There's no such thing as a $99 Brake Job

I have a rant today. This isn't my typical blog content, but I wanted to get it off my chest, and hopefully save others from the troubles I experienced yesterday.

My son took the car to Just Brakes yesterday for the $99 brake job that is the cornerstone of their advertising. Brilliant marketing - poor execution. Actually, brilliant execution if their goal is not to sell $99 brake jobs. An hour after my son dropped off the car I got the call - my $99 brake job was going to cost a minimum of $530 for just the rear. It was like pulling teeth to get a detailed breakdown of the costs over the phone- the manager kept telling me that they would all be on the printout I receive after I pay for my repaired car. Interestingly, he told me that in addition I needed to seriously consider new brakes in the front too. This was interesting since I just got new brakes in the front 3 months ago.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I discovered that $99 only applies to certain brakes that they have in stock. After some Googling I learned that this is a common ploy that they use. In Marketing 101 they called this "bait and switch", but that's illegal, so there must be a loophole that the Just Brakes folks have found a workaround for.

Anyway, I finally got the detailed breakdown of costs and called a reputable mechanic that I've used in the past. He quoted me a price that was half of the Just Brakes price, so I picked up my unrepaired car from Just Brakes and won't be back again.