I am a former Sears employee. I actually worked for National Tire and Battery before Sears sold it to Tire Kingdom. I was a Tech III for NTB and performed all types of mechanical repairs. I was also ASE Certified in the 3 fields of service NTB provided, Brakes, Steering and Suspension, and Electrical Systems. Every customer should know, not ALL Sears technician's are as well educated or trained to be automotive technicians. Some of them are promoted from tire changers to techs. The only course of training they receive are one to three day classes at Sears' main shop in your area. Then they work side by side with the technician at their store. The technician they work with may have been promoted in the same fashion. I am not trying to knock Sears at all here, just simply trying to educate their customers. I myself went to a trade school for two years and was a dealership technician for 4 years.
The hardest part of working on any vehicle is diagnosing a customers complaint. For example, alignments. A vehicle that is out of alignment will ALMOST NEVER cause a vibration. A poor alignment will cause the vehicle to do one or more of the following; pull to the left or the right, hard steering, and/or premature/uneven tire wear. I say "almost never" because depending on the make and/or model vehicle, there are rare instances it may cause a vibration, but it is very, very rare.
The main cause for vibration is "usually" poorly balanced tires and/or faulty vehicle components (which includes the tires themselves). This is where diagnosing becomes the difficult part. Anyone can be a parts changer, an experienced technician will look for the cause of a vibration and go from there. I did work with individuals who simply changed parts (if it needed it or not), and came up with all kinds of excuses as to why the problem wasn't solved. This was the main reason why I left the automotive business. Too many untrained, greedy grease monkeys out there ripping people off.
Why didn't I go to management about this problem you ask? I did. At that time management didn't care. They were paid salary plus bonuses. We as technicians were paid hourly plus commission on labor only. A good incentive to make a technician work faster. Also another incentive to make him sell you something you may not need.
Every good auto shop will post their technicians ASE Certifications somewhere on location. You have the right to choose who works on your vehicle. You also have the right to be shown your vehicles bad components BEFORE they are removed from the vehicle. If getting an alignment done, you have the right to be shown either a print out of the alignment BEFORE it is performed, or be shown the actual alignment screen while your vehicle is attached to the equipment. Now most places will tell you that you are not allowed in the shop area because of insurance reasons, which is true. If they want your money, they will hand you a pair of safety glasses and escort you to your vehicle and show you what needs to be repaired. Sears used to do this, not sure if they still do (been out of the business for 6 years now).
The best I can tell people is to ask a lot of questions. Ask to see exactly what needs to be replaced. Have them show you (if possible) what a new part looks like compared to the faulty part. Not all parts will appear faulty to the look, have the technician explain to you why the part is bad. Most of all, GET A SECOND OPINION. I know it's a hassle going from one place to another but, it may save you a ton of money. When you take your vehicle elsewhere, DO NOT tell them that another place said "X" part was bad. Let them inspect the vehicles general area. For example; Sears claims your brake rotors and calipers need to be replaced. Take your vehicle to another location and ask them to do a brake inspection. If Sears claims you need new tie rod ends (suspension work), take it elsewhere and ask for a suspension inspection. If they tell you everything checks out good, THEN tell them another shop claims "X" part is bad, please check it again. If they come back and say, "Oh yeah, it is bad!!" Take it elsewhere again, because now, either they are trying to rip you off, or they were too incompetent to see it in the first place.
Again, I'm not trying to knock Sears, just trying to educate the public. I take my vehicles to Sears for all my tire and battery needs. Obviously if I need additional work, I perform it myself. There are a lot of GOOD technicians who work for Sears, then there are the bad ones. Ask if they have ASE certified techs. If they do, request those techs to perform your repairs.
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