Sumner Shortcuts

Stumbled over this Craigslist post today blasting the Gallatin Gemini Goodyear auto repair center and at the same time praising the fine folks at the Gallatin Auto Zone.

So you can look at this Consumer Alert as either a warning about Gemini Goodyear or a referral for Auto Zone.  Or you can exercise your rights and ignore it altogether.

Unfortunately, the author doesn’t provide much in the way of details:

“I HAD BEEN DOING BUSINESS AT GOODYEAR FOR A LONG TIME… TODAY THE MECHANIC TOLD ME A LIE RIGHT TO MY FACE….. I WILL NEVER DO BUSINESS AT GOODYEAR EVER AGAIN !!!! THEY WANTED 364.00 DOLLARS TO FIX A CHECK ENGINE LIGHT. I WENT TO AUTO ZONE THEY CHECKED THE PROBLEM INSTALLED THE OXYGEN SENSOR FOR FREE.. YES I SAID FREE…. THE PART WAS 70 DOLLARS. TOOK 10 MINUTES TO INSTALL IN THE PARKING LOT…. THANKS MARCUS.. GREAT JOB AND SAVED ME A LOT OF MONEY.”

First of all, you can tell this guy’s angry because he typed in all caps.  That’s the universal sign for angry… sort of like exclamation points are the universal sign for excitement–and just as annoying.

Now, I’ve taken a car to Gemini Goodyear before, and it was not a very good experience.  I left there feeling like I’d been mislead.  My air conditioning wasn’t working, and they told me it was one thing… then after they fixed that thing but the air conditioning stayed broken, they told me it was something else entirely.  So I’m not entirely surprised to learn that this fellow felt lied to.

And I’ve also had an experience at Auto Zone.  My car battery died and they were quite helpful in loaning me a bunch of tools and cleaner to help me change the battery in their parking lot.

So it’s safe to say that I would tend to agree with this guy.  I doubt that lying to customers is part of the standard Goodyear business model, but chain repair shops like that do tend to treat you more like a cash machine than a real person.

Anyone have any run-ins with either location that might differ from this?  Here’s a screenshot of the offended party’s ad: