bennison@turtle.DEC (03/24/84)
-------
I took my car to Midas Muffler to take advantage of a special
offer on a front end alignment. They got it up on the lift and
then told me I needed a couple of hundred dollars worth of front
end work before they could align it. I said I'd wait. I took
my car to a trusted mechanic who aligned the front end for me and
said there was nothing wrong with it.
A year earlier I took my car to another Midas Muffler place to
get a new muffler. They told me my ball joints needed to be
replaced. $108. I fell for it that time. I had suspicions then
that they really didn't need replacing. Now I'm sure of it.
"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."
An old Indian said that.
"I ain't goin' back to Maggie's farm no more." Bob Dylan said that.
"I ain't goin' back to Midas Muffler no more." I said that.
Vick Bennison
...decvax!decwrl!rhea!turtle!bennison
(603) 881-2165dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman) (03/28/84)
A Midas Muffler in Toronto was convicted today under the Ontario
Business Practices Act and fined $20,000. Seems their mechanic
quoted $200 to fix a car that was in perfect condition; the undercover
officer arrested him on the spot. The mechanic was convicted of attempted
fraud and fined $1,000.
Midas has stated that this was an "isolated occurrence" and that they
have fired the mechanic in question.
Dave Sherman
Toronto
--
{allegra,cornell,decvax,ihnp4,linus,utzoo}!utcsrgv!davepector@ihuxw.UUCP (Scott W. Pector) (03/29/84)
Back in 1975, I had muffler trouble with my parents' 1967 Pontiac Ventura.
We took it in to Midas. When it came back, all seemed well. However,
when driving home from work the next day, I began to notice that my brakes
were taking longer and longer to slow the car down. At 40 mph, this was
quite exciting! It turned out that Midas (who has the ears of a jackass!)
had broken the brake line when they installed the muffler. When we took
the car over to them, they refused to fix the damage they caused for no
charge. Since then, I would NEVER deal with them, but then again, I haven't
had any muffler troubles. Oh well,.....
Scott Pector
P.S. Not only did King Midas have the ears of a jackass, but before that
he had an insatiable desire for gold. Sounds like today's Midas isn't
much different.fish@ihu1g.UUCP (Bob Fishell) (04/05/84)
I've had trouble with them, too. About 5 years ago, I was heading
back to Toledo, O (That's home) when my exhaust system developed
a crack just ahead of the muffler. This was a big old '71 Chevy
Impala with a 350 V-8, so it sounded pretty bad. Anyway, just
off the Turnpike there was a Midas shop, so I pulled in there. The
"mechanics" had to cut off the exhaust system at the crossover pipe,
and in doing so repeatedly ignited surface oil, etc. on the underside
of the car. I thought they were going to burn up the whole damn car,
and I had to run into the shop bitching my head off to get them to
take better care of the car. After they completed the repairs,
which cost me a bundle, I noticed that the car was not running right.
On inspection the next day, I saw what the problem was: two plug wires
burned clear through.
--
Bob Fishell
ihnp4!ihu1g!fishminow@decvax.UUCP (Martin Minow) (04/06/84)
I would recommend staying away from Midas. They seem to dimension their hardware to last 18 months or so (with a 12 month guarantee). Martin Minow decvax!minow
ljdickey@watmath.UUCP (Lee Dickey) (04/10/84)
Notice that it does not matter how good or how bad the *MUFFLER* really is, as long as the customer keeps coming back to buy pipes. My nearby muffler shop introduced (and gradually increased over the years) the installation fee for the *free* replacement muffler. -- Lee Dickey, University of Waterloo. (ljdickey@watmath.UUCP) ...!ucbvax!decvax!watmath!ljdickey ...!allegra!watmath!ljdickey