I recently replaced the tires on my car and had an alignment done at Foreign Auto Services. Unfortunately, after the alignment, my car began pulling noticeably to the left. I contacted them to inform them of the issue, and they scheduled a follow-up appointment to recheck the alignment. After making some additional adjustments, they assured me that everything was correct. However, the problem persisted. During a test drive with the manager, I mentioned that the car was still pulling to the left. When I suggested that the best way to check for alignment issues is to drive without holding the steering wheel tightly, the manager responded by asking, “Do you give driving tests without holding the steering wheel?” He then suggested other reasons for the pulling, such as the possibility that the tires were made in different batches, and insisted there was no issue with the alignment. Despite their claims, the car continued to pull excessively to the left. Frustrated, I scheduled an appointment with another auto shop, Hogan & Sons Tire & Auto, to have the alignment checked. They informed me that the toe was off on both the front and back, which explained the pulling issue. I ended up having to pay more money to redo the alignment properly. I have attached images showing the incorrect alignment done by Foreign Auto Services and the corrected alignment after I had it fixed. Unfortunately, this experience left me disappointed, as I had to go elsewhere to fix what should have been addressed by Foreign Auto Services in the first place.
Mr Puram, I had hoped you might amend this review based off our phone conversation; nevertheless, as I stated to you I would respond with what we discussed on the phone. As stated per our phone conversation I looked into your two visits to our facility for your vehicle’s alignment. I spoke with Shawn (your service advisor), went over the details of your conversation with Shawn during the test drive in your vehicle, and took a look at your alignment specifications both before and after on both visits. I determined that whether or not your alignment was correct on your first visit (the spec sheet seems to indicate it was), the second alignment should not have been performed as it was. On the compensation/setup of the targets on your second visit there was a large change in the before readings, which show either a poor setup (machine or user error) or that the vehicle’s alignment had changed significantly since the previous visit. Since the before readings from Hogan and Son’s does not match what the post readings were or even close to that second alignment I would assume that there was some error on the second alignment performed at FAS. For clarity it seems to be the passenger side where the issue lies. Therefore, I gathered my staff, discussed the situation, spoke about what might have occurred, and put new processes in place to try and prevent issues like the one we experienced on the 3rd of October with your vehicle from happening again. I also contacted the manufacture’s service technician to come calibrate the targets and cameras and to give the alignment equipment a check over. As I stated to you on the phone we normally do this process once a year, but we are changing that to be once a quarter moving forward. Neither of these changes help you in your situation, but when issues like yours arise we like to make changes to help prevent them moving forward. To make you whole, however, I did ask you to contact Groupon and request a refund and that I would authorize/process that refund as soon as I saw it come through. I saw that you did request that refund and I did authorize it immediately. You seemed very grateful for the changes and that we were taking your concerns seriously. You also seemed to really appreciate the effort to refund you for the alignment. I had hoped that since you stated that you did find satisfaction in the efforts taken to resolve the issues encountered with your vehicle’s alignment that you might amend the review or even remove it. Even if you do not, we are better for it and I thank you for the feedback. Best regards, Luis Owner
- Foreign Auto Service