Sorry if this isn't the right place to do this. The story is this: I needed to swap my wheels, but somewhere along the line, my wheel lock key got lost. So I went to Firestone on Jamboree near the Chapel Hills Mall in C-Springs and asked them to get them off. They said, no problem, should take about an hour.

Half an hour later, I got a call from them. The tech tells me that their tool slipped and scratched my wheel. I say, okay, is the job done? Did you get the locks off? He said, no, actually, the one they were working on broke and they'd be unable to get it off. He told me to take it to the dealership, they should have the set of keys for them. I asked, will a key help with the one you broke? He said, no, they'd probably have to destroy the wheel to get it off.

I return to the store, and I'm absolutely livid. I tell the guy that I'm taking it to the dealership, and when they give me the bill, I'm taking it back to them to have it paid. The guy says, no way, it's not our fault, whoever overtorqued these locks is at fault! They must have used and impact wrench, not lovingly hand-torqued them as we do here. I said, I thought you had a special tool to take these off. This is when I found out his special tool was a socket, slightly bigger than the wheel lock, pounded on with a hammer.

So I went to the dealership, got an appointment to have it fixed, and since a different Mazda dealership was the last one to touch the lug nuts when they rotated my tires, I asked them about the impact-wrenched wheel locks. They said no dealership uses an impact wrench, especially not on wheel locks, because it breaks them.

So now I'm fighting firestone to pay for the havoc they caused to my car. Do not, for the love of God, take your car there. They're incompetent bandits, all of them.

I hope you get this worked out, that sucks.

no problem my ass... I hate having to deal with that kinda crap....

Wow that sucks. I have to take my aunts 3 to firstone for servicing later today. It's a rental but I hope the ones here in Denver have some brain.

Good luck with it all.

Can you tell us which Firestone location this was? I have taken my car to one in Denver for an alignment before and had no trouble. I didn't have to deal with any wheel locks though. Sucks to hear that this happened...I hope you get what you deserve out of the deal.

He did tell you

So sorry to hear this... I can understand how upset you would be (so would I!)

first I thought you were talking about firestoned, the user here on the board.

That sucks man, I usually keep to fatboys in Cheyenne or Discount tire in Fortcollins

Yikes! You scared me for a sec. I too thought you meant Eric (firestoned). Glad to hear its not him, but sorry to hear that about your firestone problems. Its not the first iv heard bad things about them. Long ago they repaired my dads transmission on his camry and neglected to refill it with trany fluid... needless to say they had to buy a new trany. Best of luck!

I can't believe they would have attempted to remove the wheel locks without the Key. "Special Tool" what a jack-a$$. Tell him to bend over you got a "Special Tool" (aka jack handle) for Unprofessional Tire and Wheel Service.

I would tell the local jack-a$$ Service Manager that unless he pays the cost to repair for their screw-up you're contacting the National Firestone Customer Service. It would find it hard to believe that they would condone such backyard garage practices at their Service Centers - pounding oversized sockets on wheel locks. That Service Manager should get his assed chewed by Firestone Headquaters for such an unprofessional backyard garage practice.

Title better now?

wyosaint wrote:first I thought you were talking about firestoned, the user here on the board.

That sucks man, I usually keep to fatboys in Cheyenne or Discount tire in Fortcollins

damn dude thats a load of bull

Update: Bob Penkhus Mazda quoted me $192 for the repairs. I called the manager at Firestone, who again told me it was the over-torquing that was the problem and it was not his fault and he wouldn't pay (Actually, he offered to pay the $1.50 it costs for a new stud, but that Mazda's prices are "highway robbery." I guess labor only costs money at his shop.) I told him what Mazda told me, that they hand-torque them like everyone else, and asked him if they had actually measured the torque on my lug nuts. Needless to say, they hadn't.

I just filed complaints with the Better Business Bureau and Firestone national, so we'll see what comes of it. I really don't want to go to small claims court with this, but I will if I have to, I guess. That's the best part about free representation- you can make it work if you have more time than money.

I don't get it. For $192 they could make me go away. Instead they've probably lost more than that from this thread and the people around school I've told.

Also, firestoned is a good guy. He sold me the wheels that this debacle has kept me from putting on.

Rootski wrote:Also, firestoned is a good guy. He sold me the wheels that this debacle has kept me from putting on.

So in reality, if it weren't for his wheels, you wouldn't be going through this. At least, not right now.