Remember Greg? The front axle of his car broke as he tried to drive it out of a Firestone Complete Auto Care shop, and the shop wouldn’t take responsibility for the incident. We heard back from Greg. He reports that the regional manager declared the situation a “miscommunication.” He now has a repaired axle and a word of thanks for the readers of Consumerist.

Thank you again for publishing my story. I received a lot of good tips on handling this situation from the readers comments.

I’m happy to report that I got my car back, with the axle repaired. Here’s how it went:

I was told that I should expect a call on Monday. But on Saturday someone from Firestone called. I wasn’t at home, they spoke with my son, so I’m not sure who this person was but I’m guessing it was the regional manager. He explained this situation as “miscommunication” and promised the axle would be repaired at no cost to me. They could not get the axle right then on Saturday, but on Monday the car was fixed. I was happy with this solution, so I did not care to investigate whose fault it was. It could have been a miscommunication issue, since they had several people dealing with my car along the way.

In retrospect, I should have probably started with talking to the shop manager, but I was so upset I just called the corporate office. Which worked! Hopefully this story can be helpful for anyone having similar problems in the future.

The post here may have had nothing to do with the phone call to Greg, but note that the post ran on Friday, July 30, and the unexpected phone call from corporate came on Saturday the 31st.

By the way, for the curious, Greg’s vehicle is a Hyundai Santa Fe with 112,000 miles on it.

PREVIOUSLY:
Firestone Complete Auto Care Hopes You Don’t Notice Your Car’s Broken Front Axle

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.