Firestone Complete Auto Care

They said my tire was not repairable to get me to buy new tires. I had a gut feeling and said now. Later that same day, i took it to a place down the street and it turns out it was a simple nail. Got fixed in 15 minutes and a few bucks. Lying to clients is bad.

Very, very slow service here. There is only about 3 cars on the lot but there are 5 employees and I’ve been here for a hour and a half for a simple tire rotation. Yikes!

Glad they were open to fix my tire but wow both the bathrooms are clogged up with feces. This is just really nasty. I know I’m not here to do a bathroom review but please if you are going to have public restrooms have them at least useable. Sorry Firestone, but y’all need a plunger and some toilet bowl cleaner.

I only give them 1 star because they have been good to me in the past. Things have slid far downhill quickly. A little over a week ago, I brought my 98 Accord in for an oil change and inspection. First off, it took them over 24 hours to get that done. THEN I realized (after driving my car on the highway!!!) that they had neglected to close my hood all the way! And now, barely over a week later, I have a terrible sound coming from my car engine. Coincidence? Maybe… But when I tried to contact Firestone at 0700 this morning (when the website said they were open) no answer on the phone and the shop is dark. Needless to say, I’m taking my car to a different shop that DID answer the phone at 0730. Very disappointing…

I live right next door to this place and I have tried several times in the past four days to get in to get my vehicle inspected. One day they were too busy, the next day they were too busy, yesterday they had an issue with their machine and today their inspector was nowhere around. It really stinks being so close to an establishment that you cannot use.

It took way too long to get my oil changed. That’s all I wanted to do and it still hasn’t been done. I’ve been sitting here for approximately 2 hours waiting. Two. Hours.

Okay. Back in April. I gave this place an outstanding review of 5 stars. Place was great. UNTIL. Yesterday… Sunday the 21^st of September.
I gotta say. That lady working the counter. Was sort of a … Well lets just say… So I don’t have to use bad language. Not very nice. I bring my car in at 11:00 am. Right away she tells me. OH I HAVE APPOINTMENTS EVERY HOUR. Okay I understand you’r busy. Well I have appoints every hour so I can’t tell you when it will be done. OKAY? You just said that. She repeated her self again. Okay got it. So can you do my car or not? Yes, But we have appointments every hour… Alright. At that time my wife walks in. The lady starts telling me I HAVE to get synthetic… My wife says. NO! We can’t they have been using regular for the past 7 years on the car. (The guy last time said it will be bad if I changed it. Makes sense) She continues to argue with my wife. Trying to up-​sale the Oil Change. Finally my wife says look. Just give us the regular. Also we want to get our free tire rotation that is offered. She says okay. Felt great when she finally agreed with something and said it was okay. I ask her to check my washer fluid, Her response was OH WE DON’T DO THAT. Never have unless you ask for it. REALLY??? Every time we have brought our cars in there they have done it. FOR THE PAST 6 YEARS we have been going in there… She again starts arguing with me and my wife. Finally my wife walks out… I am standing there staring at this lady… Finally I tell her. Get what I asked done PLEASE. Well I can’t promise a time. I said that is fine. I will get it later… She tells me she closes at 5 and will be done before then. With that being said… I guess she meant. .10 TILL FIVE!!! Because that is when she called me to come pick up her car. I ask if I can come get it now. At 10 till five. She said how fast can you get here… I said in 10 – 15 minutes. Oh well she was in a hurry. SO Not only did it take 6 HOURS to do an oil change that usually takes 20 MINUTES TOPS. She did it last thing and I had to wait to get my car this morning… Seems like I could have been doing things with my vehicle like… I DON’T KNOW… Go to the grocery store or maybe went and visited friends while I had my only day off of the week to do that. But NOPE I had to wait. So I guess spending my only day off after a 6 day work week waiting on my car was my plan for that day… Needless to say. I should have wasted a little more gas to go to the other location that I have been going to before. To get something done… So never again will I be going to the BEN WHITE location… Thanks Eva.
…

I went to change oil and do state inspection at this place first time even if I work on a place where i can do it for 50% less money. It was my day off and this place is closer to home so i didn’t care for extra charge because i heard good things about Firestone, but i was completely disappointed in service i got, and that is pretty hard to achieve with me. They activated my engine light and said that it happened by itself and they are not liable for it. I asked how that happened when i brought the car in great condition because i keep my car perfect. I didn’t even accused anyone i just said i think that is a too big coincidence. Employees accused me how i want to get something for free, and told me because they close in 15 minutes to bring my vehicle tomorrow so they can check what is it.(CHECK WOULD TOOK 2 MINUTES)
I brought a car tomorrow and after 15 minutes of explaining how i think they should at least check it for me, so i know its not them (it is free for them) they told me it activated few codes for emissions which they didn’t touch… I DID STATE INSPECTION!!! and they couldn’t tell me what initiated it. i couldn’t believe and I left because i didn’t want to argue all day. Than I checked the car with my service department, couple of hoses was removed so my engine wasn’t working properly, they told me someone manually removed it. I couldn’t believe. I will never do any business with firestone again and i will tell all my friends. What a joke, and people skills of employees ZERO.

The oil change appointment was for 10am. The oil change wasn’t finished until just before noon. 2 hours for an oil change! Gasp! 2 hours!
Worse yet, Firestone incorrectly stated the proper oil is 5 – 20 weight oil, and that’s the oil they put in. Later on a hunch, I contacted the car maker, and discovered Honda specifies a thicker 5 – 30 weight oil for this 1996 model, and an even thicker 10 – 30 can be used in summer months when engines run hotter. We’re now in May, already experiencing mid 80’s temperatures in Texas, and I’m concerned about the results of insufficient engine protection from this incorrect oil in hot weather.
I was very specific when asking the Firestone «complete auto care» representative about the correct oil weight for this car, and he gave me the wrong information and the wrong oil.
2 hours to change the oil.
Wrong Oil Information.
Wrong Oil.
From now on, Firestone is wrong for me.
I’ll NEVER go back to Firestone for anything. Ever.

After posting a bad review, I was contacted by someone from the Firestone corporate office who put me in contact with a district manager. The district manager offered to give a refund for half of the over $ 900 I paid originally for the repair or to take it back and fix it for free. Only getting half the refund for repairs that never lasted was not acceptable so I took him up on the free repair but took it to the Firestone located at Steiner Ranch this time. They replaced everything again and the a/​c is working now, hopefully the repairs will last not only for more than a month but as they should last several years after having everything replaced.

I have to choose one star, because this is really a serious complaint. I’d rather not, because I’ve been doing business with these guys for decades, and on the whole they’ve been pretty good. BUT…
I took my elderly Japanese pickup in because the brakes seemed to be be pulling a little bit. The quote took my breath away; $ 565! They want to replace both brake calipers, the rotors, brake pads, rear cylinders, rear shoes, and turn the drums. I’d walked past the truck on the way in and looked at the rotors and drums myself; they looked nearly new (but dirty). The report was that the front left caliper was sticking, but they want to replace everything else, and their pricing is set up so that fixing just what’s broke isn’t much cheaper.
I’ve not done any mechanicking for years. But $ 600 with tax and all? I went to the auto parts house and got a new caliper for $ 50, spent 20 minutes putting it in, and the truck stops nice and straight.
Not sure what the issue is here. The service writer was very sympathetic with the ‘fix what needs fixing’ approach, but the mechanic that wrote up the bid apparently needs a to make a car payment or something. If I’d not been knowledgeable enough to realise that they were selling me unnecessary work, I’d have been took.
Bad practice, guys. But… Thanks for the motivation! It feels good to know that I can still do a simple repair job.

I went to 2 other Firestone locations in Austin earlier today and was not acknowledged in either one until I flagged down an employee. I was also treated rude, it was very unprofessional. I decided to give Firestone one last chance (since I had a 15 $ coupon on an oil change) and I went to the Ben White location. I was immediately greeted by the friendly staff and taken care of. They called me by name and were very professional. I also had another issue with my vehicle that I thought was more serious. The gentleman helping made assured me they could fix it for cheaper and quicker than the dealership. Its hard to find a good automotive establishment, but I know where I will be taking my truck in the future.

I was looking at buying a used car on Friday after Thanksgiving 2012. A friend of mine who owned a used car lot said that instead of using a used car inspector, I should take it to Firestone. There they would just read the codes from the computer, possibly charge a small fee.
I called Firestone, explained to the man what I wanted to do, and before I could finish talking he abruptly said «We don’t do used car inspections.»
I asked if he knew anywhere that would just read the ODB-​II codes and give me a report. He said I could try Auto PI, which is the kind of place I did not want to go to. I told him I didn’t really want a 120-​point inspection, I just wanted the codes read. I asked, «Can’t you just read the codes on the car for me?» He was obviously annoyed when he answered, «Yeah, for $ 79.95 I will!» I said no thanks and hung up.
I called AutoZone at Stassney and South 1^st and they said, «Sure, bring it by!» I drove there with the car and a guy came out with a device to read the codes. He walked right inside to the computer and printed out everything that popped up. I was handed the paperwork and he said, «Have a great day!»
Seriously, how hard was that?

Went for the state inspection. Service is a little slow — took about 1.5 for the service. Staff is nice and friendly.

I have used Firestone for quite some time while I was living in Utah, and when I relocated to Austin there was a Firestone right down the street. As it turns out, this place has been every bit as good as my shop in Utah. Chico has been really great to work with, and has been very professional to myself and my fiancé everytime we have gone in. Definitely recommend them for any repair needs you may have.

I was heading in to Firestone on Ben White for a brake inspection, and called prior to my arrival for a verbal price estimate of an overdue oil change on my 130,000mi car. O.B. answered and could not have been more of a pleasure to speak with. Upon informing him that I would not be getting the oil change at Firestone because I had been offered a much lower price elsewhere, he cheerfully informed me that he had a coupon I could use and ended up giving me a synthetic oil change for less than I could get a regular oil change with a half-​price groupon!
O.B. scheduled an appointment for me that same afternoon and was my helpful service advisor when I went in to the shop. Sergio Leyva was the technician who performed my services, and there was one other technician in the shop at the time whose name I did not catch. All three treated me with the utmost respect, performed my vehicle maintenance in a timely manner and kept me informed of their findings regarding my brakes throughout the process.
After the inspection and oil change were completed, all three employees took the time to chat with me, answer my questions and explain their recommendations for future service. I do need a couple hundred dollars of of work done on my brakes (this has been confirmed elsewhere), and they told me where I could find coupons to get about $ 45 off of the service, which will help quite a bit.
I can not explain enough how refreshing the staff at this location were and how honestly pleasant and painless they made what would have otherwise been a grim experience. I am actually shocked to see the previous reviews since my experience with all three employees was extremely positive. As long as they keep staff like the ones I encountered, this is the only place I, or anyone else I can persuade, will be taking their vehicle for work or routine maintenance.

It’s really funny to see some people writing good reviews. probably they don’t know that they are being ripped off.
1– this place mark their parts by 100% to 200%, so if a part sells for $ 50 at autozone, advance,
or whatever, you are paying $ 100 to $ 200 for it.
2– they also mark up their labor hours twice and more. so if a job needs two hours for example, they will charge you five hours of labors for it and even more. so say you wait five hours, the mechanic work on your car for two hours and spend the other three hours in the toilet, fixing other cars, chatting or disappearing. You are paying for that time.
3– they have all kind of ripoff techniques for people who don’t know nothing about cars. as a simple example, the check engine light, they will tell you computerized engine diagnosize $ 70. Now if a person doesn’t know anything about cars, he might think «WOW, a computerized engine diagnosise… is this something like sending a rocket to the moon». while the fact is that this doesn’t take more than a minute and most places do it for free. most people know this by now but this is a simple example that you will end up with all kind of crap like that on your bill, things that sound as important but they are actually nothing .
4– they fool you with all the certifications and stuff, while the fact that there are six or seven people working there or whatever, out of these, there is only one real mechanic. the other either don’t know nothing about cars, either they know how to jack a car and tightening a bolt and things like that. so basically your car is being worked on by incompetant people who don’t know what they are doing.
Bottom line, these are wolves hiding in cheap clothes that worship the buck. they will take most advantage of people who are having problems with their cars.
by the way, if you bought tires from there, make sure to check the last four digits of the DOT number on your tire, which tells you the work week and year when the tire was manufactured. tire rubber deteriorates over time even if the tire is unused and sitting on the rack. Don’t buy a tire older than 6 months. Firestone and walmart do that and sell new tires of a junkyard quality, so beware and make your research.

Even with the negative reviews I still decided to take my car here out of convenience (Just for an oil change because I had a coupon). I expected the worst, but ended up getting great service. Nothing extra special about the place, but nothing shady either. No one tried to up sell me on anything (although I did have a newer filter). This was about 2 weeks ago. The reason I am leaving this review now is because they actually called me today to make sure I was happy with their service. Must be some sort of damage control they are trying out. Either way I thought it showed good effort and they have earned my future business. This is the first review I have written for a service company so I must be impressed.

I was worried considering the reviews here, but it was close to work and the entertainment coupon book has 20% coupons so I took a chance. I got quite a bit of work done — new water pump, coolant flush, and a new fuel filter. The work was done right, my only complaint is that they took several hours longer to finish the job. Instead of it being done at 3PM they finished at 7:15. I understand that things happen so, although aggravating at the time, I got over it. Plus they cut me a break on the bill ($ 50) for the extra time.
The staff was courteous and explained everything they were doing along the way. I’m sure I’ll return in the future.

Not helpful… staff has poor attitudes.