i got really pissed off recently.
before the winter ended, i got a accident and my wheel alignment was fucked. fortunately, it was covered by insurance cuz it wasnt my fault. after almost a month, everything was fixed as well as the alignment. beside the body shop, my wheel alignment was done by a tire shop called TireCraft.

since this summer, i have been ready to install my coilover myself. however, i found out that all my lug nuts were overtorqued as well as the wheel locks. when i looked at my lock key, it had been striped too. i have gone to a lot tire shops, mazdas, and they said its gonna be a tough work if i dont have a brand new key. alright then, i just ordered a brand new key. today, i went to north hill mazda with the brand new key that i just got, and i was pretty happy cuz eventually the locks would have been taken off. they spent less than an hour and they called me saying that they still couldnt take them off cuz as soon as they strated to turn, the key started to strip, but they charged me 90 dollars for time spent....wtf, it never happened, i brought my car to tons of shops before and they never charged me anything if they did get success? i argued with the service manager and finally paid it with unhappiness. and they quoted me 8 hours for removing the wheel lock without using the striped the key.

i went to tirecraft who did my alignment after i left from mazda, and i found out that they are bankrupt......i called the ex-owner, he told me that even if it was their fault, they couldnt pay anything cuz the company doesnt have money......

 

**** that sucks...well on the bright side of things at least your not getting rid of your hot baby...

 

i am not that passive....
but just got a good news: the other tirecraft decided to remove my locks with no charge tmr.

 

Damn that sucks. Which Tirecraft went "bankrupt"?

I went to the Tirecraft in Crowfoot area to get something fixed, and they did it for free.

 

it is the one on 32nd ave NE.
i am not sure if the other one can really do it free for me when they look at my actual situation. other places claimed that they will need to cut it or something.

 

My brother had a lug nut that was completely stripped. Not sure how he manage to get it off, but I know the nut was melted. If you can't get it off today, I can ask him. Let me know.

 

i got it off already by another tirecraft with no charge. but one of my rims is done....and it is pretty bad these rims are discontinued by 5zigen. my wheel almost fell off when i was driving back from the shop.

 

oh man sucks to hear that. Glad the other tirecraft is willing to fix it for you free of charge. You know I told you i got my lock nut off by Master tune for $50 bucks right? I also took my car to tirecraft for a quote since its 2 mins from my house, and the guy quoted me $300-$450 after looking at it !!! i asked him why so much and how he is going to approach the problems and he couldn't even answer me!.. ********...

I know what you mean about those dealer charges eh, my friend bought his civic hatchback to honda for some weird rattle noise in the back. So one technician climbed into the back of the civic while another guy drove around. They came back 15 mins later and said they couldn't figure out where the noise is coming from. Then they said they have to charge for my friend a full hour labour (~$100) for trying to diagnose the problem, and told him they would have to take out the panels to see where the rattle could be coming from and that would cost min of 2 hours ( ~$200). so pretty much paying them a min of $300 to find the problems by trial and error!!! needless to say my friend was pissed off, tried to argue , told them to **** off but still ended up paying the $100 for that little 15 stint they did..

I came across the same problem when I was getting my spring fixed at Kramer. they charged me $100 for telling me i didnt install my springs properly. then they charged me $150 for moving the alignment bolt/washer. I told him to show me where the bolts are and they pointed to three bolts on the rear suspension. I asked them dont they have to move those bolts anyway for alignment ( which i'm also paying for), and they said they only rotate it for alignment (???), not take it out and put it back in .......

so I ended up paying them $150 for them to take out and put back in 3 bolts that probably took them 5 mins ( if even) and then another $120 or something for the actual alignment.. scammer..... quoted me over the phone the repair bill was going to be ~ $400 ( from the $120 alignment cost I made an appointment for), and it ended up being a $700+ bill....

 

ps if you ever want to get any wheel/tire work done or watever.. I HIGHLY recommend option import and tires ( beside shadow tint/back alley). Lots of praises for them from alot of diff people, and if you tell them you know them from www.beyond.ca you get 10% off

 

forgot to mention that one of the wheel stud was done too, i bought the replacement and i tried to push it out tonight but it didnt even move. probably because i used the stick coming with the jack instead of a hammer. i will try to borrow a hammer tmr and give a last try.

 

dying, actually, i never had problem with northhill mazda service before; last time when i just installed my new rims, one of them made a freaking noise and they fixed for me with no charge......there were so many good things about northhills service before so i couldnt really say they are bad. but i will try to argue with the service manager again cuz he told me that he actually tried to give a lot power to make one lock even more tight cuz he thought it might came out that way; however, today when i went the tirecraft, they successfully removed 3 locks within an hour expect one. i guess that maybe the one that mazda tried to make more tight; i will try to let them pay me a new rim(even if its already discontinued, there is still the 'hot version' coming on the market); but i wont expect too much;

 

today, i had to remove all my lovely 5zigens and put my stock wheels one. it was pretty straightforward even including replace the wheel stud at the front. when i was trying to take off the last wheel, the last lug nut stuck there again. at least it is not a lock. but i will have to drive with 2 different wheels tmr to let someone remove that for me.....