If your web site says you're open until 7, and the sign on the front door says you're open until 7, why are you closed at 6:45?? I went to drop off my 944 with the replacement un-bent wheels at Firestone to have the tires swapped, and they were closed when they should have been open. Sure, I used the night drop and I was planning to leave it anyway, but still, don't close your retail establishment early. You may miss out on paying customers.
I would have gone somewhere else and called the regional manager in the morning to tell him why. No excuse.
As toyman said, call the regional manager, you will definitely get cut a break on your bill. I've seen them go out of their way to make complainers happy, someone who was just playing by the rules should have no problem getting a discount.
must be a union shop
Some firestones suck, I went to one to get an allignment on my milano, and the manager refused to do it, then i went to another one and they were happy to do it for me.
pigeon wrote: If your web site says you're open until 7, and the sign on the front door says you're open until 7, why are you closed at 6:45?? I went to drop off my 944 with the replacement un-bent wheels at Firestone to have the tires swapped, and they were closed when they should have been open. Sure, I used the night drop and I was planning to leave it anyway, but still, don't close your retail establishment early. You may miss out on paying customers.
Well, at least you weren't trying to PICK YOUR CAR UP, 30 minutes before close at the cheap-ass place across the street that you only go to because they have very friendly state safety inspectors, and they're locked up, and you didn't bring a backup key with you that day, and you have to get a co-worker to drive you home.
Cuz if that ever happened to someone, it sure would suck...
Travis_K wrote: Some firestones suck, I went to one to get an allignment on my milano, and the manager refused to do it, then i went to another one and they were happy to do it for me.
I had that happen with one of my fiats.. even though I explained that everything under the car was brand new.. his reply was "it's too rusty, we can't do it".. this is without even seeing the car.
I could take a hint
Up in the mountains where my mom lives, not opening on time is de rigeur. I was working up there and had to pick up some tools to finish a job. The supply store message says they open "9ish" which means 9:20-30. I can't spend 20 minutes waiting for a place to open. If you don't want to keep your door open during posted business hours maybe it is time to either find a worker who will open early close late or get into a new profession.
Some of the busy shops around here will stay to 8 or 9 at night to finish their work.
That is just unacceptable. There should have been a manager there to finish out the day. Even if it is just to say, "Sorry, noone to work on it. You will have to leave it."
I picked it up this morning. The guy I talked to was the guy who closed up early. He explained that he had a "situation" that required him to get picked up and dropped off for work, his ride was waiting and it was dead so he locked up a few minutes early. Im quite sure that the only situation that would require him to get rides is a DWI... It wasn't worth the aggravation for me to find the contact for the regional manager to complain. I got it out of my system with this post - thanks GRM!
2 entirely different things?
A.) I once took my truck to a Firestone store for a new set of tires (4). Went there to get an exact replacement for the OEM tire. I didn't realize until a few days later...they only mounted 2 new tires, but I got charged for 4. I went back, complained, and got the other 2 tires. (Because of work, I picked up my truck just before they closed and it was darkish.) After that, I never went back to Firestone.
B.) I work for a restaurant that delivers food. Folks call in "to go" orders, and NEVER pick them and other folks call in orders and expect us to keep the store open indefinitely....so when they think of it, they can get their food. Also, our store closes at 1 a.m. Folks order food to be delivered at 12:50 a.m. By the time that food is cooked it's already closing time and I still have to deliver it.
Which is more un-reasonable? Waiting til the last minute to "visit" a business, or that business closing a few minutes early when there are no visible customers? Pigeon, I'll bet if you had called and asked if they would have someone there (yeah, I know, they were supposed to close AFTER you would have been there, someone would have been there for you.)
In reply to integraguy:
Every restraunt I've worked at has a time the doors close, and a different time the kitchen 'closes' .. and a much different time at which the actual business closes and staff leaves.
Regardless of the business type you should be ready, willing and able to accept new business up to the time you have posted.
No business has to stay open any minute of the day they don't feel like being open. I also don't have to frequent any business that does anything to piss me off. It all eventually works out.
This happened to me yesterday & left me pretty ticked off. I get a call Thursday that my car is ready at a local garage. They say they close at 5pm so I tell them I'll be down Friday after work. I rushed all day to make sure I was out on time because I knew traffic was going to be a bitch. 40 minutes in traffic & I get there at 4:43pm & the place is locked up.
I run an indy garage. If you call and say you'll be dropping your car off at 7, I'll wait around if I would have otherwise closed. Unless I hear from you by 7:15, I'm outta here. I get at least one person per week who urgently needs to pick up/drop off a car at some weird hour but never shows up or calls. I don't think much of it anymore.
I seem to have a lot of customers that will drop a car off 5 minutes till close on a Friday and then start calling me at 9am on Saturday to see if it's done.
And yeah, sometimes I have to do other stuff and close early or open late. I don't live at the shop.
edit: Also, because of places like firestone, grismer, discount tire, and the like, no one is willing to pay anything for tires or to get stuff mounted and balanced. Believe it or not, mounting tires is a lot of work and not particularly fun. I especially love the customers that want to buy tires online and bring them to me, but don't want to pay more than $5/ea to have them mounted and balanced. Those same guys will also go over the rim with a microscope afterward and raise all kinds of hell about the smallest mark.
Sample interaction: Customer walks through the door carrying some rims, Customer: "I need these tires mounted and balanced on these wheels, %other shop% will do it for $12 each." Me: "It's $20 each here" C: "You won't price match?" M: "Nope, why didn't you just take your tires to %other shop% in the first place?" C: "Well, you're closer and came highly recommended and %other shop% scratched my wheels last time." M: "So I'm more convenient, do better work, but I'm not allowed to be more expensive?" C: "...uh"
The place I go to for tires I bring in charges $8 per if I take the tires to the dump myself. This is what I usually do. I always give them $40. That's still a whole ton cheaper than any other shop here. Their hours aren't even posted, but generally, they're open when they open, and close pretty late.
I worked in a computer shop where I opened and closed daily. I opened up about half an hour early, and usually left about 15 minutes late. At closing time, I'd flip the sign to closed, but there's a good bit of stuff I always wanted to finish up, so I left the store open so late people could come in and drop off or pick up computers.
Yesterday I was in one town and running around getting Halloween stuff (don't ask). In line at Marshalls I called the sandwich place that's on the way home. I didn't realize it was 20 minutes before they closed. I told them I don't think I would make it. They said "no problem, we'll be cleaning up and still be here about 15 to 20 minutes after closing so come on down." I gave them a nice tip. Now it's even my more favoritist sandwich shop!
The Paisley Hippo.
Derick Freese wrote: The place I go to for tires I bring in charges $8 per if I take the tires to the dump myself.
I always "joke" with the guys on those disposal fees....."shoot; throw them in my trunk and I will flip them into the creek down the road"
I am just kidding! They always groan.......
fromeast2west wrote: In reply to integraguy: Every restraunt I've worked at has a time the doors close, and a different time the kitchen 'closes' .. and a much different time at which the actual business closes and staff leaves. Regardless of the business type you should be ready, willing and able to accept new business up to the time you have posted.
Our service drive closes at 7 but I've been in the shop working on a car til 10 before to make a customer happy to have their car completed the next morning. Plus if I'm there by myself I can crank my radio and jam out without having to worry about my d-bag co-workers complaining. But there are other times I'll leave at 6:45 if I'm scheduled to 7 because there is absolutely no work and haven't done any work all day.
When I delivered Pizza we closed at "10" on Fri-Sat but I would be delivering pies til all hours of the night because of the typical late night "a-hole" but it was also money in my pocket.
And yes mounting and balancing tires is a lot of work and no fun. People think it's ridiculous to pay a flat rate like $20 per tire, but those are the same people that get their cheap Nankang tires from sleazeBay that have a 35 sidewall and made of stone.
skruffy wrote: I seem to have a lot of customers that will drop a car off 5 minutes till close on a Friday and then start calling me at 9am on Saturday to see if it's done.
when I delivered pizza i'd take tires to the local used tire guy from time to time (i'd done a used tire or 2 from it at one point)... he'd do it for $4 a pop (including disposal)... he'd yank the wheel off... while he was working on the next i'd put the one he just finished back on (with my torque wrench that i carried haha)... i liked the guy, he never had a line... worked quickly and was kewl to talk to... I made it a point to bring a pizza out to him from time to time if i was working the day and driving past his shop...
when I moved about 2hrs away I really missed that shop...
er and ya on pizza... depending on the shop... we'd cut off deliveres to certian areas early the far drives... but sometimes you'd still be driving an hr or more after the store "stopped delivering"... sucked when they'd stiff... but it happens...
On paying for mounting tires, I've learned my lesson. I still generally buy online but I paid this Firestone $25 per to have them mounted and balanced. They're the closest to me with a Hunter road force balancer, the work is done quickly and they have never berkeleyed up my wheels. Ive used 2 different WalMarts before because they were cheap ($8 each). The first one scratched the hell out of 2 wheels - one of the 2 machines they were using simultaneously was missing the plastic to protect the wheel, the dumb guy knew it and used it anyway. I raised hell. The other one would not mount a +0 fitment to the wheels on my XC90 claiming they were too wide and would rub - basically if it wasn't a stock size on a stock wheel the sky was going to fall and they ran away. So I paid the local Tire Rack recommended installer (and the largest Subaru dealer in the country) to do it. 5k miles later and no rubbing. Of course they also scratched the hell out of all 4 wheels an charged $35 each. They fixed the wheels and ate 1/2 the cost of the mount and balance.
I had a customer come into the dealership on Christmas eve and go nuts on us becuase we closed early and where not open on Christmas day.
She did not have a appointment and had never been there before.
After about 20 mins of her going ape E36 M3 on us I looked at her and said "mam I am going home to spend the holliday with my wife and kids".
For folks commenting on my off topic remarks about restaurant closing times:
We shut off the time you can come get your "to go" food BEFORE the time deliveries stop because robbers have a wonderful habit of waiting til your cash register MIGHT be at it's fullest, when they drop in to get your nights receipts "to go". Plus, to get out at a decent hour, we do it to dial back on the work of making food. What yanks my chain about folks who call in orders just as we are about to stop taking orders....when we go 35-45 minutes without out an order we get heavily into the clean-up mode. When a customer calls 10 minutes before we close to get food all sorts of crap has to be re-organized to fix your order....and then, 9 times out of 10 you can't be bothered to tip the driver who has to rush back to the store and continue cleaning up the mess that was created making your food.
Folks wouldn't walk into a restaurant 10 minutes before it closed...if they value their health. But think nothing of ordering food to be delivered just as our kitchen is winding down for the night.
There was a really interesting article published in some mag or other, this waitress recounted how there were 4 guys drinking in her section who decided to keep at it even after the place closed. So the staff did their thing (cleaned stations, did setups for the next shift, etc) and when that was all done the girl went to the table and said 'we've been closed for an hour, it's time to leave' and one of the guys said 'you leave when we are ready to leave'. 
It ended with the police.
I have waited late for people who never showed, royally pissing me off with their lack of concern for my life. I have also once had to close a store early due to a death. I lost my job over that one (honestly it was no great loss). So I've been on both sides. But, in the case of a shop that closed before someone could pick up a car, there's no excuse for not getting in touch with the customer to make arrangements (after all, they have a life too).
You'll need to log in to post.
