Extremely lucky I guess.
I wouldn't know, I'm not a lucky person.
Hence why I'd rather be out in 5 degree weather, with a foot of snow on the ground changing my oil than pay someone else to do it. I don't trust any place around here anymore.
Unless its tires, an alignment, or state inspection, I do it myself, or pay a friend of mine to help get whatever it is done. He used to do a lot of work on the side (dealer mechanic by day) but being a new father now, his out of work time is fairly well spoken for. He wanted to open a shop of his own, and even had people lined up to work for him, but couldn't get a small business loan to do it.
He'* actually gotten kicked out of shops by trying to do the right thing. They would want him to go through a bunch of unneeded stuff to inflate the repair bill. Or do an extensive diagnostic on something he already figured out. He'* been kicked out of a few dealers for working around the policy to inflate the bill whenever possible. Seems like common practice now. You can't find any place that'* honest.
I used to have a family run shop I'd go to. But they were bought out. New owner + one bad experience with tires and them lying about the job they did, and not doing what I asked them to do= an expensive $460 reminder that honest auto shops are dead.

Kinda related, but I took my car with a hanging cat and said "Can you weld it?"
They said "If we can its $25 bucks."
"Sure! Im gonna go get lunch, call me when its done."

They call me an hour later, I go, the bill is $300!!! they'd just thrown a new cat on there!!
"Uh, guys..."
"yeah the old one couldn't be welded back."
"WHY DIDNT YOU TELL ME?"

Ugh. I coulda bought the zzp cat for 70 bucks if I'd known they were just putting a $200 cat on there. :/
Sadly I had the fever of "need a car" and just agreed instead of being patient, telling them to take it off, and just waiting a few more days for the cat I wanted.

Yea, I paid $70 for 5 minutes of work.

A lot of shops have a minimum charge, 45 mins, some times a hour.

I'm just saying, considering the fact that I dropped $500 on new tires, I think they could've forgave the extra 5min of work the $115 belts took.

BTW, I was originally quoted $480 for tires, oil change, and a belt. I paid $700! But the guy who quoted me that price no longer works there.

If the quote was in writing, it has to be honered, even if he'* gone.

And I agree, for that much money they could have tossed on a belt at no extra charge.

Haha, I posted this on Facebook:

Goodyear on Gilbert was just bought by TiresPlus. I just put new tires on the car and the mechanic suggested I get new belts. I was charged $115 for the belts and $70 for labor. The price of the belts new at the autoparts stores is $55 for the best ones. The manager refused to resolve this with me.
STAY AWAY FROM GOODYEAR ON GILBERT!
Share this so your friends don't get ripped off like I did.
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https://i.imgur.com/agitc.jpg





It'* already been reposted by my friends 7 times, who knows how many times their friends have posted it.

A mad customer will tell a lot more people he'* mad then a happy customer will tell his friends he'* happy.

Also consider that probably half of the people who get screwed over never say a damn thing about it. They just don't come back.

I just talked to Kenny, the manager who stayed after the buyout, and all I heard was "I'm so sorry!" about a hundred times. He explained that the guy was suppose to tell me the price of the part before making the sale. He went on about how the new owners blah blah blah, and how he wasn't able to refund the money.
I told him I don't want a refund, I just don't want this to ever happen to me again. If I can save $60 by bringing the belts in with me, I expect to know it. If I'm going to pay for an hour of labor, I expect an hour of work to be done on my car, not 5 minutes.

It'* good to know that there are still people out there who care about customer service (another point I made abundantly clear).

Should have been done by the flat rate book with no minimum, but that'* different state to state regulations. You can also go to several online "Yellow Books" and leave comments that will be seen when others search for them or a tire store in the area.