Did you get it in writing? Also, 200lb sub box should absolutely NOT make a car bottom out.

Get what in writing. I spoke with Brent the owner on the phone. Ran it all by him, informed him of the sub box and how much it weighs. He assured me there would be no issue. But now they say the box is causing the problems and they refuse to help me 2 grand later.

I have 2 witnesses who overheard the phone call

Two witnesses? Yeah, I'd go the small claims court route. Also, I'd write a letter to the editor of seacoastonline.com Bad press is the quickest way to get a settlement.

Normally, it would be your word against his but since you have 2 witnesses, you're in better shape. Any chance your phone was on speaker so the witnesses could hear both sides of it clearly?

One other thing. Definitely want to go to small claims. You don't just need your money back, you need your car fixed. My guess is they'll just fix it for free once you file.

Frankly, I think they are all scam artists. I brought my car for just an oil change to VIP in Manchester as I just moved to the area and did not know where anything really was. The suv was 2-3 yrs old. While waiting they came to me, a woman, and told me that my suv needed an alignment and showed me some fancy diagnostics. Knowing I was getting snowed, I thanked them and told them I would go to the dealer as it should still be under warranty. Never went back and never will. So feel free to use this excuse, or say your mechanic will look at is no matter what BS they try.

Graham Tire & Auto in Exeter is thorough, honest and fair on price if you need work done.

Well, did it need an alignment? Cars need alignments all the time especially when driving over potholes and shit all the time. This isn’t out of the ordinary for newer cars lol

Was this for an inspection? Or they just said you needed struts and you got them done?

Either way, before you go to small claims or whatever, I’d reach out and contact their corporate office first. I had an issue with them in the past, and the corporate office way actually really helpful, and the next day they mailed a refund out to me. Your results may vary.

How hard is it to remove the sub? If it still bottoms out without it being in the vehicle, that kills their argument.

And what kind of dealer is going to perform a free alignment, under warranty, years after a purchase lol.

Are some shops/mechanics trying to rip people off? I'm sure but just because you're ignorant about vehicle maintenance doesn't mean they all are.

Alignments aren’t covered under warranty and every vehicle new/old needs them especially after our winters.

The way you describe the car now it sounds like they put blown struts in, not took them out.

2-3 years is generally the interval a car needs alignment. If the "fancy diagnostics" was the actual alignment report and you were in yellow/red you should absolutely get aligned or be prepared to pay for new tires much sooner.

She was getting an oil change...do you really think that they threw it up on the rack and checked the alignment when she was there for an oil change?

She was getting scammed, and good for her for not tolerating their bullshit.

Dude It’s a Meieneke idk what you expected lol

Honestly no, never heard of a shop "just checking" your alignment. I've had a mechanic recommend getting it done by eyeball, but never had them just run the tests without agreeing beforehand.

But at 2-3 years I'd be taking the car in to get it checked regardless of its age as alignment is based on your miles driven and conditions driven on. It is possible that both the business was being scummy and for the car being out of alignment. Not sure I'd get it done at that mechanic regardless.

I didn't expect to get lied to. If they weren't sure if it would work wish they would have been honest. Lol

No I had em do some work on my brakes and every time.id come in they would tell me I should get struts. Multiple times so I caved in. But not before I ran it by them that the sub box is back there. And got the all clear. I've been putting in complaints with corporate daily and never receive a call back except once some lady names SJ who was rude and just repeated that they said my sub box is to blame and I should remove it. Nobody cares that I ran it by them BEFORE HAND... :/ I have a open credit card charge back against them because I didn't think of small claims and technically I didn't get what I paid for. They also claim I had another shop work on my car but actually all I did was have another mechanic test drive my car for 5 mins and his conclusion is these struts are junk

Yeah do this.

On a somewhat related note. Sears messed up my car on an oil change. Something about having a temporary cap in place. I don't know jack about cars but I ended up having to get it towed to the service center and fixed. I ended up suing Sears after they refused to pay for damages and the claims guy refused to even bend. As soon as they got the court notice a different claims person called and said something along the lines of "Yeah idk wtf that guy was thinking, we're gonna pay it."

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TLDR; try making a complaint or claim and if they still refuse, let court sort it out

I have a credit card dispute open against the payment. Not even sure if they know yet the card company might still be processing it. I have a complaint in with NH attorney general and the BBB. And of course corporate who doesn't seem to give a shit. Do they have to pay more money than the amount if it ends up in small claims court is that why they wanted to just settle outside of it?

You agreed to pay 2k for 4 struts????? Holy shit.

Most of the chains stink , Pep Boys, Meineke , Sears never had luck with any of them. Much better of going to a local mechanic or Dealership.

I know.... I'm stupid for that I even had friends telling me thats too much AND that this shop is shady but I still did it.

A car SHOULD drop at the front end when you brake.

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What about the back? My rearview mirror has 2 positions.. driving and braking both shows 2 different areas lol. Never did this the 4 years I've owned this car

Grahams put faulty struts in my vehicle the one time I went to them… it ended up damaging another suspension component that I had to pay for out of pocket.

Yes, part of the weight transfer process when applying the brakes is the front end dips and the rear end rises.

I'm sure it's more pronounced than it should be though. I've seen many sites that say a sign of bad struts is if the rear jumps when u brake. My dad had a Camry same generation and he said his never did that.

Sure, if it’s excessive it’s a problem. But literally every car does that.

I am not entirely sure, I know when I submitted it to court I added up every penny it cost, including repairs at the dealer, the tow, the Uber etc and thats what I sued for. Hope it works out and I'm sure it will

Yeah this doesn’t really add up. 200lbs in the trunk of any car shouldn’t cause the tires to rub the wheel wells. 3 200 lbs people in the back seat wouldn’t do that. 3 things could have happened here. They just took your money and didn’t do the work, they put used and faulty struts back in, or used the wrong struts

The chains are brutal. I've seen a district manager rip the a****** out of a store manager for not making his target .

So when the store manager or the service writer writes up all the b******* work, they're not even thinking about being honest or dishonest. They are thinking about keeping their jobs

Ya that's why instead of putting in struts that actually work they tried putting 22 dollar amazon coil spacers in. Less money for them to spend. Still not right. I wouldn't be mad if I didn't give them the opportunity to tell me this speaker box would cause an issue due to weight before hand. My cars got 1 coil spacer in each back coil already with these symptoms. They were gonna put more but they cancelled all my appointments. Seemed like a band aid. And sort of them admitting the struts are not working right

This story reminds me of a similar moment I had at VIP Tires on Lafayette in Portsmouth.

Couple of years ago I had taken my car there to get inspected. Through the inspection they determined that I needed new tires in order to be able to successfully pass. I begrudgingly broke down and let them replace the tires (because I just wanted to get inspection over and done with).

Flash to this year; Thinking that they still have my name and car information on file, I return to VIP in Portsmouth to handle my inspection. I schedule an appointment and when I arrive I’m made aware that no one actually penciled my appointment in. They were seemingly aware of their fuck up and assured me they would get me in. Thinking, “ok, whatever. Sounds great.” I ended up waiting around for HOURS longer than I even should have.

But that’s not the worst part. While inspecting my car the manager approaches me and goes “I hate to tell you this but it looks like the tread on your tires is worn down in a way that they need to be replaced. Believe it or not looks like whoever put them on for you installed them backwards. Come with me and I’ll give you a quote for the new tires.”

Imagine my open mouth shock at the absolute fucking audacity of this situation. I reply, “YOU guys installed the tires.” The manager pulls up my file, suddenly gets really quiet, sweaty and wide-eyes and goes, “Oh.”

Miraculously the tires ended up not even being an issue and I passed inspection with flying colors! And while I was walking out the manager taps me on the arm and with a coy smile goes, “Don’t worry. We overlooked that tire thing for you. We love to take care of our customers.”

I still laugh thinking about it.

So you have your tires on backwards and they kept them that way?