I had a brand new tire "disappear" on my fiance's 85 Nova many years ago when she took it in for an oil change special a week after she purchased four new tires. The shop ticket said "needs a new front tire". She thought they were trying to scam her since she was a woman and ignored it. When I was checking her tires a week later prior to a road trip I noticed the bald tire! I confronted the Firestone manger who of course denied it. I made it a point to tell everyone in the waiting room what they had done (A few walked out) before the cops showed up. The cop was cool and said he belived me, but there was nothing he could do as it was a civil matter. I made it a point to tell everyone I knew to avoid that particular Firestone shop for many many years.
My point is that don't put it by some shops to try to screw you, as they expect most people to have very limited knowledge of cars. Luckely you can replace your end links, but I would look at that shop with suspicious eyes as that is too soon a time to loose two new end links....I could be wrong, but just my two cents!!
Not being argumentative, but even dealing with people with the shop expects to have very limited knowledge of cars, I don't think there's anyone in the world who wouldn't realize they just got new tires put on the previous week, and it's also pretty easy to tell the difference between week old tires and a bald replacement. Why would you automatically assume it was the shop doing an oil change a week later? Unless you physically watched the car every minute of every day for the entire week, or you checked the tires the day you took it in for the rotation, that's a pretty tall accusation. Some people just always look for the bad in people.
Back in 2004, my now ex girlfriend and I went on an overnight trip to the backwoods of Kentucky. She's from there, I'm not. I don't mean the "touristy" backwoods part of Kentucky, either. I mean the part where when her brother told me "you ever hurt my sister, they won't ever find your body" and I had no reason to doubt him. Anyway...
We took our two week old 2004 Honda Accord on the trip. I came out of the hotel the next morning to an empty parking space. After surveying the situation for a few seconds, I figured out that it had definitely been stolen. I didn't automatically assume the Honda dealer had stolen it, wanting us to buy another one. Called the police, who insisted on repeatedly calling it a Hyundai, not honda, seemed more concerned about why we were there, and were basically helpless. Our insurance company really went above and beyond, paying for a rental car to get us back home. In that area, the ride of choice, I remember quite fondly, was a 1995 Ford Windstar van with no a/c, taxi lettering still on the door, but painted over with black paint (on a red van) and 470k on the clock. The rental place had that or a similarly aged V6 regular cab Dodge Dakota. USAA paid for us to get that, get it home to Ohio, rented us a better car, and paid costs to get the windstar BACK to Kentucky.
Again, sorry for the long winded ramble. This response was supposed to only be about two lines long. lol.
Side thread, but if anyone has ever had a car stolen, that feeling ranks way up there as one of the worst feelings, and the weirdest feelings possible.
