Firestone Complete Auto Care

I’ve been frequenting this Firestone for a couple of years now as it’s convenient and not far from my home. I come here for both personal and work vehicles as my company has a business account here.
In the past I’ve always had about a 4 out of 5 star experience. Lobby was always clean, the manager was thorough, appreciative and polite. He would follow up every time and was always giving 110%. I’m assuming there’s been some turnover since I was last here as today when I visited there were all new faces.
I stopped in at 2:30pm with a minor flat and was given the promising answer that, «we can try to get it in before the end of the day but we’re not sure». We’re talking half the day on a weekday, with minimal or less than average cars in their parking lot and they don’t have any time to look at a flat? Keeping in mind that on this visit I was in a branded company vehicle with a Firestone account needing a relatively minor fix and they just turned me away without offering anything more helpful than, «you can try the Firestone about a mile down the road.»
Looks like unless I want to pay for those repairs out of pocket I will be forced to try for better luck at another Firestone and pay for a cab. All I know is if I had a client with a large, national corporate account I would at least make some effort to get them taken care of in one way or another. But what do I know, I’m only involved in customer service every work day.

Arriving only 15 minutes to closing time. The mechanic got my car right in and saved my trip as I was going through the area. 4 employees stayed 45 minutes late to get me going. Brakes fixed. They also found a seized cable, lubed it. After brake job, everything works perfect.

MAN, I wished I lived here — just for these mechanics!
In the middle of a LONG road trip, I realized my brakes weren’t gonna make it the whole way (the power of positive thinking just not cutting it…) That’s when I pulled over and reached out to this Firestone.
James is the face of the operation, and he totally has customer service DOWN! He was friendly and welcoming on the phone, immediately grasping the urgency of the situation. He even took my info over the phone, to have the necessary parts ready when I drove in.
After the inspection, he gave me bad news — in the best possible way. He explained how bad everything really was, in a «Bill-​Nye-​the-​Science-​Guy» kind of way. By explaining the whole problem, he took away the scary and the suspicious, and let me make my own call.
It wasn’t pretty. It WAS costly. But it was also a decision I felt completely secure in making, thanks to these guys.
He even kept me apprised of the repair with regular updates — something MANY mechanics will forego.
James is a dude who really takes his job to heart: he just wants to help people who come in with car problems.
On top of everything, he was SUPER friendly with my dog, too!
I can’t lie: if my dog trusts you, then I trust you.
These guys are the perfect balance between professional and friendly. I would come back for any and every repair.

Nobody enjoys emptying their wallets for car repair, but with that said… Firestone is the place I’ve chosen to do it. Particularly this Firestone. I’ve had bad experiences at Firestones before, so I’ve been hesitant in the past to give them another shot. However, I’ve found that bad experiences at auto care places tend to stem from poor management/​lack of care. Few people these days have stacks of cash ready to throw at their car problems and they are looking to save wherever they can. Often, my experiences at auto care places tend to revolve around the mechanic finding a plethora of other issues that I didn’t even know existed and then I’m harassed into consenting to repairs. James at the Firestone on the corner of 9000 and Redwood is the reason Firestone still gets my business. He’s friendly, understanding, and honest. With James, I’ve never felt pushed into repairs that I didn’t think my car needed, but I was always kept in the loop about things that my car probably needs. Basically, the experience goes like this: «Hey, I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news but [this and this] is why you brought your car in, but we did a complete vehicle inspection like you asked and we also found [this, this, and this].» He then goes on to explain (in however much detail desired) what the problem is, how much it would cost, and then leaves it to me to decide how much work I want done. There was no pressure at all. He even gave me a cheap resolution option for my original problem (that I decided against, because sometimes you just gotta spend the money and solve the issue instead of putting a bandage on it and praying that it holds indefinitely).
So then, if I had an awesome experience, why am I only giving it four stars? Firestone tends to be somewhat limited on how much work they can do on specialty vehicles (BMW, Jaguar, Mercedes, etc). If they could hire specialty technicians and provide more services for these vehicles, I’d be satisfied enough to give up that last star.