My Jeep has been in the shop for about a week and a half and I never pressured the shop to get it fixed quickly.

I dropped it off because the suspension was making noise and I noticed the sway bar link bushings were very worn so I brought some replacement links for them to install. After they installed them they said my ball joints were shot and I approved that work. Then while they had the knuckles off they said the brakes were at about 30% so they could cut me a break on the labor and replace the brakes and rotors and I said yes to that.

Today I show up to pick up my jeep and I notice my invoice online suddenly says " Front passenger tire is missing locking lug nut and missing one center cap bolt at arrival." which was never noticed before and was never brought up to me when they were selling me ball joints, rotors and brakes. I thought no big deal maybe discount tire lost it last time I had the tires rotated so bring an extra center cap screw I have. I also figured they probably replaced the missing lock nut with with a regular lug nut.

When I show up the lug nut is just missing and they expected me to drive home with a missing lug nut. I couldn't believe it and said just take one off the spare tire and put it on there. While they were doing that I got in the Jeep and in my cup holder was the "missing" center cap bolt.

I showed the shop manager that and told them I can't trust anything you say now. He was very apologetic and is going to buy me a new set of 5 locking nuts (b/c i need one for the spare as well).

Am I overreacting or is it crazy a shop was about to send me home with a missing lug nut when they could have just taken one off my spare tire.

Roger350 said:

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I'd be personally inspecting all the work they did on this visit by pulling the tires and making sure everything is good, checking ball joint play, and then I'd find a new shop If you prefer not to do your own work. I think I would be less mad at their dishonesty than I would be shocked at their lack of critical thinking with regard to the missing lug nut and the availability of an extra they could have pulled from the spare without being prompted by you..

Your experience here is why many of us do our own wrenching...

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No overreaction from you and they agreed to eat the locking nuts. I agree with above... do a visual inspection of the work. Do you have new rotors and sway bars? You get the drift. Drive it locally to make sure you don't have any issues.

Charismatic Megafauna said:

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You could probably drive around for the rest of your life with only 3 lug nuts on each wheel and never kill a bus load of nuns. One missing lug nut isn't a huge safety issue

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Yeah, OK. But why? The OP wasn't driving around with missing lug nuts.

Perma,

It's all about how mad you want to make yourself, and is your jeep OK.

Clearly you got bad customer service (the lying), but the real question is - is the quality of the work outside of a lug nut, done to your expectations? If not, make sure it gets handled.

You're not going to go back there in the future, this much is apparent. Furthermore, there's a fine line between productive complains and just raging, regardless of how correct you are. If you do productive complaints, you have a better chance of making an impact on that shop and management and having them listen to you - and thus better odds of it not repeating with others... a lesson might get learned. Rage won't do that.

It is true, one lug nut would honestly not cause you an increased safety risk - but the real point is if that was missed, what else may have been? So get it looked at/reviewed. It shows a clear lack of attention to detail and following all the way through with your work.

Yeah I was pretty pissed yesterday and this morning but I am over it now... Won't be using that shop again.

I am driving my other car for now and dropping the jeep off at a different shop tomorrow to install the shocks and check the alignment.

Charismatic Megafauna said:

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You could probably drive around for the rest of your life with only 3 lug nuts on each wheel and never kill a bus load of nuns. One missing lug nut isn't a huge safety issue

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But a missing lug nut is a great way to warp one of those brand new rotors he paid for.

It's hard to say how pissed I'd be. I do most all of my own wrenching on my trucks and as such, sometimes I screw up and there is no one with a vested interest in the quality of the work than me. I can definitely say that I have misplaced a screw or nut and then thought "well, ****, maybe it wasn't there ever?" I have definitely second guessed what i thought I took off.

I cannot imagine being a mechanic and having an endless supply of broken **** to fix and be versed in it all and have 3-4 other people in the shop above me or below me and having to be on top of them and what the did or didn't do.

I'd probably not go back but **** happens, people make bad decisions, and the fact they tried to cover it up really is the only issue I have here. That alone tells me that they think you don't know your truck or you're stupid and that is not something I can let slide. I'd much rather they just say "we can't find the damn nuts and screw, we're sorry. We'll replace them."

As for the missing lug nut… no problem. I had the College Station Discount tire put 5 lugs on my front passenger side tire on my lifted '96 Ram after service and never torque them down. Thats right. They put my lug nuts on finger tight and sent me down Texas Avenue on my way. It was almost a Ron White moment. I drove for 2 miles trying to convince myself I did not hear a rumble or clunking.

Nice humble brag about having a lifted Ram.

maroon barchetta said:

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Nice humble brag about having a lifted Ram.

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It was a nice brag in 1996….she's rotting down in my old man's backyard now. But it was pretty sweet, I do miss it.

I was making the point that, "it's lifted and will probably roll if the wheel "FALLS. THE F-. OFF." /Ron White

Seems to be an overreaction. They appear to be making note of missing items on the vehicle as soon as they notice it, to protect themselves later. This is common practice when putting vehicles under someone elses care. And perhaps the incremental creep of more things to repair led to making note of this later.

mefoghorn said:

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Seems to be an overreaction. They appear to be making note of missing items on the vehicle as soon as they notice it, to protect themselves later. This is common practice when putting vehicles under someone elses care. And perhaps the incremental creep of more things to repair led to making note of this later.

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They obviously put the center cap bolt in the cup holder. OP didn't do that. My guess is they couldn't find the locking lug key and just buzzed the lock off instead of calling to confirm. I've had tire shops do exactly that twice, even though the key was in the cup holder and the work order specifically said where it was.

I've also had a shop tell me I needed ball joints and a wheel bearing while I was there for an alignment. The reason I needed the alignment was because I had just replaced those parts with new OE components. If I'm paying a shop to work on my car, I expect the job to be done professionally and with the same care I use when working on it myself. In that context, OP's reaction doesn't seem unreasonable.

OP locking lug nuts are mostly pointless. If someone wants your wheels, they already have the tools to remove them. I was once stranded on the interstate when a lug key broke which was enough for me. I haven't used locking lugs on any of my cars for over a decade and haven't had a theft issue with expensive factory alloys.

BrazosDog02 said:

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maroon barchetta said:

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Nice humble brag about having a lifted Ram.

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It was a nice brag in 1996….she's rotting down in my old man's backyard now. But it was pretty sweet, I do miss it.

I was making the point that, "it's lifted and will probably roll if the wheel "FALLS. THE F-. OFF." /Ron White

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I don't know Ron White's stuff.