Give him a detailed bad review, doesn’t cost anything and it might make you feel a tad better…
And you are correct, doesn’t hurt to ask…
Me giving a bad review to him won’t make me feel better. I’m sure they may or may not be able to delete the reviews or what. Even so, it doesn’t make me feel better. I did reach out to an attorney, so will wait to see what the response is. If it isn’t what I like, I will just move on. Even if I did small claims, I can’t do it where I live in since we both live in different places. I have to go to the courthouse where he lives and that is a half-hour drive. Also, I wouldn’t know how long it would take to process and get a court date. I also feel he may retaliate to be petty, so I am unsure if I have to go to war over this or not.
Thats not how it works. You get a judgment from the court. You then execute that judgment by either having the city marshall or county sheriff take the money from his bank account. Its not up to him whether to pay.
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If you don’t leave a review it is as if they deleted it, and they win. Leave a detailed review without any emotional embellishments. You might want to wait until the problem is fixed to show contrast.
Another update. So, I spoke to the place where I took the car for an alignment. The district manager called me and told me from their findings that the part installed in my truck was not the correct one. I told them that I went to autozone and that’s what they gave me. So the garage is working with me to fill out a labor paper or something like that since I guess the blame is on autozone. I called the dealership to get info about the specific part for my car and it’s not easy to even find the same spec rack. But, as for the mechanic I hired to do this, I will just move on and not bother taking him to small claims. Regardless, I didn’t like how he acted through this situation and basically came off as immature. I am glad the garage I took it too is going out of the way like this. I wouldn’t have ever known autozone had something like that. But, maybe in due time, there may be a nice ending to this. I just have to wait and see.
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Good choice.
Not an uncommon thing by diy’er reports we get here. This is why it is better to have the shop doing the work supply the part. Part of their service to you is their expertise knowing how to purchase the correct part.
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Yeah. I hope my argument wins though. Over the weekend, I spoke with a few people at autozone and their loophole to not pay the labor claim is that I paid a mobile mechanic instead of going to a reputable garage to install the part. They are believing that their part is correct due to me inserting my VIN number and the part shows up in the search. But, the garage that is helping me out is reputable and they are saying that even if I went to a reputable garage, it was highly likely I would have the same issue regardless. So I am hoping for the best here.
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If anything, you’re entitled to your money back on the part from Autozone. It will be a huge uphill battle to get anything more out of them as consequential damages (like labor to install it, subsequent diagnosis fees etc).
If the unit did not fit properly to begin with, that is on the person doing the installing. Leaving bolts loose because they did not fit properly, creating leaks from improperly connected lines etc is not Autozone’s responsibility or fault.
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I did speak with the district manager at Autozone, and you are right. They are willing to work with me in getting the right part for my car. They are also willing to refund me for the part. But they won’t pay for the labor. That is on me to pay the garage to fix all of this. I just don’t know if I will be on the hook to buy the damaged control arms as well. I will find out once I get a call back in the coming days. Right now the labor for this is $1k. Knowing this still makes me want to go after my mechanic but for $360 whatever. I do know that he blocked me from everything imaginable since Autozone and the garage wanted to speak with him about this issue and since he blocked me, they couldn’t talk to him. But I feel they also wanted assurance that me and this guys cut ties with each other.
Glad to hear they are working with you on the rack situation. I don’t recall seeing anything about damaged control arms, what’s the story there?
Unfortunately, the mechanic can claim some ignorance and probably get away without much liability since you supplied the part. You could argue he is the professional and should have verified it or questioned it when he ran into difficulty. But that is going to be a difficult to win judgement IMHO. This is why you see guys on here advising to let the mechanic get the parts. Sure you pay more but then it’s their responsibility when something goes wrong. Maybe it doesn’t happen very often but when it does, it can be costly as you’re all too aware now. Sincerely, best of luck getting it sorted out!
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As to how the control arm got damaged, I made a left turn and braked because some guy was not watching where he was going. The force of the brake cause the control arm bushings to break. As for the situation with Autozone, it seems the district manager is ghosting me. I spoke with him last week and was waiting for an update. The manager of the garage called me last Friday and told me basically we are waiting for autozone to touch base. Since then, I called them each once and no answer. I am trying to be patient for a few more days here, but so far the wait has been stressful. Pep boys gave me a quote of $2300 to repair the issues and it is my last resort. I don’t like how this is turning out so far.
Good control arm bushings don’t fail when you use the brakes, this wasn’t “some guy’s” fault. The control arm bushings would have failed sooner or later, and possibly you didn’t notice they were loose until the time you used the brakes more aggressively.
If an auto parts store sells the wrong part, it should be returned in the original package, undamaged and ideally within 30 days. Damaged parts are scrap metal.
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Based on this entire thread it seems as if you have not yet gone the route of finding an reputable independent mechanic to solve your issues. Firestone and Pep Boys are not the usual first choice for reliable work, and others have commented on the apparent lack of savvy and skill of your first mechanic. You really would benefit from avoiding chain outfits and instead ask around for a good independent shop that could do things properly.
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I’ve owned three TBs so far (03, 05 and currently 08) and I am very familiar with their construction and common issues. Ball joints are very common repairs on these trucks, I just did another set. But the control arms are very beefy, aren’t prone to rusting and I haven’t ever heard of one breaking at the bushing mounts. I’ve never had to replace the bushings in one either. So that raises my suspicions. I wonder if the prior mechanic took them off for some reason while working on the rack. It shouldn’t be necessary but…
Sorry to hear about your troubles with Autozone. Is the repair shop planning to do the rack exchange at Autozone once you get the go ahead from this district manager? I might be inclined to take the matter into my own hands. Do you have the old receipt for it? Maybe it’s in their system…At any rate, I might go to the repair shop, get the rack and take it to Autozone myself. Tell them the story and who you have been talking with to get the rack exchanged with the correct one. It might not work but pressing the issue at the grass roots level may be something you need to resort to to get this moving again.
Hoping you have better luck and get this resolved!
Update to this…
I have taken the car to firestone for repairs, the fixed it in about 4-5 hours or so. The control arm as I thought was not damaged. (thank god).
The issue was that due to the looseness of the rack, then the force of my braking caused the inner rod connected the rack to break.
After the installation was done, firestone went over everything and what was the issue at hand. They told me that the mechanic I hired to install this part cut corners to install this part. He used the wrong size screws, and also attempted to use fully threaded screws instead of the one that is half threaded. Due to this, firestone felt that the fully threaded screws didn’t catch on the rack all the way to secure it. Also the fact that he did not properly air out the steering pump and did not secure the lines properly which caused and overall leak and basically he just made a mess.
He gave me the screws the mechanic used as proof. I also had a rotted bottom steering shaft which firestone went and changed so that added more to the fix. I paid $1600 for this repair and it is driving at least.
As for autozone, I was told by the district manager to take the part in for a refund. For some reason the store can’t find my refund but I contacted online to get a screenshot proof of the warranty, so I will go sometime this week to take the rack back and get my money. This has been a stressful saga for sure.
I do plan to get another car late next year, this car has been a money pit overall and I just need to know when to give up.
I will see what my options are for that mechanic that did me dirty.
There is no warranty on parts damaged by the installer.
Was this person working on the ground without a vehicle lift?
I’m presuming the fasteners at issue were sizeable bolts, not screws. Bolts have to be the correct length and diameter of course, but hard for diy’er me to understand why using a fully threaded bolt vs partly threaded would cause such an immediate problem for installing a steering rack. The bolt would usually go through an unthreaded hole in the part being installed, , then screw into a threaded hole in the part you are attaching it to, behind. Partially threaded bolts are sometimes needed to allow something to slide freely along the non-threaded part, like a brake caliper, but does a steering rack ass’y need to slide on the unthreaded portion of the fasteners too? Just curious is all, of course it is always best to use the same configuration for the fasteners as when the vehicle was manufactured…
I’m going to say this as nicely and diplomatically as possible . . .
The mechanic you originally used got in WAY over his head
Because this is a family-friendly forum, I won’t say what I really think about this guy, but I’m sure you can figure it out 
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That is great news… I’m sure the FS front shop person was probably informed from the mechanic or his manager on what the issue(s) was/were and got a little mixed up on part of it, the main thing is FS took care of you…
As far as AZ goes, if the district manager said you will be refunded knowing the situation then they will take care of you no matter what the warranty states… FS spends a LOT of money with AZ (unfortunately) as well as most other national (and local depending on location) auto parts stores and they will all bend over backwards to keep FS’s business… I was the guy that always took care of the bills and returns at the stores that I worked at as well as help a few others with theirs… At one store Napa said if we spent $10,000 with them after the returns cleared that month, then they would do a big cookout for us (they all did different stuff to get our business a lot), well we spent well over $10K that month as well as made the other 3 big auto parts stores happy and all the dealers that we normally used… Our parts bill was about $50,000 a month after all returns were accounted for… And that was just one store that was a little above average out of 22+ local stores…I worked at one shop that was well over $100,000 a month in parts bills…
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I assume so as where I dropped off the truck, there were not lifts. I was not there for the install. He was supposed to take 4 hours as we agreed on pay for those 4 hours. I didn’t get my car back until the next day at 7pm.