I had an awful experience at Just Brakes on South Lamar today, and I’m writing to let everyone know that they should stay far, far away from this place. They advertise that they can replace break pads and shoes for $99.98, but apparently that’s only the price if you agree to get about $1000 in work done on the rest of your car. They may call themselves “Just Brakes,” but they wanted to do a whole lot of other crap to my engine despite the fact that I regularly get it serviced and there had been no problems when I took it into Groovy Lube two weeks ago.
To make a long story short, Paul the mechanic spoke a lot of gibberish about what was wrong with my car. The only part I really understood was that my discs were so messed up that they were bleeding brown rust onto the side of my white car. I was surprised to see this brown “rust” because I’d never noticed it before. Paul also said I’d need to get the rust power-washed off because it was so bad (more on this later). In sum, Paul wanted to replace all the calipers, “rebuild” something or other in the rotors, and replace a bunch of stuff in my engine because there was more “bleeding” going on their. He touched a lot of stuff and showed me the black crud on his finger. That was supposed to be the proof, I guess. I nodded my head in fake understanding, while my brain began making pessimistic cost estimates. I was thinking, “Oh, shit, this is gonna cost a grand.” Well, that was actually optimistic of me. My ultimate quote: $2500!!!!! “Holy crap,” I exclaimed, “That’s more than the value of my car.” Paul recalculated the estimate without the engine overhaul, and it still came out to over $1000 to fix my brakes!
I ordered them to put my car back together because I was getting the hell out of there and calling my south Austin mechanic, Jose Salgado, to see if he does brakes. They tried to get me to come back in for a “reduced” price (apparently, this is a negotiation), but any level of trust was completely gone and I had no interest in continuing the conversation. After calling Jose to verify that he could fix my brake system for much cheaper, I went back inside, where Will the Manager tried to make me feel like a moron. “Hey, man, you wouldn’t want us to not tell you about your car’s problems, would you? We’re legally obligated to let you know what’s wrong with your car. We could tell you everything’s fine, but you wouldn’t like it when it broke down later.” I didn’t bother to explain my feelings about their “legal obligations.” Instead, I just shook my head and told him to put my car back together because I was leaving as soon as humanly possible, Then: “Come on, man, just let us put some pads and shoes on for you — I’ll do it for $120.” Here, the shrewd reader would ask: what happened to the $99.98 advertised price? I later learned from Yelp! that you only get that price if you agree to let them assault you with their overpriced services on their initial estimate. Will the Manager had victimized others in that list of reviews (check these reviews out — no one gives them more than one star!) Here’s one more detail to show how bad these people are: while I was in the garage, I heard them talking about putting up signs for “Early Bird Specials” to get more customers, as they surely wanted to trick other people into buying their “99.98″ line.
Will tried to tell me that my car was in such bad shape that I wouldn’t even be able to make it to my body shop on South Congress and Woodward. I told him I’d take the chance. He told me that it could “go” at any minute. I half-suspected that these crooks would sabotage my car when they put the wheels back on just to prove Will the Manager right.
When I got to Jose’s place on South Congress, I showed him the “rust” on the side of my car that was so bad I’d need it power-washed (according to Paul at Just Brakes). Jose wiped a little away and laughed. The “rust” was brownish pollen from a tree I’d parked under during the last couple of wet days.
Moral of the story: go to a trustworthy mechanic like Jose Salgado (512-736-4795).
