My buddy nearly got scammed for $250 bucks at the Sycamore location.

What happened was his Explorer had a leaky tire, so I went along with him to this place just to tag along. Dropped the car off, went to Steak & Shake for lunch, then came back to hear them tell us that they need to do $250 repair work due to "tire damage". The guy showed us the nail in the wheel and told us because it was not at least a thumbs-width away from the sidewall that they cant put a patch on it. Also both rear wheels had "dry-rot", he asked if he towed a boat, he doesn't even own one. When the salesman showed us, you could barely see any cracks at all. The tires were perfect. There was no dry rot. "Well, if you look at this angle... ...well its a bit wet so you cant really see" while he was trying to point it out.

I told him to get the key and GTFO of there.

We then went to a place closer to us called Illini Tire Company on the corner of Annie Glidden and Lincoln Highway. Right away you could tell when walking in that you're not going to get a salesman pushing an unnecessary tire sale on you. Guy checked it out, and not only put a patch over the nail hole but found another hole that the other guys missed, all for $24.50. Apparently we weren't the first people to jump from Tires Plus to that place, the owner said there were others who came here and said that they couldn't leave that other place fast enough.

So yea, stay away from Tires Plus, or any other national automotive chain for that matter. The independently-owned shops base their work off of their reputation and not some monthly sale quota.

Yea, I go to a local place that has taken great care of me. Never paid for an alignment (and they give me the spec sheet), and get great deals. The deals aren't the best, but I've been given free stuff and favors all the time. They turned my drilled/slotted rotors for free, brake job at just the cost of parts, and they gave me Pirelli P4'* for cost because I burned through my old tires a bit quickly. In fact, my dad took my bonne in there before my 16th birthday to get it ready to give to me, and they gave him new tires, pads, turned rotors, and a some minor fixes on the brake system for less than $400. This place is known around town for being the best around.

On the other hand, my brother got an oil change a some tires at a Ramona tire, which we used to work next to, and they left his oil cap off and put the wrong filter in.
And while we were working, we started seeing them goofing around with cars in the back.

So I definitely agree.

I needed to have my car inspected but I go to school full time so weekends work best for me. Instead of going to the local shop, I went to Tires Plus. BIG mistake.

I arrive and hand them the keys and the inspection guy comes out and says he can't do the inspection because his license expired.

Asks if I want to come back sometime during the week. Told them that they were out of their minds after doing that to me. Called up the local shop and worked it out during the week.

I will never be going back to Tires Plus.

Yep I went to tires plus for an alignment on the 95. After they finished they told me it still pulls to the right cause they have to elongate the strut holes to make a 3 degree adjustment! I said maybe another time cause they wanted to charge me another $100 to do it. The strut hols are already elongated! I will never go back there.

yeah, my mom got screwed out of like $400 for new struts there for the bonneville

Yikes! Good to know. In this area, I also recommend Rich'* Tire. They've always been very honest and up front with me. They actually put brand new tires on my car with NO notice less than a half hour before closing when I blew one on the Lumina (the other three were severely dryrotted as well).

Tire Kingdom tried to scam me with the SSEi....saying I needed new strut camber bolts. 250 dollars!! I said "Button it up, I'll replace them myself. There is NO way 8 bolts cost 250 bucks.". They didn't argue with me about it either.

That happened to be the day the motor crapped out on me. Good thing I DIDN'T get the alignment

Many of us have had bad luck at one joint or another. While it'* always "buyer beware", the real reason a particular place is bad has more to do with the local management than with one particular chain or local store. Remember that each of these is franchised and (usually) locally owned and managed.

That having been said, some chain stores do have poorer reps than others (I.E. Jiffy Lube here in Florida) due to their pressure sales tactics and questionable service ethics.

The practices of any service location almost always reflect the ethics of the owner/manager.