Just Brakes Doesn't Care!

I've never done this before - but - I'm going to tell you about our horrible experience at Just Brakes and tell you why you should not go there for your brake job, should you need brakes for your car.

Our Durango, having over 113,000 miles on it, has been having problems. Remember not too long ago the front wheel pretty much fell off the thing. Well, not even 'pretty much', it kinda did! Lately we've noticed some other problems with the Durango. When we hit the brakes, it made a clunking noise. We also really need shocks and struts because when we go over bumps in the road, you feel EVERYTHING.

Chris usually works on our brakes. Always has. But this time... he thought something else was wrong. The car didn't drive like it was just a brake problem. Not your typical brake squeeling or problem stopping, this was.... different. So... Chris thought - we should bring it to someone to have it looked at to diagnose the problem.

We decided to take it to "Just Brakes", because you know their slogan: "At Just Brakes, we really do care!". Sounded good. There is one right on Dale Mabry south of Lambright. We brought the Durango in, told them about the noise, and sat and waited for them to look at the car.

The first thing they called us into the 'bay' for was to look at the Master Cylinder. There was fluid in there, they said. Not good - he said. And he said it was a "Safety Issue" over and over again. He tried to show us this fluid. First, he took out a seal and went looking for a screwdriver. He stuck the screwdriver down into the cylinder, but - he said - it wasn't 'long enough'. Well... thinking back now... how did he know there was fluid in there? It was like he was FISHING for it. He then went to find something longer to 'show us' the fluid. He found a long stick of cardboard, stuck it WAY down the cylinder and pulled it out, and sure enough, about a quarter inch of fluid was there. Not good, he tells us. This could make our brakes spongy. Well... we don't have that issue at all. He tells us our Master Cylinder might have to be rebuilt, but that he would continue looking over the car. This was just the first thing he noticed.

We went back into the waiting room to wait. He called us back out to show us our brakes. Chris had put the left on the right and the right on the left when he did our last brake install. He explained that it wouldn't cause any problems at all... and he didn't see any 'wear' on them... but, he just wanted us to see that they were on wrong. Great, thanks for that Mr. Professional.

Again, we go back into the waiting room, and then again he calls us out. This time he shows us the rear wheels. Have we ever had the rear brakes done? Well... no. But, we've never had a problem with them. The guy tells us that he doesn't know if they are even working. Well, we can tell you that they do indeed work, you can drive down the road and hit the rear brakes and they'll stop the car just fine -- they work. Sure... they LOOK old, but the car IS a 1999.

I also noticed some things while I was sitting in the waiting room. There were lots of people waiting. One that caught my attention was a teenage boy with his mom. The boy had his cash in a bank envelope (probably just enough saved to do the $99.95 brake job they advertise would be my guess). Mom and the kid kept asking them to just do the $99 brake job, but the guy kept telling them that they couldn't do JUST that because of the "security issue" they had found. They couldn't NOT address the security issue. I made a mental note of that and wondered if this was going to come up later in our conversation when they try to tell us about our car.

Also while we were waiting, Chris was on his phone and did a Google Search on Just Brakes Dale Mabry Tampa. He found LOTS of websites of people complaining about being ripped off. Scammed. Horrible stories, and they all sounded exactly like what was happening to us. What they said was that once they go the parts OFF your car, they couldn't put them back on the vehicle. Something about putting bad parts on the car and sending you out the door... that being a security problem in and of itself. All of the websites said that nobody paid $99. for a brake job, that it was always more money than that.

With each story Chris read, he began to get increasingly worried. He finally decided to put a stop to it BEFORE they got all the brake parts off the car. (At this point they only had the wheels off) He goes out to the bay and tells the man to stop what he is doing. He explains that he was reading some things on the Internet that made him uncomfortable about having our car worked on here. Chris apologized for not doing that before we came, and offered to pay for his time that he worked on it so far.

The guy - probably 6' 3" and weighing in over 300 lbs, came in and was VERY upset with us. He asked what he had done wrong. We explained that it wasn't HIM, but that what we were reading sounded very fishy and we just felt better taking the car someplace else. The guy told us he had two kids at home and he would NOT scam anybody. I think he thought we went LOOKING for a scam website... we did not... they just come up when you google their name.

Anyways... they guy became very agitated. But Chris remained calm for the most part, just saying over and over again "just please, put my car back together - I'll pay you for my time - and we'll leave." But the guy was really upset. He said to Chris, "heck, you are the guy who put your brakes on wrong!". Nice. Then TWO times he called Chris uneducated.

Uneducated?

The second time he said it... Chris got into what I can only describe as corrections officer mode. He stood up, pointed his finger at him (you have to remember the waiting room is full of people) and said "That's the second time you have called me uneducated. Now you are starting to piss me off". With that , the guy really started yelling - YELLING at us!

He ended it when the guy finally walked in with our keys. The big guy behind the counter get up, opens the door and tells us to "GET THE HELL OUT OF MY SHOP!"

Oh yeah... it really happened. Holy cow.

Oh, and the brake light came on as we were leaving. Think they drained out our fluid? I think so.

So.... please..... go ANYWHERE to get your car worked on -- but do NOT go to Just Brakes.

We did end up taking the car to the place we took it when the wheel fell off before. They were honest Christan men. They called to give us the good and bad news. The good news - there was absolutely NOTHING wrong with our brakes at all. The bad news, our steering knuckle and something else was bad, something to do with the steering. (Chris could tell me, I forget!) So bad that had it broken when we were driving, we could have had no steering ability. Scary stuff. He had to take the front end apart to fix it, so while he was in there, for no extra labor cost, he went ahead and did the shocks at the same time. So... the front end of the Durango drives really well right now. Assuming - that is - that God's grace continues to let the transmission last only as long as we need it! So far... so good!

I have more news about Kayla, my mom and my God daughter who all need prayer... but for now -- it's late, and I just wanted to get this blog in about the Durango.

"A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove...but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child." Forest E. Witcraft