Store Name and #: Ken Towery’s Tire and Auto # 1207
Store Address: 1213 Winchester Road
Lexington, KY 40505
Rating: 1/10
I have had my car in this shop a couple time for service over the last couple of years. The first time I took it in for service, all I wanted was an oil change and an inspection of the brakes. I dropped it off before going to work which is in the area. The nice thing about the store is I can drop off my car, walk down to work, and afterwards walk back to pick up my car during my dinner break. I dropped my car off without an issue around 1:00 pm, which is when their auto techs were getting back from lunch. I asked them to call me when the car was done, so that I could pick up my car from them and pay for the oil change before they closed. 4 hours went by without a word from them. When I dropped it off they said my car would be done by 3 pm in the afternoon. It was now 5pm in the evening and I hadn’t heard a word from Ken Towery’s. I called the store, and they told me my car was ready to be picked up. I walked down there to pick up the car and pay for the oil change. When I called them to inquire about my car, they said they had called my phone, but I hadn’t received any missed calls or any voice mails. I double checked the number that they supposedly called and verified that they had “attempted” to call my cell phone. They clearly hadn’t as there were no voice mails or missed calls in my phone log.
I am always willing to give people an extra chance. Don’t we all deserve that? This last time I took my car to them on March 12, 2019 due to my car making a weird noise at low speeds and just wanted them to look at my car and then give me a call so I can authorize any work that needed to be done on the car. Again time went by without any response, much as it did the first time I brought it there. They went ahead and worked on my car without verifying that it was ok for them to do so or even making an effort to call me to give me a quote on how much it would cost to do the work. I dropped my car off at 1:00 pm and waited until 5 PM, at which time I called them, and again they said they “attempted” to call me and left me a message. My phone log showed no calls from them, and I of course never authorized any work to be done on my car by them. Yet without contacting me or getting my approval they went ahead and di the work and billed me for it.
I would be fine with this if they had made even a honest effort to contact me, or if they had waited to hear from me before authorizing work on my car. However, this kind of business practice is deceitful and shady. I have never dealt with an auto shop who doesn’t call or didn’t bother to contact their customers first before doing work on a customer’s car, particularly when the customer requested to be contacted prior to any work being done.
What they told me was causing the noise were my brakes, which they said needed to be greased. Frankly, I don’t know if I believe them or not . I know there are ball bearings in car wheels that need to be greased, but I have never heard of greasing brakes. Since brakes work by resisting wheel movement, it sounds counter intuitive that you would want to reduce that brake resistance by greasing them. Since they claimed to have called me before working on the car, and that I authorized the work (which I clearly didn’t), I decided I would pay them the $88.00 they demanded, but let others know to be warry of this shop.
I have had my car at a few other places in town that have worked on my car for everything from oil changes to having parts put in such as a new headlights, brakes and other parts. Whenever I request to receive a call prior to authorizing work done on my car, I have typically received a call informing me of the problem or the cost before they do any work. This is the only place that I have dealt with where I have to call them in order to find out what is happening with my car and its usually 4 hours after I drop my car off. Twice they claimed to have “attempted” to call me and authorized the work, or they have “called” me to tell me that my car was ready to be picked up and I have no phone log of their call. Needless-to-say, I will no longer be going to this store for any repair work or oil changes on my car in the future. They don’t seem to be very organized and cannot call customers and have no problem charging customers for work done without customer authorization. There are lots of other car places in the Lexington KY area to have work done on your car and this isn’t one of them. Convenience in location should not take precedence over trustworthiness of a business. This place certainly doesn’t have my trust for any future car problems.
Jason
