Levin Tire & Service Center

Such a LONG wait, and the employees didnt seem like they even cared to bother to fix (in my case, the lightbulb on my car). The wait was literally an hour.
Don’t come here unless you love waiting.

I purchased a full set of Michelin tires for my Corolla less than a year ago. Although I usually get the Road Hazard Warranty, for some reason, it did not at that time. One week after taking the car in for an regular oil change and tire rotation, one of the tires began to slowly leak. My 18 year old daughter took the car back to Levin, explained the problem and asked them to look at the tire and fix the leak. Less than 20 minutes later, the technician told her that the tire was cut on the side, not fixable, and since we didn’t have their Road Hazard Warranty, we would have to buy a new tire. She came home and gave me the invoice. I called and talked to the manager. Basically was told the same thing and said that even though the tire was less than a year old, it was’t covered under the manufacturer’s warranty because it wasn’t a defect.
Went to get a second opinion and was told there was a screw in the tread. It was removed and plugged. The sensor had also been installed incorrectly and they fixed that problem also. It’s been a month and have had no problems with that tire.
That was the second set of tires I have purchased for one of my vehicles from Levin. The other set was for a small truck about 3 years ago. I will need to replace the tires on another of my vehicles soon but will not be a customer at Levin in Valparaiso again. They were dishonest and I believe they saw a young person, a female in this case, and tried to scam her. But they tried the same thing with my 20 year old son 3 years ago, giving him a whole list of things that needed to be done to the truck when he took it in for an oil change/​tire rotation.
Levin Tire & Service Center in Valparaiso operates in a dishonest manner. Fortunately, as a parent, I can educate my kids on how to recognize and deal with these types of situations. As a consumer, I can take my business else where, and I have. I also notified my regular mechanic who had referred me to Levin for such things as oil changes and tires, about their tactics. Whether he choses to continue to refer customers is up to him.

Ouch! Over $ 300 for an 1 ½ job that we bought & brought in the parts for… so that price was just for labor. Plus we had a coupon. They quoted us one price before the coupon & then charged us that same price with the coupon.
Ironic twist: They said if we give them a good review we could get a coupon for a certain amount off our next visit. Ummmm! Bribery, much?

I went in there for 2 rear tires. I already knew the model I wanted. They had quoted me the best price, and had them in stock. They remarked that the tires I had on there were not too bad, that I really didn’t need new ones. I appreciate this, this is honest. But I wanted better tires on the rear for the snow.
They were busy that day and it took around 3 – 4 hours. I walked to Panera Bread, had lunch, read my mail.
A tech came out + said that there were fluid leaks with the oil and transmission fluid. He wanted to add dye to each and then they can pinpoint the leaks. I declined. I check my fluids once a month or so, and there was no loss of fluid. When I got home, I changed the oil, and looked at the oil pan. Dry as a bone. Same with the transmission pan. Trying to rip me off with service that was not needed! I’ve been fixing cars 25 years and still some shops pull this stuff.
The tires worked great.

Here’s my timeline.
Friday: My car is making a grinding noise typically associated with a worn bearing. I investigate the matter further and find that in fact the bearing is worn. Normally I’d try to save myself some money and fix it myself, but it was winter and I don’t have a garage. Plus I needed my car to be up and running ASAP as I had an appointment the following Wednesday that I couldn’t miss.
Saturday: I call around to a bunch of shops, all of which say they couldn’t start on it until Monday or Tuesday. Then Levin says they could fit me in that day. That probably should’ve raised red flags, but hey, I wasn’t in a position to shop around unfortunately. Go in, and there’s a line out the door. They say they’ll look at my car and let me know what needs fixing.
My wife and I run errands for a couple of hours before I get my call from the salesman. He told me that my bearing needs changed, as do my tie rods and something about my break and a valve cap. I head to the shop and talk with the mechanic. He shows me the play in my wheels and everything seems to line up with the tie rods and my bearing. The valve cap thing I knew about but was waiting to fix myself. He didn’t mention the breaks; which didn’t surprise me because those were changed recently, so who knows what the salesmen was talking about. It was just another in a series of lies and/​or half truths I was told by the salesman.
So we go back inside and the salesman tells me it will take an extra day to get the tie rods, but it will definitely be done Monday. I don’t have a problem with him meeting my estimated time because he has to get parts for a second repair I didn’t tell him about. So fine.
Monday: I get a call at work from the salesman that they can’t find the bearing anywhere locally for my car, so it’s going to take an extra day to fix. I’m annoyed, because that means that he definitely couldn’t have followed through on his original estimate, even without the tie rods, but I’m stuck. They said they’d call tomorrow.
Tuesday: I get a ride from a coworker, who drops me off at Levin at the end of the day. The salesman, who prior to that was standing around shooting the breeze with some co-​workers said that he was just about to call me because my car wasn’t done. They had ordered the wrong bearing, because I have the sport model, and broke it trying to put it in the hub. It was going to take another day to get it.
First off, that’s stupid. You should’ve known that it has the sport parts. The model is called the OZ Rally version. It has a spoiler. It has a different engine. It wasn’t hiding it’s sportiness in any way.
Second, you were just about to call me? You were standing around doing nothing when I walked in. You could’ve called me and saved me a trip in, Plus my co-​worker had gone home already, so I had to wait an extra 15 minutes for your shuttle service; which wouldn’t be bad, except for the whole wasting the whole trip thing.
So anyway, he says it will be done tomorrow morning, that he’ll call when it’s done, and that it definitely will be finished. That’s great, except that I have to pick up my mother-​in-​law at the airport tomorrow, and you promised me something you couldn’t deliver on; so now I don’t have a lot of time to figure out an alternative plan.
Wednesday: I take the day off work so I can drop off my wife at work and use her car to pick up my mother-​in-​law. Unfortunately, I won’t get back from O’Hare until after Levin closes, so if I don’t get a call before I leave for the Airport than I won’t have a car tomorrow morning either. Gets to be about 2 hours before I have to leave with no word. So around 2 pm I call them and ask if it’s done. «Oh yeah, we finished it this morning, do you want to come get it?»
So their shuttle picks me up and I can finally get my car. As I’m paying the salesman chuckles and says «We just had the hardest time with that bearing. Sure took a long time.» I just looked at him and said nothing. I removed the Levin keychain they put on my car key and left.
The work done was fine. The wheels haven’t fallen off and it’s been a month or so since this happened. While the work was pricier than other shops, it wasn’t so much so that I can complain about pricing. The mechanic knew his stuff and explained to me why what needed to be fixed needed to be fixed.
My problem is that every single conversation I had with the salesman he lied to me in some capacity.
He lied to me to get me in the door.
He lied to me about his ability to get the part.
He lied to me when he said he would contact me, twice.
Don’t tell me you can do something when you know you can’t. I don’t expect miracles, but I expect honesty. If he had told me from the start that he probably couldn’t do it that day then I wouldn’t have had a problem. But they got my money so I doubt he even cares. Well he won’t get it again, that’s for sure.

Two stars is a combination: good experience historically but less good the last time or two.
Most recently (in April, 2013):
a) When buying two new tires, the salesperson sold me the worthless extended warranty. He did not show me the quote in writing and did not mention the warranty. I had to stand there and repeatedly ask to have it removed while the salesman said «It’s part of the package» and similar bogus excuses. (He did remove it.)
b) Same vist, the salesperson told me that a leaking tire had been fixed. Actually they did nothing except over-​inflate the tire by 8 PSI. (The good news is they didn’t charge anything either.)
c) The most recent two visits Levin Tire has been hard-​selling wheel alignment. They check the alignment while doing other tire work. This last time I fell for it: the sales person pointed at all the red numbers that turned out to be non-​adjustable in order to sell the service, while they actually aligned only a little bit of one front wheel.
On the other hand, I have been going there since this shop opened in Valpo and until the past two visits I’ve been quite happy. They never tried to sell inappropriate or unneeded tires or services before starting the alignment thing two visits ago. They were upfront about how fast or slow the work would take before I committed to staying. They recorded the odometer reading accurately. No salesperson had lied before this past visit.
So I will likely return, but a) I’ll now be on my guard, b) I’ll leave rather than deal with the same guy, c) I won’t fall for the alignment thing again.
(EDIT one year later: Definitely I am not returning.)