Lamb's Tire & Automotive — Attraction in Austin

SUMMARY: GO ANYWHERE BUT LAMBS. THE STAFF IS HIGHLY UNPROFESSIONAL, AND WILL TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOUR TIME, MONEY, AND YOU. YOU WILL BE OVERCHARGED AND THEY WILL DESTROY YOUR CARS ALIGNMENT SO YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR THEM TO FIX IT!!!! NEVER COME HERE EVEN IF THEY ARE YOUR LAST OPTION!!!

So, let me tell you about the most unprofessional service I have ever received, which will cause me to never use a Lamb’s ever again. There was only one car in the shop when I arrived at 9:15am. I assumed it would be a fast option, I’d never been to Lamb’s, but I had an appointment at 12, so I thought “surely, it’ll be a quick fix; an hour, maybe two tops.” All I needed were my front tires replaced as my car had been thoroughly checked by my mechanic a week beforehand. He said it was in great shape, everything as it should be, but the front tires were bald and should be replaced ASAP.

Firstly, the guy at the computer didn’t give me any tire options, immediately tried to charge me $313 for the two tires, and kept heavily pushing for me to get a “free” alignment check. But after finally checking my car tires an hour after I’d been there, he told me my mechanic was "crazy for telling me my back tires would pass inspection" and told me that he’d give me a deal of $450 for the “entry level” tires. I said okay, because $450 is certainly better than $626, so I approved it.

Now, here is where my problem lies. After waiting TWO AND A HALF hours, the mechanic finished with my car. Brought the papers and car keys up to the front desk, and my car was waiting for me in the parking lot. The guy at the computer who’d been helping me asks the mechanic "did you do the alignment check?" The mechanic said yes, and pointed onto the paper where it was located. I paid the $454 for the four tires, and asked if my tire key had been returned. The other man working the computer responds immediately, "it's probably in the car", but it's a good thing the man who'd been helping me checked with the mechanic because he had NOT returned it to me yet. I left after receiving the tire key, but wasn't able to do a thorough check of the car for I had an appointment in 30 minutes I needed to get to. However, if I had, I never would have left Lambs, and demanded an immediate refund because I don't trust them to fix my car at this point.

My car firstly, is tilted slightly on one side. The car tires had not been cleaned off and were covered in oil and a thick lubricant. My car shakes if I drive above 45 mph, and if I hit 60mph it vibrates so badly my arms shake too. Lastly, the car veers off to the right.

Now please, tell me how a car I've been driving for EIGHT YEARS can be so totally DESTROYED because you merely REPLACED MY TIRES and after calling to ask what can be done to fix it, I am told that I HAVE TO PAY to FIX WHAT YOU MESSED UP!!!??? That's ridiculous!!! A waste of time and money, and they took complete and utter advantage of me. I have never experienced such unprofessional behavior with absolutely no regard for the customer. Never again, Lambs. You need new employees who care about their job, and the people...

I recommend NEVER coming here for your service. Short story: they lied to my face and when caught red handed, lied again about paying for their mistake.

I never write reviews, but I am so angry at the way I was consistently mistreated I felt compelled to share my story in the hopes that Lamb's gets some sensitivity training for their staff and learn to be straight with their customers.

I came in about a month ago to get a leaking tire looked at which was still under warranty by Lamb's. Michael Knapp was my service representative. After an hour, he claimed that the tech looked at it and there was nothing wrong with it (even though I have had to fill it up once a week for the last few months). Then he tried to sell me $850 worth of work, some of which I already had done 6 months prior and knew for a fact didn't need to be done. He was incredibly patronizing and (I found out later) lying to my face. I politely declined all work, picked up my car and left.

The next week I went to get an oil change at a different shop and asked them to take a quick look at the tire since I was still having an issue. Within 30 seconds, they found a nail in the tire and offered to patch it for $25. I went ahead and paid it since I needed working tires. After leaving, I called Lamb's to complain to the manager and to explain what happened. Jimmy Cardenas is the one who took my call. I explained my issue and frustration and he said he would talk to the people involved and call me back in 30 min. No call. I called him back the next day, expressed my displeasure and explained to him how upsetting it was to be lied to (either Michael lied about the tech finding something or they never looked at the tire to begin with and wasted my time) and to be patronized by a man who clearly wanted to take advantage of a quick sale to a young female. Jimmy listened and apologized, and when I asked to simply be reimbursed for the $25 that I paid to patch the tire he agreed and asked to me send him a copy of the bill. He said he would send it to corporate and have them cut me a check the next day. I obliged and emailed him directly. That was on Jan 15.

I have heard nothing from him or Lamb's since. $25 is not much money in the grand scheme of things; while I am a grad student and I genuinely would have put that money towards food or gas, it's not even the money I'm frustrated about. It's the complete disregard for me as a customer that makes me extremely concerned to think that this could be happening to someone else.

Lamb's, step it up. Do...

I took my Chevy Silverado dually here for a workup because I wanted to be sure that everything was in good condition ahead of hauling a load of horses cross country, plus the check engine light and been going on and off intermittently for a week or so. While my truck is a little older as a 2013, it has less than 100k miles given that it is used sparingly in hauling once or twice a month, primarily around Texas. Lamb's entire quote came to $13,256.52, with $6,500 of that being just the cost in parts for a new turbo charger. Because $13k is a heck of a lot of money, I called around and learned that a new turbo charger should be about a third of that price, even when buying from the dealership. I also learned that a turbo charger on a well-made truck with less than 100k miles really shouldn't be on the verge of failing, so I went elsewhere for a second opinion. The garage where I got my second opinion and that I ended up using did not detect any issues with the turbo and also thought that the pricing was absolutely insane. They replaced the NOX sensor for $800 ($250 less than the same work quoted by Lamb's) and that was it! That was the only issue that they found and the truck has since made it to TN and back and to other shows in TX over the rest of this summer. I've been waiting on writing this review to see if something would go wrong in an attempt to potentially give Lamb's the benefit of the doubt in potentially at least being right in at least their diagnostics (setting aside exorbitant pricing) but this has not been the case as the truck has been great. Now, I am fully convinced that Lamb's saw a girl who doesn't know a ton about trucks (I'll be the first to admit that!) and saw that the truck was involved with horses, and thought they could charge whatever they wanted. I'll include a picture of one page of the Lamb's quote so that hopefully it can serve as a fair warning to others. Lamb's didn't end up charging me for diagnostics when I confronted them about the ridiculous pricing and I'm guessing that this was in hopes that I wouldn't write this review, but I feel that I need to share this experience to spare others this experience. I would urge you to steer clear of Lamb's if at all possible. There are too many garages in Austin to use one that is determined to make a buck at the...