I take back all the good stuff I've said about Les Schwabs!

[Grit_dog]

Sooo, in my 8 years up here in the PNW, generally had pretty good luck with Schwabs. Lots of fleet vehicles, so plenty of truck tires, brakes, patch a loader tire at 1am stuff.

Last night I drop off my company pickup AFTER calling earlier in the day to confirm they could do what I needed. Shocks, brake pads (maybe rotors but likely not), oil change, balance and rotate tires (Schwab Toyos).
Guy calls me this morning to go thru the work needed. Shocks/struts, 1 blown 1 leaking, check. Brakes, pads low on both axles, check.
Rotate and balance, check. We don't do oil changes! WTF? Guy yesterday said no problem....ok whatever.
How much? Shocks/struts, $900 something, ok good. Brakes? $2100!
Again WTF? Sir we only replace ALL components. Pads, caliper and we will see if it needs rotors...
Huh? It's a 3 year old truck, no need for calipers. Sorry that's our policy.....

Gd@mmit. Now I gotta make like 3 separate service appointments. 1 for the shocks 1 for the brakes and probably 1 for the oil change separate.
And to boot, drove my personal truck to work and clipped a limb that was sagging and cut off protruding into the shoulder, smashed my passenger side mirror at 6am in the fog.....

Les Schwabs can kiss my @ss.
Anyone know who else sipes tires in the Seattle area? That's the only need I'd have to go back there. Since they now won't mount non Schwab tires either.

[Thermoguy]

$2500 per employee is not bad, but $3.9 Mil for the attorney, he did good:)

[goducks10]

More bad news for LS.
https://www.bendbulletin.com/business/les-schwab-will-pay-16m-to-oregon-employees-to-settle-class-ac...

[Adam_R]

FWIW, there are no perfect tire stores out there. They are each staffed with their share of knuckleheads and you have to watch them like a hawk. I mostly work with Discount Tire, and LS has been pretty good about ripping my mother-in-law off, but when you live in a small town, they are pretty much the only game around for her. During my last trip to Discount Tire, I watched 3 idiots tightening some lugs on a 17.5 inch commercial trailer tire/wheel. Let's see, 3 guys hanging off a 4 foot torque wrench. Easily in the ball park of 2000 ft-lbs of torque. I ripped them a new one for abusing another customer's equipment. Their excuse was that the torque wrench hadn't "clicked" yet. Sorry guys, it was broken through abuse long ago and you would think they understood what ft-lbs of torque was all about. I also have had Discount refuse to patch or touch a tire half a dozen times since a nail was "too close" to the sidewall. Each time I've taken it home and plugged it myself. Never had a problem with any of my repairs. They are too scared of being sued and it has removed any and all common sense. Disappointing, but it is what it is.

[LowRyter]

westernrvparkowner wrote:
You can thank the proliferation of lawyers and lawsuits for things like you encountered. A business taking on vehicle repairs and not replacing all the components in a system would likely be exposing themselves to an increased risk of being sued should that system fail. I don't think it is a Les Schwab problem, but rather an industry problem. Good Luck

sorry, no.

[larry_barnhart]

Cummins12V98 wrote:
TOYO’s that came on the 98 RAM I bought were from LS MADE IN CHINA.

Previous pic. They forgot to install grease seal !

The idiots crushed the mounts holding the shocks by OVERTIGHTENING. Had to bring new shocks just to fit into mount. Thanks LS!!!

I used LS for many years and never had good result until I finally watched how they torqued the lug nuts and found out why brakes started to shake plus lug nut broken on a rotation. After our side of the Columbia river and very close to out house I used this store with the same results. Costco here and now Discount tire across the avenue from LS can torque the correct way. LS being sold probably will not be good for customer's. chevman

[Cummins12V98]

"I do use LS for flat repair or tire rotation on new vehicles with OEM tires."

That rotation part is dicey!!! They simply use their torque stick and then hit lugs with the TQ wrench and guess what they click instantly. Over torqued right from the beginning.


I have had them do flats on tires I brought to them. They of course say no charge wanting you to come back to spend $$$ later. I asked the Manager what I owed him he said nothing. I insisted I pay what was fair and told him I would NEVER have LS do anything besides flat repair and wanted to pay. He was very angry and finally gave me a bill.

[Grit_dog]

Thermoguy wrote:
I didn't read all 10 pages to this but I did read some.

I am confused about the complaint. Les Schwab has always done calipers with brakes. I went there years ago to get an estimate, wondered why they did calipers. Actually most places do not turn rotors anymore, they replace them. That's really not on Les Schwab, but just the way it is. I had brake quotes from the dealer and an independent, both pretty close in price, did it myself with new rotors for under $400.

As for oil changes. I didn't know they did oil changes, sounds like they don't or most of their sites don't. So, why are we complaining about oil changes?

Tires at Les Schwab - not necessarily name brand. Instead Les Schwab labeled china tires. They do sell some non Les Schwab tires. Go price Sailun trailer tires if you want to have some fun, then check WalMart for the same tire. If you want brand name tires, GoodYear, Michelin, you don't go to Les Schwab.

To the OP, if you want your brakes checked, or have a tire type issue, Les Schwab is great. But don't complain about services they don't offer.

We had a brake down this summer in Wallace ID. The shackles on our trailer broke. We had to be towed to Les Schwab. Stayed overnight in their parking lot - not recommended... - But, they fixed the shackles for a very fair price and got us on the road. I had them quote a couple different sets of Chinese trailer tires, I didn't buy from them as I knew I could get better tires and less expensive tires elsewhere.

What's confusing about the calipers? I never had brakes done there, replacing OE calipers on a 3 year old vehicle is stupid and a ripoff.
Also never had an oil change there, but was thinking 1 stop shop. If you read my post, I confirmed they'd do all that stuff. IDFC if they do oil changes or not, just don't say you do, if you don't.
And have bought plenty of tires there (professionally, not personally) but now apparently they've gone from a bit over priced to a rip off for no name tires.

I'm glad you like Schwabs, seems like plenty of other people who don't know they're getting hosed do as well, and I suspect they will keep their doors open for a good long while and probably won't miss my business.

BTW, still need to have them replace the ****-tacular struts on my truck. Took about 3 months and they sounded like an old rusty gate going over every speed bump.

[Thermoguy]

I didn't read all 10 pages to this but I did read some.

I am confused about the complaint. Les Schwab has always done calipers with brakes. I went there years ago to get an estimate, wondered why they did calipers. Actually most places do not turn rotors anymore, they replace them. That's really not on Les Schwab, but just the way it is. I had brake quotes from the dealer and an independent, both pretty close in price, did it myself with new rotors for under $400.

As for oil changes. I didn't know they did oil changes, sounds like they don't or most of their sites don't. So, why are we complaining about oil changes?

Tires at Les Schwab - not necessarily name brand. Instead Les Schwab labeled china tires. They do sell some non Les Schwab tires. Go price Sailun trailer tires if you want to have some fun, then check WalMart for the same tire. If you want brand name tires, GoodYear, Michelin, you don't go to Les Schwab.

To the OP, if you want your brakes checked, or have a tire type issue, Les Schwab is great. But don't complain about services they don't offer.

We had a brake down this summer in Wallace ID. The shackles on our trailer broke. We had to be towed to Les Schwab. Stayed overnight in their parking lot - not recommended... - But, they fixed the shackles for a very fair price and got us on the road. I had them quote a couple different sets of Chinese trailer tires, I didn't buy from them as I knew I could get better tires and less expensive tires elsewhere.

[Grit_dog]

^Yup, they’re like Firestone Auto Care now, or how Firestone used to be.
Being a mechanic, personally, and professionally when I was a kid, I’m quicker to smell a rat than many I think. And back in the day, FS tried overcharging the **** out of my gf and the guy wasn’t even smart enough to get his story straight when I showed up.
Was basically a bait n switch. And similar behavior now with Schwabs.
I still use Schwab for roadside truck and equipment tire repairs, basically because they’re the most available, universally, 24hrs per day. If I have a flat on a loader in the freeway median at 2 am during a traffic closure I don’t get if it costs extra money to get going again. But I refuse to replace good parts because it’s Schwabs “policy.”

[mtofell1]

I just went through this EXACT thing with Schwab and am in the EXACT same boat as you.... I'm done. I've always paid a bit more for tires there and was find because of the service and all the locations. Especially for my wife's car it gave me some peace of mind. But this BS with their brakes just soured me.

I took a Kia delivery vehicle in for my company and they wanted $700 for rear brakes. Took it to the DEALER and they did all 4 for $525. Sorry Schwab..... I'm out.

[Grit_dog]

^ What I was thinking....
And ole boy just whipped some timing belts on the car....impressive!

[Cummins12V98]

big_jeff wrote:
I normally do my own vehicle maintenance but I'm getting up there in age, my bones don't want to cooperate too much now. So I needed some work done on my Hyundai, so I went to My loca l Les Schwab to get an estimate.. timing belt, belts, front left axle and hoses.. $1700. for parts and labor. I just about had an aneurysm. I did it myself for $300. in parts from rockauto. I think they believe everybody is a sucker...

Timing belt??? They are into engines now?

[big_jeff1]

I normally do my own vehicle maintenance but I'm getting up there in age, my bones don't want to cooperate too much now. So I needed some work done on my Hyundai, so I went to My loca l Les Schwab to get an estimate.. timing belt, belts, front left axle and hoses.. $1700. for parts and labor. I just about had an aneurysm. I did it myself for $300. in parts from rockauto. I think they believe everybody is a sucker...

[goducks10]

Quit using LS years ago. Discount only now. Probably about 23 years or so. Discount is clear across town and LS is less than a mile down the road.
I like being able to discuss what tires I want rather than being told what tires I should have.
I do use LS for flat repair or tire rotation on new vehicles with OEM tires. I did need a tire replaced out on the road a couple years back. So LS does come in handy at times. 🙂