BEWARE OF FRANCISCO by Rob F. at InsiderPages
I had my brakes checked there. I had originally been to another Brake Masters where the service was excellent, but had moved. Unbeknown to Francisco, I had been into that shop three months ago where they had inspected the brakes and rotors and told me everything was fine, to stop back in the spring depending on how much I drive. I stopped in, the other employees were not there. Just Francisco. He wouldn't honor any of the online specials that I mentioned as I hadn't printed out the coupons - fare enough. Then he proceeded to tell me that I didn't need new pads, the pads were fine, just all new rotors (4) at a total cost of well over $500 - not including the pads. He said he would throw in a free tire rotation which is alreaddy included in the lifetime service anyway. When I asked him why the pads were fine and the rotors weren't he said that it was because the pads may not have been good. The receipt said that they had used metallic pads in the past, but he insisted that they usually use ceramic, even though it said met in the abbreviation. He basically inferred that the previous shop probably wanted to change the rotors and that I may have opted not to do that, and as a consequence - that's why the rotors were worn dangerously low. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. the previous inspection mentioned nothing about the rotors, nor did the one before. He tried everything he could to build that estimate. It was only after he realized that I wasn't going to bite that he offered to throw in some brake pads and started to haggle. I felt like I was buying a rug somewhere at a garage sale and left. I went to the garage next door - called Express Smog and Auto Repair, they did a radiator flush for half the price that Francisco quoted, changed a fuel filter and checked the fluids and checked the brakes - he said they were fine and to check back if the
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