Dale's alignment experience. read!

[BRZ dude]

This is Jameson from Dale's here posting from Jason's Account... I wanted to post up and make some clarifications for the community. The OP and I have already had a phone conversation about his feelings regarding his experience and cleared up much of the items in questions and I would like to do the same for the group here.

1. His tires were never diagnosed as bald or needing to be replaced based on tread depth. It is stated on his work order that the tires are at risk of failing due to separation. Specifically, the outer skin of the right front tire is separating and the inside sidewall is cracking around the whole tire. This is the cause for his shake as the tire is hopping badly when spun and is the worst of his tires. This is a safety risk and as a shop, we have to make sure all customers understand the risks associated with certain issues and waive liability from the shop as we were the last to have the vehicle and they are choosing to drive the vehicle.

2. The front thrust arm bushings have excessive play and our policy is to not align a vehicle with worn out steering and/or suspension components that affect alignment. In the order of priority, the tires are the more important risk that need attention which the OP has already remedied with his new wheels and tires that are on the way. The thrust arm bushings will still require doing to make the car properly alignable but if they needed to wait due to finance they could be left for a short while.


As it seems my integrity is what is being questioned, I personally needed to reach out and lay out some facts. In addition, I will NEVER lie to a customer about their vehicle and am always honest and up front! I will however discuss things passionately and can be too honest or blunt at times; that however doesn't make anything an up sell in my dealings with the OP. As a service adviser, I rely on my technician's reports on vehicles and when I read this thread the first thing I did was question my technician about the inspection to make sure everything was 100% clear before I reached out to the OP. During our conversation I offered the OP the opportunity to return at any time suitable for them to show them specifically the play in the bushings and the separation in the tire and I certainly hope they take me up on the offer.

I've said it countless times over my years in customer service and I will say it again... I am only a phone call away and I am always willing to discuss any situation or answer questions people have regarding their vehicles or the service we provide. Our shop is devoted to creating a great experience for our customers and we will always aim to solve any situation where ever possible in a fair manner. The majority of any issues that could come up could be easily solved with a conversation.

Jameson Smith
Dale's Operations Manager
604-530-9160
jameson@dalesmotorsport.com

[Iron Chef]

If u work at a shop why don't you do your wheel bearings your self

Originally Posted by jpark

I work for an automotive shop, and if the work is going to take longer, even an hour extra, its a common courtesy and a priority procedure to CALL the customer first and let them know. I'm not just talking this out of my ass as a whiney customer, I'm speaking from experience as a employee who deals with these calls and customers everyday. Its common sense and a right thing to do.

You'd be surprised by how many people tell us to stop and don't give us the green light to go ahead and do so after being informed about the extra labor.

[brute_4s]

ive never personally dealt with dales alignment but from what ive heard on the nasioc site the work they do is top notch and jameson ive heard is very personable and knowledgable. just saying from word of mouth not experience.

[jpark]

Originally Posted by Iron Chef

If u work at a shop why don't you do your wheel bearings your self

because that was 2 years ago in 2012.... before i worked at a shop

[Iron Chef]

So you read the what dales have to say and you re read the ops original post it seems like a Mis understanding or Mis communication. The op could have asked for further explanation or a demo of what ever deficiencies there are. Dales probrably could have done a better job explaining it as the op obviously didn't get it. I feel that it was a bitch move on the ops part to go straight to revscene to post then to clarify with dales first.

[bcrdukes]

Originally Posted by Iron Chef

I feel that it was a bitch move on the ops part to go straight to revscene to post then to clarify with dales first.

But...this is Revscene...

[meme405]

I just want to know if someone told the OP the metal bands in his tire were showing. That's the only information anyone needs to diagnose who's lying in this scenario.

[acurael]

PLEASE READ:

Jameson did call me today and left a voicemail and I ended up calling him back. I appreciated the call and he went over what they had found and also spoke about this thread. It definitely has gotten out of control (this thread) and I agreed with him. The conversation was much better this time around.

Initially when I had talked on the phone when my car was dropped off I was told the alignment could not be done because the arm bushings were worn (which I believed as its common on this car as I know and Jameson also mentioned this today) and also that the tires were worn on the inners and showing metal etc and were unsafe to drive on. Similar discussion when I went to pick up the car which seemed like all tires were worn particularly the fronts.

Like I explained before I had recently had a service and inspection at BMW last month and nothing was found at that time. My car has also been serviced at an indy shop not too long ago and everything checked out. Either I misunderstood what Jameson was telling me or it was not explained to me properly because I do not recall him mentioning the inner sidewall was damaged on the front passenger tire. He did mention separation etc which I understood as worn inner tread/showing metal bands/separating as some pics that some of you guys have posted of your own tires (similar to camber wear).

Either way after speaking to Jameson and him offering for me to bring it back to the shop I told him I would think about it and likely bring it in next week or the week after as I'm super busy. He told me the tire damage can only be seen when the car is on the lift and it nothing to do with the tread of the tire which I didn't recall being explained to me before.

After hanging up on the phone I decided to take another look today. I grabbed a flashlight turned the wheel both ways and inspected the inner sidewall and guess what - there is separation/cracking on one of the front tires inner sidewall. I WAS WRONG! there is something wrong with one of the tires.

Someone posted that it was a "bitch move" to post on here without discussing it further with the shop. I did speak to Jameson on the phone and also when I went to pick up the car (so two discussions) before today's follow up call. It was a case of miscommunication between me and Jameson but in the end their technician and Dale's was right about the car. I have posted a few years back on revscene and recommended Dale's in alignment threads in the past. So I thought it was only fair to post both positive and negative (which I felt was a bad experience at the time).

Jameson was very passionate and very blunt (as he has mentioned) about the tires possibly blowing up but I mistook that as a scare tactic/pressure to buy tires as I truly believed nothing was wrong with the tires based on what I measured in the past and when I got home and what the BMW inspection found. I think if I was simply shown the area on the tire that was damaged this whole situation would have been avoided. We could have parked the car at the front of the shop cranked the wheel and felt the inner sidewall or just rolled until it was visible as I did in my garage. Obviously to show me on the lift is unreasonable as they have other cars and jobs to do and they are busy. Again this is my personal opinion on what I think would be ideal for customers in my type of situation - but Dale's doesn't necessarily have to do this for their customers as they can choose to run their business as they want. I did mention on the phone to Jameson that I got an inspection at BMW recently and everything was ok so there was a discrepancy there. Again my opinion is that it would have been better to show me the damage. I would have not driven the car back home or put a spare tire on it immediately if I saw the damage that day!

Anyways this thread should probably be deleted by the mods eventually although if anything it does show that Dale's alignment and Jameson were honest. Also shows that miscommunication can lead to misconceptions and negative reviews which are not fair to a business/shop that strives to provide good work and customer service.

I will be calling Jameson tmrw and let him know the same thing as I feel bad about the whole situation and they deserve an apology. Thought I would post on here first as it became a shit storm which I didn't expect. Jameson/Dale's never deserved the negative review as they were honest and diagnosed the issue correctly.

[cdizzle_996]

If I was in your situation I wouldn't want to go back to Dales cause Id feel like too much of a tool to show my face, wrong or not.

[underscore]

Originally Posted by acurael

I WAS WRONG!

Props for admitting that, I think it might be a first on the internet.

Now that you know the tires are indeed unsafe, which BMW told you they were fine?

[Gucci Mane]

Bhahahahahaha

This entire thread is a joke now. Keyboard commandos are the real heroes here...

[ziegs2020]

Originally Posted by acurael

PLEASE READ:

Jameson did call me today and left a voicemail and I ended up calling him back. I appreciated the call and he went over what they had found and also spoke about this thread. It definitely has gotten out of control (this thread) and I agreed with him. The conversation was much better this time around.

Initially when I had talked on the phone when my car was dropped off I was told the alignment could not be done because the arm bushings were worn (which I believed as its common on this car as I know and Jameson also mentioned this today) and also that the tires were worn on the inners and showing metal etc and were unsafe to drive on. Similar discussion when I went to pick up the car which seemed like all tires were worn particularly the fronts.

Like I explained before I had recently had a service and inspection at BMW last month and nothing was found at that time. My car has also been serviced at an indy shop not too long ago and everything checked out. Either I misunderstood what Jameson was telling me or it was not explained to me properly because I do not recall him mentioning the inner sidewall was damaged on the front passenger tire. He did mention separation etc which I understood as worn inner tread/showing metal bands/separating as some pics that some of you guys have posted of your own tires (similar to camber wear).

Either way after speaking to Jameson and him offering for me to bring it back to the shop I told him I would think about it and likely bring it in next week or the week after as I'm super busy. He told me the tire damage can only be seen when the car is on the lift and it nothing to do with the tread of the tire which I didn't recall being explained to me before.

After hanging up on the phone I decided to take another look today. I grabbed a flashlight turned the wheel both ways and inspected the inner sidewall and guess what - there is separation/cracking on one of the front tires inner sidewall. I WAS WRONG! there is something wrong with one of the tires.

Someone posted that it was a "bitch move" to post on here without discussing it further with the shop. I did speak to Jameson on the phone and also when I went to pick up the car (so two discussions) before today's follow up call. It was a case of miscommunication between me and Jameson but in the end their technician and Dale's was right about the car. I have posted a few years back on revscene and recommended Dale's in alignment threads in the past. So I thought it was only fair to post both positive and negative (which I felt was a bad experience at the time).

Jameson was very passionate and very blunt (as he has mentioned) about the tires possibly blowing up but I mistook that as a scare tactic/pressure to buy tires as I truly believed nothing was wrong with the tires based on what I measured in the past and when I got home and what the BMW inspection found. I think if I was simply shown the area on the tire that was damaged this whole situation would have been avoided. We could have parked the car at the front of the shop cranked the wheel and felt the inner sidewall or just rolled until it was visible as I did in my garage. Obviously to show me on the lift is unreasonable as they have other cars and jobs to do and they are busy. Again this is my personal opinion on what I think would be ideal for customers in my type of situation - but Dale's doesn't necessarily have to do this for their customers as they can choose to run their business as they want. I did mention on the phone to Jameson that I got an inspection at BMW recently and everything was ok so there was a discrepancy there. Again my opinion is that it would have been better to show me the damage. I would have not driven the car back home or put a spare tire on it immediately if I saw the damage that day!

Anyways this thread should probably be deleted by the mods eventually although if anything it does show that Dale's alignment and Jameson were honest. Also shows that miscommunication can lead to misconceptions and negative reviews which are not fair to a business/shop that strives to provide good work and customer service.

I will be calling Jameson tmrw and let him know the same thing as I feel bad about the whole situation and they deserve an apology. Thought I would post on here first as it became a shit storm which I didn't expect. Jameson/Dale's never deserved the negative review as they were honest and diagnosed the issue correctly.

It's good to hear things got worked out.

[Sunfighter]

Very impressive :

The shop manager comes on and clearly clearly articulates what they had discovered when working on the vehicle in question. No jabs at the owner, no jabs at users, no defensive comments about other posts in this thread ... just pure professionalism and honesty.

To the OP : kudos for demonstrating the humility that you did ... humility is extremely rare on RS and most car forums. Respect.

Back when I had my STI in 2006-2010 I used to take Dale's all the time and always had an extremely positive experience.

[twitchyzero]

Originally Posted by BRZ dude

1)customer supplies own part -lets say a rear bearing for an S2000. Customer wants bearing swapped because another shop said it was toast. Why didn't the other shop repair it? they were probably too expensive compared to our quote. We proceed to inspect the bearing with a stethoscope and find no issue with the bearing. We mention this to the customer but he still wants it changed. The job turns sideways because the hub is seized into the bearing. Job takes longer than quoted so we charge 1/2-1hr more labour time. Customer supplies part we do not guarantee labour quotes, we cannot since we are already losing on the job. We tried to tell the customer initially we didn't feel the bearing had to be changed, he declined our diagnosis. He was a charged a bit more for labour since the job went a bit sideways, not because of our workmanship but sometimes these thing happen.
BTW. We do not mind if customers supply their own parts other shops will decline this because it eats up profit.

3) the cheap guy- to be honest we have no time for the frugal time bandit who tries to grind every last nickel out of every quote or the guy asking for the deal before we build a relationship with you. I give deals out to loyal customers all of the time, they earn it out of being loyal. They are not the one time customer worrying about their pocket book. We used to try and work with these type of customers but not worth it. They usually have heightened expectations too and are very painful to deal with.

summary: we're too busy to cater to customers that aren't on our loyalty system.

It's one thing to follow this agenda, but another to come out to a public forum and admit that you don't want to work with people that want good pricing and quality work. If youre not taking new customers and is as busy as you say you are and word of mouth is working out for you, sure I guess that works.

Again, I dont recall jpark's complaint being about taking more time to ensure things are done properly, but more to the fact that you did not get consent from the customer before proceeding to exceed the original quote. I think he also mentioned bringing the concern to you guys before posting here.

Before someone accuses me of a bitter ex-customer, I do not have personal experience with the shop. I even have a friend that used to work for them.

[Nabatron]

bumping this thread!

Any other Dale stories people have about their shop?

debating on taking my car there to get done or like other people said go to speed syndicate...

[XplicitLuder]

by the looks of it, both seem to be well run and will offer great customer service. I have only gone to TSS as theyre closer, so i have no personal experience with Dale's

[Gucci Mane]

Originally Posted by Nabatron

bumping this thread!

Any other Dale stories people have about their shop?

debating on taking my car there to get done or like other people said go to speed syndicate...

since your location says langley, just go to dales. i had a very pleasant experience with them when i got my trucks tires installed in october 2014. they installed the tires and did an alignment and because i couldnt collect my truck the same day, they set me up with a courtesy vehicle. definitely going back when i need an alignment done.

[cdizzle_996]

Again, I'd vouch for them any day of the week. Been going there with several cars for years and never had an issue. Most recently I had my Infiniti G35 aligned there. They failed in the front and rear control arms perfectly.

+1 for Dales.

[jasonturbo]

I have a good relationship with Dales, never been disappointed.

+1

[Lomac]

Haven't been to Dale's in years (mainly because I live outside of the GVRD now), but every time I went in the past it was always a pleasant experience. One of the last times I went, I ended up chatting with one of the guys for quite some time after he spotted my Megasquirt ECU sitting in the passenger foot well. Super friendly staff (at the time, at least) and always ended up going that extra mile.

But, as I said, that was a while ago. Wouldn't mind going back at some point if their work is still on par.

[Mr.Money]

1st time reading,what a fuckin Tool acurael is,glad to see he doesn't post much

[mekaw]

Had work done on my truck there back in December.
Jameson was pleasant to deal with and work was done on the day it was booked for.
No complaints here.
Only complaint is the distance haha, I'm burnaby but I chose to go there.

[whiteTDIpowa]

Heard this shop has gone downhill the last couple years, used to be the place to go for alignment work, especially subaru related stuff.

Businesses like this should remember, it only takes a couple customers to stir the pot. Customer service isn't easy though....

[unit]

ive been to dale's twice, good experience both times. honest guys ime

[evlee]

i was denied service when they saw my compustar alarm, after i told them i was set on bypassed and willing to sign the waiver, and the guy at the front desk was rude. so i cross the street and got serviced at Autotech Alignment which did an awesome job!!