STAY AWAY FROM FOUNTAIN TIRE ON GOVERNMENT AND HERALD
 

just a warning to anyone that may be, or will be cutomers of fountain tire.

the manager, goes by the name of Duane, is a douche, has no customer service and has no idea what he is talking about.

My mom(she doesn't speak english very well) dropped off her 99 camry off there in mid november cause her engine check light was on. they did a full maintenance on the car (which was never asked for) inluding oil change, new wipers (never asked for), and just check up on the vehicle. when she picked up the car, CEL was reset, so she thought the problem was fixed. shortly after the CEL came on again so she brought it in again, so they rest the light again, and then changed her belts and her battery (again, never asked for again). so when she picked it up again, shortly after, the CEL came on again, and then she got into a car accident resulting the car to be in the body shop for about 2 months. she brought the car back in yesterday again to have CEL problem fixed, but i guess they culdn't find anything else on teh car to fix so teh decided to charge her $80 for diagnostic tests and $50 for circuit trace, and on to of that, $400 to repair the problem. so when my mom told me, i was shocked so i went down to fountain tire myself and checked the previous invoices.

the first invoice back in november, they claimed there was no CEL so they did a maintenance. they charged her for oil change, new wipers, shop supplies for the wiper, battery levy, and oil disposal fee. so i asked "why is there a battery levy when she didn't get a new battery?", they said it was put there by mistake because she should get a new battery. i asked "hwo come you charged $5.00 for oil disposal?", they said "we charge 50cents per litre and 50 cents for the oil filter." i said that it should only be $3 because the camry uses 5L of oil, then the manager said, "we can charge whatever we want, i can break it down to $5.00 if i want." after, i asked hwo could wipers that were changed in november already be shit now, especially when the car was in the shop for 2months. he replies "i don't know." i asked for the brand of wipers that he uses and he offered to give me new ones under warranty. after i asked about the shop supplies, they said they charge 15% of the bill even if they don't use any shop supplies.

On teh second invoice, which was in december, and the subject of the bill was titled 'CEL on." she was charged for changing the belts,a new battery, and 15% shop supplies, but no battery levy fee.

third invoice (yesterday), she was just charge for the $80 diagnostic and $50 circuit trace. i asked why would my mom bring the car in to get scanned when i just got it scanned at autofx a few days before for free? they said "i don't know, but if you don't pay it, i wont' warranty your wipers, and i won't give the spare key you left with us."

in the end i paid, and they swapped teh wipers. the wipers they "replaced" in november were already falling apart. the rubbers were ripping off teh ends, and they just wipe like garbage.

i'm usually just a lurker on RS, but i took my time to write this to let you know, and warn you guys. thanks for reading.


UPDATED!!! called Duane, the manager/owner yesterday after i spoke with bcpca, told him i will take it up with small business claims and report to BBB. He hesitated and was almost willing to reinburse me but then he told me to call him back today. He read my post on revscene, and said he was only going to deal with my mom, and not me. he obviously only wants to deal with my mom so he can take advantage of her again.


Just for fun: He was crying about me calling him names on the forum and he told me he printed it out and shwoed everyone at the shop and sent a copy to head office. but so did i, so i don't really care. He said that is how he does business and i said he doesn't do it very well then he said he owns a shop and i don't. that one really hurt. He said it really showed my maturity level, btu to be honest, i'm still young but he's like this old guy that should be retired, but he's still arguing with me "down in my level" as you could say. what maturity level does that put him in?

fuking douche bags.. all those shops are rip offs

i dont agree with what happened, but unforunately this is where being an informed consumer really plays a vital role.

If the inital issue wasnt being resolved and your mom was being charged for items that were not needed or replaced prematurely, she should have questioned the repairs or you should have gone in there before the accident occurred and raised hell.

also depending on the shops/businesses they may have some "fine print" details that need to be clarified before releasing your car to the repair facility. Some work orders allow the shop to make repairs once the owner has released the keys to the shop and the work order signed off by the owner.


shitty situation all around, thank you for giving the rest of us the heads up.

Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.

Why keep going back to the same place?

While i may not agree with everything that shop or any shop does. And in no way am I affiliated with them. But I have been working in this industry long enough to see that you honestly just sound like some whiney kid, cheapskate bitching over the smallest of issues. You're complaining about $3 worth of enviro charges? Come on, get real. It gets charged from the manufacturer down because the government mandates it. They are just passing it on. The battery billing error was a mistake, so what, everyone makes mistakes.
The wipers they put on were probably cheap replacements, which will always be better then old cracked rubber falling apart. 6 months of use in the harshest time of the year for wipers is probably an average life for an economy type wiper blade. 3 months might be a bit low, but he did warranty it. Even after you threatened to not pay! I'd do more then not warranty your wipers or give your keys back.
They are in the business of sales.. when you go to Future Shop and buy a TV, do they not try to upsell you to the full home theatre?

I think you just have a serious lack of awareness of the auto repair business. Coupled with a get everything for nothing attitude. And now gone and wasted your time spouting your mouth on an internet forum because you got sour apples. But thankfully Victoria is small enough they everything comes back around. :D

I think he has every right to be pissed off.

Did you miss the 1st paragraph? Where he explained that they performed work on the car that was not requested or required, and then DIDN'T EVEN FIX THE ORIGINAL PROBLEM?!

i especially like the part where you want your $2 back on your oil deposit.

not too sure about you guys, but hetherington industries gives our shop 10$ for a 40 gallon drum of oil filters and takes used oil away for free. anti freeze we have them come by and recycle it back into a barrel to be reused.

i do unrequested work all the time due to the fact that it usually falls under the pretense of a cvi so it has to be done to drive the vehicle on the road.

but again plugging in a handheld to trace a code should be free, but most shops do have a minimum service charge or 1 hour door rate. so thats no bad.

people make mistakes, TRUST ME mechanics are never perfect. if we were a bunch of us would be out of jobs.

I disagree. Most shops aren't like that. It's never been done to me. Though sadly it's often the case. Hence I take certain precautions, (ie: locking lug nuts to avoid unwanted brake replacement. A spare set of key to take my car. And a lecture before someone works on my car that I need to know everything.) Fact is a good shop will inform you of what's going to happen. I'd be pretty pissed if someone changed my brakes with out asking. Since they're going to go with cheap sh*t because they can mark up the price more. But cheap pads and rotors would never take the abuse I'd put them through. Mind you, I do my own brakes. But the same applies to other parts.

you know, it's not how much the enviro charge is, it's the principal. maybe you've been ripped off your whole life that's why you're so bitter in this situation but normal shops charge only 5 cents a litre and 50cents for oil filter. i know they can charge whatever they want but why would they tell me they charge so and so if they didn't? actually, couple dollars is a couple dollars, that's how some people get rich, is by saving those couple dollars.

the battery billing error should have been a mistake they shouldn;t have made. why would they charge the battery levy in advance at all? that's like them saying they know my mom will come back and we'll scam her into a battery next time and don;t charge the levy.

how did u knwo my previous wipers were cracked and had rubber falling off? i said the ones they replaced are the ones that had teh rubber falling off. i dunno where you live, but in victoria, no harsh weather can wear wipers in 6 months here, and if you read properly sir, they said they would only replace the wipers if i paid for the diagnostic fees.

they were not tryign to upsell my mom, these were parts they put on with out permission and using her english barrier as an advantage. a lot of sales people must be happy to have you coming along, because you seem like you could be upsold very easily.

this is a public internet forum, i would just like to inform my community on my situatuation, and it seems like you are ranting about me just like i am about them. if you don't agree that's fine, and if you don't appreciate my warning, that is fine too.

there is nothing wrong with being cheap, wanting everything for nothing and complaining about sour apples :P

i agree, but my mom doesn't usually like me touching her car so she brings it to shops herself. she keeps bringing it back because teh problem was never fixed.

well said jonkou

Almost all shops charge a percentage for their shop supplies. Instead of a flat fee, its usually 5-10% of the bill, regardless of any "supplies" being used at all. Our group charges 50 cents per oil filter for enviro, and 10 cents per liter for enviro.

However, I think the customer has to sign off on any parts that are installed/charged to the work order. If they didnt sign, they might have some sort of legal recourse. But most likely, they got your mom so sign off on the final w/o which would cover their asses.

+1

Is this the same john kou that drives

......

What BC-X said is rediculous! If they had FIXED THE PROBLEM jonkou wouldn't need to be warning everyone on here!

go to their website and paste your rant into the feedback section. might help..might not help..

fix your own car that's what i do

Reliable, honest service is hard to find nowadays. If you can, get a referral to someone you know u can trust. friend of a friend kinda thing.

Not knowing both sides of this situation I am not even going to try to side with one person or comment on it but I will tell you what I do here and what I have seen with most shops in Victoria. We do nothing without the consent of the customer. Its not worth the fight with people, the only thing I would consider doing without the owners consent first would be light bulbs (cheap and its a safety issue) and sometimes wiper blade refills (but I evaluate each situation), most times with even wiper blades I talk to the customer first or wait till they come back to pick up their car since its something we can do quickly and out in the parking lot if customer want new blades.
Posting errors on workorders do happen, while we try our best to make sure it doesn't happen, there is many times where I notice the error as I am going over the workorder with the customer. That is probably of the best reasons why we go over the workorder for a customer, helps the customer understand what we did and what we are charging for. A customer should also read their invoice and point out these errors, I understand not everyone understands each line but it helps to have someone their who can or atleast ask questions if you don't understand, its our job to explain these things to you.
Enviro fee's are here and they are here to stay. We charge a flat fee of $2.99 on all services involving an oil change. Shop fee's are 10% up to $35 max. I personally try my best to only apply shop charges for things that require supplies only but everyone and everyshop is different.
Shops are here to make money, that my only gripe with people asking questiosn. Someone will come in and ask us to do something and then get upset when I inform them we charge $xx to do this like they expect us to do it for free. Or upset we charge to diagnose an issue.
Like I said up top, I don't know all the details so I don't think its fair to blast the OP or the shop so I will only post those thoughts.

i remmber they tried ot chage me liek an arm and leg for montes tires on my rims

they said there speccile rims r17 9 wide ? and they had to do them on specil muchine

so they forked me an exp bill i told them umm no this is retarted he beagn to bunggle around and said so whast the diff he said it might scach them i look at him did you see my wheel there feaking crub what you gonna do to my all ready curb rims

whent back in his office and they talked came back and said we will let you gow iht this one


i'm like ok but really next time think

paid left

Updated! Thank you

BC-X are you sure your nto affiliated with them??

he isn't!