Brake Check

About a year ago, my car started to vibrate pretty violently whenever braking at higher speeds. I took my car to the San Marcos Brake Check, paid a pretty penny to have my rotors resurfaced, paid for the lifetime brakes, basically paid for everything they recommended for me to do. 3 months later, my brakes started vibrating again, this time with a noise that sounded like something was clanging around. I assumed that since I had paid for lifetime brakes, that this should be covered under whatever warranty came with my lifetime brakes. I took my vehicle in again, explained what was wrong, and that it had just been fixed. One of the workers took my car out for a test drive. He came back in, said it was a bad strut, and that since it was something different than what they had fixed previously, I would be paying full price for the repair. At the time, I thought that made sense, and agreed to the repair, which included replacement of the rotors that had been resurfaced months before, and a new strut assembly. What I didn’t think about is that the worker who test drove my vehicle did not even look under the hood or behind the tire before he diagnosed the problem. I probably should have thought about that.
I prepaid for my repair that day, I was told I could bring my car in the next day, Friday, to have the repair started, and that it would be fixed the same day. I told them I would bring it in the following day, Saturday, as I work 24 hour shifts and would not be available until then. They had more time than they had estimated to get my part in. I dropped my car off when I told them I would, Saturday morning. I went home and slept because of having worked the entire day and night before. I was expecting to receive a call sometime that afternoon telling me to pick up my car. I slept til 4:00 pm, never once being woken. I called at that time and asked if my car was ready. The person on the phone said yes, it was sitting outside, but to let him check. He came back and said my car had just been sitting there all day and that no one from the morning shift had told him that it was waiting for a repair. This employee told me he would get it done, and that I would be able to pick up my car in a few hours.
I got a call back about an hour later. The employee explained to me that in their rush to get my car repaired, a bolt holding my strut assembly in place had broken. They did not have this specific bolt to finish my repair, and that I needed to wait til the following day for them to order this new part that had been broken in their hurry to provide me the service I had paid for. I was disappointed, but at this point I wasn’t overly inconvenienced. I didn’t need the car until the Monday, so I agreed to pick up the car the next morning, which was Sunday. They said my car would be a priority
Sunday morning, no one called with any updates. I attended church services until the afternoon, and decided I needed to find out if my car was ready. I called, and the employee on the line told me they couldn’t find the part they had broken, and that they would have a better chance finding it on a weekday during business hours. At this point, I got upset. More than anything because they should have called me to relay this bit of information when they found it out. Getting information out of these guys was like squeezing blood out of a rock. I told them I was disappointed with their level of communication and that if you’re going to keep someone’s car multiple days for a repair that should have taken a few hours, maybe you should call them once in a while.
Anyways, I got my car back that Tuesday. My wife was without a car for 2 days because I had to take hers to work. I got charged for the bolt they broke when they were in a hurry to fix my car after letting it sit there all day. The strut assembly they replaced in my car squeaks like a son of a gun, and the brakes squeal. I’m still getting loud knocking noises coming from that side of the car when I brake, but to be fair, the vibrating hasn’t come back.
Oh, also, I paid for an oil change with my strut repair. I asked for 5W-​20, my receipt said 5W-​20, but the sticker on my windshield said they used 10W-​30. So, while I definitely wouldn’t bring my car here for major repairs, they might not do even the small stuff like oil changes or simple brake pad replacements too well. Personally, I’ll never go back. It was a very expensive ($ 1,600) lesson. Most of the guys there were friendly, but it takes competence to repair a car. Their lack of communication was really unprofessional, and the way my car sounds when I drive it now means they either use crap parts, or they aren’t highly skilled.

They’re super nice and they helped me out with my wheel alignment to the best that they could. Long story short, previous owner got into a wreck and never fixed the alignment properly, so there’s more to it… but they helped as much as they could and gave me a good deal for the money I had on me. They seem pretty honest and offer good deals!