we’ve had stupid stuff happen at our shop. Nobody’s perfect. It’s how it’s handled that separates the good shops from the bad.
“You need a spacer” isn’t a good sign.
I’d call your local Napa store and ask them who’s the best.
Everyone makes mistakes, that's true, I know I've made my share.
But, even after they identified that he needed a spacer, they let him drive home with the rim rubbing on the ball joint. That's not just a mistake, that's a recipe for a catastrophe. They shouldn't have let it out of the shop without a spacer to get the right clearance. I mean, maybe if they made the customer swear not to drive it and they loaded it onto a trailer. But to let the guy drive home with that, when they knew it was a problem? What if the ball joint carved out the rim until the lip came off and the guy ended up in the ditch? That's a steel rim, it's not like the hoop is a 1/2" thick, he carved more material out of the ball joint shoulder than there is thickness to the outer hoop in a lot of places. That's way beyond a mistake.
They knew it wasn't right, and sent him out to drive on it anyway. That's straight up negligent. Or completely incompetent.
