I haven't written a negative review in more years than I can remember...And I don't enjoy doing so. However, when a wheel nearly falls off after a brake job, I don't feel unjustified. I had recently moved to the Belmar area and wanted to find a good local shop for a few personal vehicles and several business vehicles. Mark Greene had good reviews. Initially, I had sent one of our service Toyota Tundras through for a checkup/oil change/etc. Then, I brought my personal Toyota Tundra for an overdue brake job. My personal truck was finished on a Friday afternoon. Because I was circulating business vehicles through for service, I lent my personal truck to a technician for a weekend job in Summit County. My truck was returned from Summit County Sunday of that weekend. On the following Monday or Tuesday, I need to pick up a trailer and made it half way to Brighton before I heard a terrible clunking. I immediately pulled over and discovered my front driver's wheel had 3 of 5 lug nuts extremely loose and the wheel was barely hanging on to the axle. I tightened all bolts and continued on my way (slightly irritated). Our very busy work schedule gave me a few days to cool off before calling the shop. I did want to call to advise of the situation. I suggested we 'bury the hatchet' and the shop offer some free oil changes for the extreme oversight. The shops response was 'Well, it depends on how many?'. If my business had such a large oversight, I would have bent over backwards to make it right. In their case, it's a miracle the wheel did not come off on the trip by my technician to Summit County. In that case, this would have been a door closing lawsuit, not a review. After reflection, I can't afford that level of sloppiness in vehicle service. I have found a different great local shop.
Sorry this reply is so long, but I could not see any way to answer without some explaining. Anyone who starts off with a lie, has to be questioned as to their motives and honesty. William Buckley states; "I haven't written a negative review in more years than I can remember." Yet just 2 months ago Mr. Buckley wrote a one star negative review for Wheatridge Animal Hospital and a year ago wrote a 2 star negative review to mHelpDesk and two years ago, wrote a one star negative review to a Firestone auto repair business. I am not against negative reviews when they are deserved, but..... During my phone conversation with Will it seems I misinterpreted a couple of things. I had heard him say that during his technician’s drive to Summit County over the weekend the wheel had come off the vehicle, but the review states it never came off or was loose. However, since now seeing in this review, that the truck completed about 100 miles round trip to Summit County at highway speeds and the estimated 10 miles or so to Brighton, we’re at about 110 miles of driving at interstate speeds. There is no way the wheel would have been left loose and driven for this many miles, especially at interstate speeds. If a wheel is left loose, it will be discovered as loose within the first couple blocks of driving. The training procedure in our shop is to torque all the wheels we remove back to manufacturer specification. Wheel nuts are installed by hand and tightened using a torque stick, so that leaving nuts loose will not happen. With trucks we also go back and re-torque with a torque gauge. This is done as a precaution so that wheel nuts will never be left loose. We probably remove and install 20 to 30 wheels a week. Will states; “I can't afford that level of sloppiness in vehicle service”, an assumption that is not accurate. We work on approximately 2000 vehicles a year. If my shop was that "sloppy" we would not have one of the highest rating in Lakewood for auto repair. If there are any problems we are very quick to say that it was our fault and take care of the problem and any expense associated with the problem. Even when it’s not our fault, there are times when we take care of a problem for free. It’s just good business! During our conversation I was also given the impression that damage had been sustained to the studs or wheel and immediately offered to compensate or fix any issues that had been caused from the situation (not implying that we were responsible for the situation) since Will assumed that we had not tightened the wheel lug nuts. During our conversation Will didn’t correct me and instead asked for free oil changes for his company cars as compensation. We would have been happy to reimburse him for towing or repairs, but needed to understand what he was asking for. When referencing me saying, “it would depend on how many.” I don’t see how that is a bad question. Did he expect unlimited oil changes for the next year or two? He never gave me a number of how many vehicles he thought was fair, just wrote a negative review. We have had several trucks towed into our shop over the years with a wheel that loosened up, not from work done at our shop, just vehicles with wheels loosing up. Most of the time the loose wheel breaks the wheel studs. There are many articles on line as to why wheels can loosen up even if a wheel is torqued properly. A vehicle that has had wheels removed and installed over the years can have stretched and/or fatigued wheel lugs from shops over tightening wheel lug nuts using impact guns without torque sticks leading to tightening problems later on. Here is a link to just one article on the web about loosening wheel nuts: http://www.normarkindustries.com/CausesEffects.htm
- Mark Greene Automotive Repair