepticism I gave in and bought their tires.
The second time I had to come in for an inspection six days after having my regular mechanic tell me my brakes still had 25% wear left on them. Firestone insisted i could not pass the inspection with out a new set of brake pads.
After waiting for hours for them to finish, I went home and got ready for work. When I left for work and stepped on the brakes there was an ominous sound. I drove back to Firstone to ask them what the sound was. They test drove the car and pulled long faces and said the rotors hadn’t been surfaced correctly. They would have to be replaced, they could not do it then but could in the morning. Just leave the car they said, OH, you live too far away, well they wouldn’t pay for a rental car. I would have to come back. As a result i lost a nights income due to their incompetence. STAY AWAY FROM THIS SHOP, THEY ARE TROUBLE!

These guys have a Road Force balance machine which applies force to wheel to replicate actual driving. A MUST when balancing newly mounted tires.
Came here twice — once to mount 4 new tires + alignment, once to rebalance another shops bad job. Both times had excellent service which was promptly and professionally done.
They may not be the cheapest in town, but they have all the latest equipment to get the job done right the first time.
Will definitely be coming back for my future tire needs.
A++++

I started commuting much farther for work, so I need to baby my beloved vehicle. Service light was on, and I knew it was time for that good old oil change. When is it ever a good day to get an oil change, right? Seems like no matter where you go in the Bay Area, it’s going to be busy.
I called this Firestone in the morning to see if they had any availability. Willian, (like William but with an N), answered the phone very professionally and told me he could fit me in at 4:30 pm. That was a relief!
Location: Conveniently located across Marshall’s on San Pablo Avenue and near many restaurants and retail. 20 – 25 minute walk to El Cerrito BART. I even swung by the post office beforehand. Quick jaunt.
Parking: Their lot is small, so I had to double park. Seemed like everyone else was doing it, too. Be careful in the lot b/​c it’s tight.
Prices: Their rates for oil are pretty competitive. They had a sale on synthetic blend (like $ 25) but I opted for the full synthetic, again because I have to baby my car and fill her with only theeee best (~$ 70). Since it’s supposed to be El Niño-​ing this winter, I decided to change my windshield wipers. They have a basic wiper for ~$ 10/​blade or a higher end, full rubber type for $ 17.99/blade. I went with the higher price point because I’m sick of streaky glass in my face.
Service: The cashier Willian was helpful, friendly, and stylish. Check out his plastic framed glasses! I didn’t interact with the guys in the shop, but my car felt like it was driving better after I left; kinda like my car was wearing new sneaks. I was concerned about the wear on my tires, but Willian said they looked like they still have 50% of life in them left. Which was a relief b/​c who wants to buy new tires? I told him I’d like to get ecopias next time for my hybrid, and he said they could definitely get those for me. :) I tested the wiper blades and they quietly and smoothly cleaned my windshield. I came in at 4:30, Willian said I’d be out by 6 pm, and I was!
Waiting area: Clean, bright, ample seating, plugs for your electronics; VERY clean bathrooms; new TV; dunno if they had wifi. Magazines. Coffee: Didn’t try it but it was there.
The only drawback today was that they did not have an alignment technician in. Willian said had my alignment done in January so I could wait another month. I have used Firestone for about 5 years now. I got the lifetime rotation and alignment deelio… It’s been a lifesaver for the last 5 years, and this Firestone may be the cleanest and friendliest one in the East Bay! And, for that, I give it star, star, star, star = 4 Unilocal Stars!

While I will say that the customer service is great and all employees are friendly the corporate push to sell product instead of service is why I don’t care for Firestone.
I discovered a nail in my wife’s tire and called Firestone. They assured me over the phone that they could fix it for $ 20… Four hours later I get a call saying that we needed a brand new tire for 100 dollars.
A quick call to Richmond tire and I had a repaired tire for $ 12.
Before you go to Firestone, give Richmond tire a call.

WARNING! The moron in charge of alignments here doesn’t know how to do anything other than front toe, which doesn’t matter since they don’t even know how to use their new alignment machine correctly. Didn’t catch his name, tall asian dude, never seen him before. I suggested maybe their new machine needed to be calibrated, he just said no it’s new and walked away…
Came in with my E55 to get a little more toe out up front and a bit more toe in for rear. Said that I had a crazy amount of toe out on all four corners. Impossible, I’m running RE-71’s for 10k now, they would’ve been worn down to nothing in a quarter of that time, and I would’ve spun out countless times. Front and rear tires are all wearing perfectly even.
They adjusted my front toe to whatever specs they felt like, not the ones I requested that were still within the factory recommended range. First thing I did was call Hilltop firestone and set up another apt the next day. WELL looks like I was right, they added a bunch of toe-​in up front and rears were within spec, a little too toe-​out for my liking though (0.16 vs 0.3+). They set everything up how I wanted, no problems. Now instead of my car not wanting to turn and pulling hard to the right on the highway, I have nice turn in and stability over sharp bumps.
Don’t ever get rear suspension work done here, not worth risking your or your families lives. Front might be okay, you’d just end up with worn out tires, or understeer into a building (maybe even THIS firestone) Also I was in and out of El Cerrito in like 30 minutes. it’s been a minimum one hour anywhere else. Makes me think they were rushed and didn’t care.
HEY FIRESTONE OF EL CERRITO, if you need a new alignment technician, pay my OCD ass 20/​hr and you won’t have to worry about instances like this!

Don’t go here. I went to get a flat repaired and the guy said that because of the location of the tiny nail, I would have to get a new tire. Now, the nail was not in the sidewall so I knew it was repairable. I went somewhere else and had the tire repaired. I would not trust this company.

Got in line at 8:30 AM on a Sunday even if I got an appointment to make sure it was there by 9. They told me it would be done by 12. Called at 11:30, they said 2PM. Got here at 2PM, and it’s been 1.5 hours and I still haven’t gotten my car…

I was very impressed with the service I received from Francis D. He went out his way to make sure my work was done fast and accurate. Even though I just got an oil-​change, I would come back for other service.

Short version: Staff in in this shop are either incompetent or dishonest. I’m not sure which.
I brought my car in for a four wheel alignment. It only bothered me a little that they didn’t start on it until well after my appointment time, and didn’t finish until well after the latest time they had estimated. What really bothered me was this:
They said the job was done, had me sign to acknowledge it, gave me my key and a copy of the paperwork, and moved on to the next customer. It wasn’t until I was stepping away from the counter that I noticed this message subtly printed at the bottom of the alignment results page:
«One or more values are not within specification. Tire wear, handling, and safety problems may result.»
Stopping in my tracks, I looked more carefully at the measurements taken before and after the service. It wasn’t obvious at first glance because the readings were in black and gray, and the specification ranges were in very small print, but the wheels were not properly aligned. The right front wheel’s camber was okay, but the left was just barely within spec, at its outermost limit, which was worse than it had been to begin with. Rear camber and toe were both way out of spec. None of the staff had called this to my attention.
Instead of leaving, I asked the salesman/​cashier why they hadn’t aligned my wheels. He looked over the readings before responding, presumably because he hadn’t bothered until then, and said it was probably because the rear wheels couldn’t be adjusted. (This was not true.) When I asked why they couldn’t adjust them, he called in the tech, who said the adjustments were fused. When I asked why they didn’t un-​fuse them, I was told it might require replacing several parts. This seemed far fetched, but I didn’t want to argue about it.
In summary, they attempted to send me out the door thinking they had aligned my wheels, when they had not. This was definitely misleading, and felt more than a little dishonest. They also had me sign an acknowledgment of the work that they had failed to perform, which seemed like fraud.
I went to Mark Morris Tires in Oakland a couple days later. It took them about seven seconds to walk over to my car, look under it, and see that the rear alignment was indeed adjustable. They took my car without an appointment, at lunch time, despite having a full shop, aligned all my wheels perfectly, and had me back on the road in a couple of hours. They found no fused adjustments, and needed no additional parts.
I have no way to know whether the El Cerrito Firestone staff were lying or merely incompetent, but either way, I suggest avoiding them.

I have had a bad experience with Firestone (on University) so when this new one opened up in El Cerrito I thought I would give them a try. I normally use Tire Rack and have Griffin put the tires on. I called and ordered 4 tires and made an appointment for first thing in the morning. I was late so I had to wait and I don’t mind waiting. The car was on the rack by 8:30 am. First red flag as I watch the technician struggle with getting the first tire off; takes him nearly 30 min. The manager said they had an issue getting the sensor off? Ok… next tire has 3 guys standing over it trying to figure something out, at this point I’m thinking here we go again. I have 17 in rims with low profile tires and Griffin has never had a problem. Long story short they nicked up my rims just like the other shop on University. I asked the tech «what was so hard about getting the tires off?» He said «the low profile tires are harder to get off» ??? You should know how to do this without damaging my wheels! I will not be back, 2^nd strike will not go for a third.

I don’t know why all the low reviews. The wait here is pretty long but if they are giving you good service I don’t care. I would rather wait a bit longer and get a more complete service than to get in and out in 30 minutes and have to come back the next day.
Francis D is the store manager and very friendly. They didn’t try to push anything on me like other shops and dealerships and this is my second time using a Firestone around the area (Berkeley one closed down). So this is likely going to be my go to place for stuff.
I had them patch a tire and rotate my tires (which they do some basic inspects as well.) In total it took about 1.5 hours (because there were 3 people ahead of me) and it was much faster than they had told me it would take which was a relief I guess. The price can’t be beat $ 30 for the whole thing because they had a $ 10 tire rotation deal.

New location from Berkeley!
I love how this new location look, although parking is harder. The staff are still the best and still have great customer service.
Came when they first opened this morning for an oil change and they worked on my car right away. Thank you Firestone staffs for another great experience!

After being jerked around by Wheel Works I was direct here by their corporate office. (Wheel Works & Firestone are affiliate) They made me an appt for within the hour at their new location. They gave me a discount and I received a car emergency kit, pack back packed with goodies and a sandwich from Subway. Overall the customer service was outstanding and the work was done fast.