Alright, so after doing my longtubes (by dropping the "K" and such) my steering wheel is off a bit to the right, so I figure, "Hey, I'll take up some peoples suggestions and go to Firestone and do the "alignment for life" deal!" Well I get there for my appointment a few minutes early, they get the car in fine - well no, actually the "tech" couldn't figure out how to turn the car on...and I had to go out and push the clutch all the way to the floor for him lol - anyway, 55 minutes pass and they seem ready to gimme my car back. I walk up there, start to pay, then the guy ringing me up notices that they put a note on the bill which read something to the effect of "Needs tire rotation, call speedshop for hopped up suspension alignment." It was frustrating as hell! They have my car for nearly an hour and just figured out that they "can't" align it! I talk to the manager and he says, and I quote "Your parts are throwing off our machine, it can't read anything so whenever it runs it comes out all 'funky'." 
At this point I leave a little discouraged, thinking I'll need to spend another $150-$200 to have a local race shop do a full alignment (great alignment, crappy cost
) My friend suggests we try a high-end import shop which was the only place which correctly diagnosed some troubles he had with his last car and see what they have to say. Going into the place it looks like a pretty classy joint, very clean, crazy unique store front, etc... but then I see the royal douche behind the desk! Right then I knew it wasn't gonna happen with this place. So I get to asking about alignments and how Firestone couldn't/wouldn't do it, then I say "They gave me some excuse about how their machine couldn't do it," to which he replies "It's because of your parts, they can't put it into spec." 
"No no no no no!" I say to him, "My car was in spec before I rebuilt the suspension, but it's still at the same ride height, and physically it's a stock geometry car, no aftermarket control arms, subframes, K-member, etc." Now this is where the guy got me pissed... "I don't think you're understanding what I'm telling you. You changed the car, so it can't be in spec!" 
I try to tell him otherwise but it's no use, I didn't wanna do business with such an A-hole anyway.
Oh yeah, then to top it off, while walking out of the joint I mutter to my friend "What a :BADWORDING: :BADWORD: guy!"
Haha, luckily senor moron heard me and storms up from his chair and walks through the garage out to the front of the business and starts to shout at me as I drive off.... Mmm, I do believe that is considered customer harrassment, as my friend and I did purchase some M&M's in the vending machine before getting any "service" - I could always file a complaint with the BBB just to jerk them around I guess 
I'm really starting to feel discouraged at this point...
But alas, there is one more "local" shop to checkout....
As soon as I walked in this last joint I knew it was going to workout. On the walls there were pictures of the owner, a few staffers and others with their tricked Vettes, Mustangs, and Maros. The nice old lady at the desk called in the head service guy, I told him what I had done to the car and he seemed pretty cool with it, told me he would for sure align it - and best of all gave me some damn respect for knowing what I was talking about (perhaps the whole "Yeah, I kinda built the car by myself" sunk in with this guy lol).
It's STILL going to take till next Monday to get it done, but atleast it is I guess! Going to all the shops, calling atleast 5 others, and dealing with more jackasses in one day than I thought possible has really leaned me back towards saving up for a quality alignment tool set as I was previously planning. Also a friend of mine is planning to buy a set of scales for his street/race car, too, so hopefully I'll be having the car corner weighted for FREE soon as well
Anybody else have problems with moron alignment shops simply not listening? I mean...don't these places WANT our money??? All of the trouble I've had really makes no sense to me - WHY is it such a big deal just to get my wheels aligned!?!?!
At this point I leave a little discouraged, thinking I'll need to spend another $150-$200 to have a local race shop do a full alignment (great alignment, crappy cost
) My friend suggests we try a high-end import shop which was the only place which correctly diagnosed some troubles he had with his last car and see what they have to say. Going into the place it looks like a pretty classy joint, very clean, crazy unique store front, etc... but then I see the royal douche behind the desk! Right then I knew it wasn't gonna happen with this place. So I get to asking about alignments and how Firestone couldn't/wouldn't do it, then I say "They gave me some excuse about how their machine couldn't do it," to which he replies "It's because of your parts, they can't put it into spec." I try to tell him otherwise but it's no use, I didn't wanna do business with such an A-hole anyway. Oh yeah, then to top it off, while walking out of the joint I mutter to my friend "What a :BADWORDING: :BADWORD: guy!"
Haha, luckily senor moron heard me and storms up from his chair and walks through the garage out to the front of the business and starts to shout at me as I drive off.... Mmm, I do believe that is considered customer harrassment, as my friend and I did purchase some M&M's in the vending machine before getting any "service" - I could always file a complaint with the BBB just to jerk them around I guess I'm really starting to feel discouraged at this point...
But alas, there is one more "local" shop to checkout....As soon as I walked in this last joint I knew it was going to workout. On the walls there were pictures of the owner, a few staffers and others with their tricked Vettes, Mustangs, and Maros. The nice old lady at the desk called in the head service guy, I told him what I had done to the car and he seemed pretty cool with it, told me he would for sure align it - and best of all gave me some damn respect for knowing what I was talking about (perhaps the whole "Yeah, I kinda built the car by myself" sunk in with this guy lol).
It's STILL going to take till next Monday to get it done, but atleast it is I guess! Going to all the shops, calling atleast 5 others, and dealing with more jackasses in one day than I thought possible has really leaned me back towards saving up for a quality alignment tool set as I was previously planning. Also a friend of mine is planning to buy a set of scales for his street/race car, too, so hopefully I'll be having the car corner weighted for FREE soon as well
Anybody else have problems with moron alignment shops simply not listening? I mean...don't these places WANT our money??? All of the trouble I've had really makes no sense to me - WHY is it such a big deal just to get my wheels aligned!?!?!
the Cups bdcardinal would recommend and the KD i recommend, both great tires
