automotive technician

automotive mechanic

retail sales associate

sales specialist

store manager

Firestone

Let’s start with what most people care about most. The money. Pay can be great and is entirely dependent on your experience and performance. As an entry level salesperson, I made as much as someone at a sales manager level simply because of my prior management experience. Between 2 annual raises and a title promotion, I was making over $2 more an hour plus bonuses I wasn’t making at entry level, so it’s possible to grow, promote, and earn additional compensation through monthly commissions, annual merit raises (typically 40-80 cents), and bonuses based on number of customers served, number of tires sold, and survey score averages that are all reset every month. On the flip side, as a technician, you’re paid entirely by flag  time, meaning the more jobs you do in the same amount of time, the more money you make. If you wanna knock out 3 tire patches while you wait on your suspension parts or inspect another vehicle, you can easily rack up 60+ hours of flag time by the end of the week while only physically working 40-45 hours. No matter your position, you get what you put in.

As great as all that is, that’s where the good stuff ends.

Most stores are understaffed and consistently shoved numbers and goals that are simply out of reach most months. The only bonus my team and I were consistent with was survey scores. Our average was typically above 96% and yielded a nice bonus to the end of every month, but restricted employee caps made it extremely difficult to reach the total customer count and tire sales.

Upper Management thinks it’s possible to restrict 1 salesperson to 40 hours a week, 1 service manager to 44 hours a week, and 1 store manager to 50 hours a week, all while being open 80 hours across 7 days a week. The math ain’t mathin. Then they lock managers in a weekly call for an hour or two and focus a lot of time on how those hours need to be met and follow up by repeating how it’s “not okay to not hit budget.” I worked 45-50 hours a week, sometimes more. I was sent home early or told not to come in one day for 2 weeks in a row and the team suffered because of it. We ignored them and accepted the nagging after that. 

The concept of the job is easy. Listen to customer complaints, have someone inspect their vehicle, tell the customer what’s wrong and how long/much it’ll take to fix, tell the technician what the customer is or isn’t doing, repeat. The problem is the sheer volume of people you must interact with on a daily basis and simply not being able to get to everyone because there aren’t enough people to work the counter or enough techs to get more cars done and more customers in. This is not a “nobody wants to work” issue but instead a nonsensical employee budget issue where upper management dictates how many employees can work at each store and how long they can work each week. One store may have 2 salespeople, 1 sales manager, 1 service manager, and 1 store manager with 8 technicians while another store of exactly equal size and capacity will have 1 sales manager (managing no one), 1 service manager, and 1 store manager with 6 technicians. The reason? Because the second store doesn’t produce quite as much revenue. No one higher up once thought “maybe if the second store had more people, they could serve more customers.” I transferred stores when I took my promotion to sales manager, and when we would get so overloaded due to staffing limitations, I would redirect customers to my prior location that would typically handle them within an hour or two. Ironically, their continued growth and success was partially due to me leaving and sending more people there when my shop couldn’t get it done. So much missed opportunity to adequately help people all because upper management wants to save on hiring 2 more people in the front and 2 in the back. How can a store be expected to succeed when you have less technicians than you have days of the week? All stores also have an “all hands on deck” policy on Saturday, meaning everyone is there essentially all day from 7-6, give or take 1-2 hours depending on staffing capabilities. I hope your friends and family don’t mind pushing everything to Sunday, assuming you’re not on rotation or locked in on Sundays too.

Lastly, there is a whole separate customer service department indirectly connected to all the stores. If a phone call is missed, it redirects to a customer service rep that exhibits horrendously false confidence and states all the wrong information as facts. Example, we can have 6 vehicles dropped off over the weekend and more  appointments scheduled for our lead tech to do various diagnostics on, and a customer service rep will proudly tell a clueless customer that we can, in fact, do their A/C diagnostic the following day (Monday) at 7am (opening).  The reps have no idea our lead tech works Tuesday-Saturday from 9-6, but promises the customer a quick service at an impossible time on our behalf, and now we have to be the bad guy at some point. I would call no less than 15 customers a day that resulted in some rescheduled appointments and a lot more cancellations. Two weeks ago before I posted this review, a “hot alert” (extremely low review that reaches the area manager immediately) was posted because I called a customer to tell him I could not honor his waiting appointment at 8am and to see if he would like to reschedule. He angrily stated that he already made several other plans around this (the appointment was only made an hour prior). Now suddenly recruiters are trying to fill the 2 empty slots we’ve had for half a year. Crazy how no one listens to the employees and until someone posts a negative public review as a result.

All in all, this should be an extremely easy job to get into as long as you’re willing to learn. After that, it’s entirely dependent on which store you applied to. Your experience may be phenomenal or abysmal. Just know that higher ups are analytical sheep that have forgotten or never known how regular people work. This can be said about a lot of jobs, but I’ve never truly felt it as deeply as I have here.


Here is a general description of the typical staff at the store level.

Technicians: Pay is flat rate, starts around $12.00/hour and goes higher based on experience and ASE certifications. Technicians currently have some of the most secure jobs as not many new ones are applying. Uniforms are provided but there is a weekly, mandatory, cleaning fee. Training is provided though it isn't terribly in-depth. ASE certifications are paid for by the company and your raises are largely dependent on them. No welding, internal engine, or transmission work is done and is heavily discouraged unless store management is in trouble.

Front-end staff (sales, service manager): Pay typically starts at $14.00/hour. Raises are virtually non-existent. Your hours will fluctuate wildly throughout the year. You may work 35 hours a week, or maybe 48, but it changes on a whim. Sales associates receive a monthly "spiff" bonus based on whatever product the company is trying to peddle that month and are mostly unobtainable after the first half of the year as the products required to be sold are the most expensive ones. Service managers receive a monthly bonus based off a multi-point goal and is also largely unobtainable unless you are in a top producing store. Most front end staff do not need any education, work experience, or prior automotive knowledge to be hired. 

Store managers: Pay is salary. Typically starting around $45k-50k/year depending on experience. You are required to work a minimum of 50 hours a week though you will usually work more than that. You will hear a lot about "potential earnings" but the figures are usually overinflated and incredibly difficult to maintain from year to year. If an employee calls out or the store is short handed you will be required to work more hours. Managers have been called back from vacation if an incident arises at their store, usually under threat of dismissal.



Work Environment:

Middle and upper management are mostly stuck in an old-school line of thought of keeping you in a "no win" situation. By that I mean no matter how much you improve, you will always be called out for your faults and reminded that you could always have done better. At least once a week an email is sent out talking about the highest performing stores in the area/district. This email is usually followed by another calling out the bottom ones for their failures and questioning their work ethic. 

Despite claims of being a "complete car care center" the company is largely focused on selling credit cards (with a 28% interest rate), catering to cheap customers ( the ones who only come in for a discounted oil change and any current free offers), and a ton of legal C.Y.A. Our shop is flooded with signs posted on nearly every object with either safety warnings or promotions. The credit card though is the largest focus for the company. It is viewed as way to tie the customer to the company and is, wrongly, associated with loyalty. Push the card and you'll have untold job security.

Most technicians are not given the proper equipment to perform their jobs, especially when it comes to diagnostic work. Parts are never attempted to be repaired, only replaced, and the costs versus a private shop are exorbitant. Equipment is frequently down and most repairs to things such as lifts, brake lathes, tire machines, computers, or diagnostic tools, take upwards of 2 weeks to be repaired or replaced. So during this time you will typically lose some business which you will then be yelled at for by middle management.

Promotions are usually available as the company has become a revolving door for most skilled or experienced workers. Only about 50% of job openings are ever actually listed. Middle management usually inserts their own people into the roles they want without posting the job to give others an opportunity to apply. Most store managers and service managers are given about 1 year to "make their mark" by improving something at their store. At this point the manager will either continue on or be rotated out (1 store in our area has been through at least 5 managers in 3 years). 

You are expected to keep up with several, redundant, education modules during the course of each month. If the modules are not completed the company will withhold any bonus you earned for the month. There are also several meaningless tasks middle management will give you daily/weekly such as filling out sales checklists, and a technician productivity board. While every company can have it's moments of micromanagement, this company has turned every task into something tedious and time wasting.

The Bottom Line:

Ultimately the cons outweigh the pros. You health insurance is good and very cheap (about $40 a week for full coverage health, dental, vision), vacation time is given after 1 year of employment, and they do match 401k. However in my time with the company we have been in a downward spiral. Bonuses and raises have become increasingly difficult to earn. Most new employees are more of a burden than a blessing since the company will pretty hire anyone with a pulse. If you're a store manager they will work you to death and simultaneously tell you that you aren't dedicated. Front shop employees hours fluctuate so wildly at times that it can be difficult when money is tight. The management antics from higher-ups are burdensome to the point that most of us are on the border of having a meltdown. Do yourself a favor and just keep looking.

Management on a personal level are very human. But when it comes to professionalism? It’s very plain they have never received any formal training on management or leadership positions. 

Coworkers will very obviously vary from location to location, but on average will attempt to screw your over in every way imaginable. This applies to technicians and service advisors. Technicians will cherry pick the service board and hide the most “gravy” tickets in their carts while backlogging their bays with all day drop offs. 

If management is friends with technicians, they will never be fired. Even if they are late every single day, and have costed the company more money in a month than they earn, are consistently in screaming matches with other technicians, and create a severely toxic work environment. 

The work life balance depends on your position. If you are an hourly employee, the you will only be allowed to work up to 40 hours a week, overtime will only be considered as a very last resort. As for technicians, they are worked 60+ hours per week. Technicians, being flat rate, do not earn overtime pay. Any work over 40 hours (clock, or flat rate), will not net any bonus pay, simply your regular flat rate hourly pay. Technicians do not receive lunch breaks unless they are friends with management. Technicians will oftentimes have to beg service advisors to sell the work they recommend in order to make a livable wage, due to the service advisors, “feeling bad” for selling the work, or simply not wanting to talk to the customer. 

Customers often become irate due to management over scheduling work in comparison to the amount of technicians scheduled to work that day, and then refusing to explain why the technicians are hours behind schedule, causing management to come into the shop and yell at every technician who is simply waiting on the service advisors to get an answer on their vehicle. 

The corporation also has a massive identity crisis. They strive to be a valvoline or 5 minute oil change, attempting to stick to oil changes, tires, alignments, and brakes, refusing to sell anything beyond that due to it “pushing back the schedule” and getting the store behind, all the while paying the bare minimum for their most profitable sales. 

 As possible technicians will hopefully see this, let’s go over the flat rate hours per average job:

Tires: 
55 series and above sidewall: .3 for one tire, and .1 for every additional tire, resulting in .6 for 4 tires
50 series and below sidewall: .5 for one tire and .2 for every additional tire, resulting in 1.1 for 4 tires. 
Brakes: 1.0 per axle for pads and rotors, regardless of the possibility of electronic parking brakes, or possible suspension part removal (Hyundai/Kia) 
Alignments: .6 for a check, 1.2 for a set, and .8 for a recheck 
Cabin air filters are always .4 regardless of the difficulty (I.e. a Kia filter change v.s. Pulling an entire glove box compartment for a cabin) 
Oil change: .3
Tire rotation: .4

Most other jobs will depend on the vehicle. 

Almost every vehicle will come with a “courtesy check”, which pays 0.1 flat rate hours. During this 6 minutes in which you are paid, you will be expected to:

Notate VIN and license plate
Check both engine + cabin air filters
Check oil level 
Check drive belts
Check + top of washer fluid, coolant, brake fluid, and power steering fluid.
Check wiper blades
Check PCV valve(s)
Check transmission fluid
Visually inspect battery for corrosion 
Test EVERY battery that comes into the shop (which takes upwards of 2 minutes)
Check + top off tire pressures
Check tire tread 
And chalk every single tire (a wondrous idea fathomed by the vice president of Bridgestone America in his infinite wisdom) 

  If that sounds like more than you can do in six minutes, it’s because it is. But don’t fret, corporate believes that you will manage to sell enough work to make up for it! 

The only benefits that I can possibly see nation wide from this corporation is that they offer plentiful classes and opportunities to learn as an employee. 

If you are looking to get your foot into the door as an automotive technician, (choose a different career), then this is a great company to start at. If you have any experience at all, then go somewhere else. Please, do not waste your time here. 


So Bridgestone now owns Firestone, Tires Plus, and Wheel Works. Having said that, the training classes that Bridgestone offer (paid in full) are phenomenal, better than the 2-year tech college I went to. A good enough reason to apply for a job if you're looking into free technical training. 

The managers and teammates can vary wildly in personality, as they do in every shop. My experience with this company so far is that generally the store managers are very nice and down to earth people who take great pride in their store. I have seen many employees take advantage of their good nature, always leaving early, getting extra time on tickets. These guys just won't fire you unless you cost them a LOT of money in broken parts or entire vehicles. My service manager is on par with every one I've had at the various shops and dealerships I've worked at--BAD. He gets his kicks off by harassing and messing with the technicians in the shop. He doesn't say anything about hard work, but watch out when you're slacking. Unfortunately, they're hard-up for employees which leads to hiring less desirable people who they can't get rid of otherwise they'd be short-staffed, which leads to my next point.

We are either over-staffed or under-staffed most days, usually not a healthy medium. This affects me the most, as a technician paid flat-rate. If there's too many guys in the shop, I don't pull enough hours because there's six of us there. When we're understaffed, I have to pick up a lot of oil changes and tire work if our general service technicians aren't there or went home early. I get paid 18 minutes to do an oil change and an inspecton and if I'm quick I can get it done in 10 minutes, I just don't make enough doing them. Even when we have the perfect balance where I can make 10-20 hours in a day, the service writers and service manager always play favorites in terms of who they're going to give to work to. They're supposed to put the work order on a hook for the next guy to pick up, but constantly assign them.

Half of our customers care about keeping their vehicles pristine, the other half are just looking for the next cheap oil change. Some come in for emergencies like flat tire repairs, blowouts, or more serious problems. I recommend easily a few thousand dollars in manufacturer scheduled maintenance on almost every car I work on. Most of the time the work has never been done, like cars with 200,000 miles with the original transmission fluid or spark plugs. My store is in a very nice part of town, down the road from all the beach houses and tourist attractions. My point is, most of these people coming into my store easily have the money to afford scheduled maintenance, but just don't seem to care about their car unless it's something the average Joe would know needs to be done i.e. oil, tires, shocks..

Being a technician is tough, tough work. You're using your whole body throughout the day, and unless you're very fit, you will feel broken at the end of every single day. My shop has no air conditioning, and is located in Florida. At the end of the day, my shirt is drenched in sweat and I smell awful and many times I feel I've come close to heat stroke with nausea, weakness, dryness etc. It's a very stressful job. Some examples are time restraints, customers watching you work or customers who have been waiting for a long time, wrong parts get delivered after waiting 30 minutes, fixing something only to break something else, multiple projects at once, managers on your back about certain things, etc..

I like the company, I like my store manager, I like the field I work in. 
I don't really like Firestone, I liked the dealerships more even though they hold many of the same problems, there was always work to do.
Firestone right now is sort of on that teetering edge of being the chain shop that is well known for dependability and honesty. Their goal in the next decade or so is to be on par with the amount of business dealerships receive. Bridgestone is changing fast, and they do want to do things right.

Wall of text incoming, but an honest review

Firestone is not a good place to work. There was a time when this was a decent place to work, but over the years the overall culture has become one of lip service and back stabbing. Throughout my career with Firestone I have held every service position from general service to lead technician as well as customer service advisor and service manager. I have seen the company shift from a decent shop where people can earn a good living to one where you are a replaceable number. Recent covid concerns aside, the past decade has shown that upper management cares about not thing and one thing only, their bonus. Working conditions are not ideal, especially with so many shops now offering climate controlled shops and set schedules. It was something my coworkers and I have been able to forgo with the prospect of making above average money. Over the years they've made it increasingly difficult to even make that. Technician pay is stagnant. There is little hope for yearly raises, technicians are expected to work an average of 50 hours a week. Back when I started techs could get paid overtime for any hours clocked over 40, but that has went the way of the dodo, unless you're fortunate enough to work on a military installation where they have no choice but to pay you overtime. General service techs are paid hourly and given just enough hours to keep them from being a full time employee and receiving benefits. They spend more time unloading tire trucks and stocking than they do attempting to learn a trade. C techs can plan on spending their time doing tires and oil changes because the general service techs are either stocking or out of hours. A techs are lucky to have a steady stream of work. Most people go to Firestone for basic concerns. The pay per hour is dependent on what you can negotiate during hiring. Flag time is modified Mitchell book time. By that I mean some things, at least A tech wise, will be straight Mitchell labor time, but most are what Firestone deems appropriate. Do you enjoy doing a brale job, which includes machining rotors for .8? How about getting paid less for a set of drum brakes than actually hanging pads? Their justification is that the "lower price will drive more work". Good if true. Except they charge more for a brake job and pay less than actual book time. Enjoy getting paid half of book labor for diagnosing an AC or electrical concern? What about doing an oil change for the same pay that just the filter calls for? They expect you to turn even the most routine maintenance into a gold mine. Up front is no better. Pay per hour is well below industry average and the selling point is the prospect of spiffs every month. Not a commission, but a bonus. Based off of overall store performance. If your store is projected to sell 150 lifetime alignments and you sell 140 but the store fails to meet an overall goal, too bad for you. Same with tire units. They love to see high overall total sales numbers but they mean nothing in terms of compensation to the people making those numbers. They claim the highest level of care but in truth have eliminated themselves from consideration by anyone who is actually competent in their area of automotive expertise. Employee retention is horrible. Morale is something only dreamed of. I have worked in numerous stores across multiple states. It's always the same story. Inevitably a few people will leave, numbers will suffer due to understaffing, and the cycle continues. Once store numbers being to fall, upper management will hound store management and threaten to remove them from their position. Understandable if store management held any actual authority over store operation. You're not allowed to hire or fire without area management approval. If store numbers are lower than projected, good luck getting permission to fill vacancies. If you are a competent technician or advisor you are worth more than Firestone. Do not be surprised if we see them go the way of Sears Auto down the road. 

What Firestone wants are compliant and obedient robots. You will be expected to memorize written scripts and deal with customers according to the scripts. Mystery shops and phone shops are routine. Incoming calls are recorded, monitored and critiqued regularly. Feel like you’re being watched, evaluated and judged? Well you are…constantly.

Be prepared to surrender your rights as a human being at the door your very first day on the job. Kiss freedom of choice, your life, your family and your dignity goodbye because you are now the sole property of Bridgestone/Firestone and they never let you forget it. Expect to be bounced around from store to store to store because the turnover rate is unbelievable and they absolutely cannot keep people. Think you’re getting a job at a store close to home? It's a lie. Unless there’s only one Firestone store in your town I see a long commute in your future and a lot of your income going straight into your gas tank. You probably won't be staying at the store where you were hired.

You will be required to clock out for lunch (under penalty of death), but you will rarely get a lunch ...and 10 minute breaks? Forget it. Raises are also off the table so don’t ask. You will be on your feet your entire shift and if you opened the store chances are good that you will also be closing the store. With few exceptions, all the stores are chronically short staffed and odds are very high that you will be the only one in the “front shop” greeting customers, writing repair tickets, making recommendations to customers, up-selling, looking up parts, ordering parts, receiving parts, re-ordering wrong parts, pulling tire orders for other stores, supervising the technicians, cashing out customers, handling Firestone credit card problems, dealing with a lot of very unhappy people in the waiting room who have been there for hours because two of your techs called off sick and worst of all you can't get any of it done because you’re constantly being interrupted by a phone that absolutely will not shut up. Sounds like fun doesn’t it? Yeah, mental breakdowns are pretty common at Firestone.

Your superiors won’t lead by example or by incentives; they instead lead by brow beating, bullying and intimidation; and that bonus you thought you were getting? Forget it. Whatever the policy was…they just changed it. If you survive long enough and have the “right stuff” (selling credit cards) you may get your own store someday. But don’t make the mistake of thinking you’ll be running your own store. Uh uh. Micromanagement is the word of the day at Firestone and your store will be run by the area and regional managers. The store manager is only there to make sure the area manager’s commands are obeyed, to participate in conference calls, make out the schedule, fill out pointless reports and to take the blame for everything. 

Firestone likes to call itself "a premiere place to work”, but reality is far removed from the company’s lofty opinion of itself.  It’s an insane asylum and a terrible place to work. The turnover rate says it all.

Good luck job seekers. I hope you’re able find a job somewhere else.

I was hired in as a Manager in Training.  Started 3 weeks before the training class in Chicago was held, so I got some experience in the store before the classroom.  Was taught how to do most things on computer, ie. look up and assign work orders to be done, set up customer tickets, basic stuff like that.  After a few hours, you can pretty much figure out what you are looking for.  Spent time each week unloading the tire truck, which is a pain, since the store I was at, stocked all tires UPSTAIRS!  So, that was a hassle.  

Was sent to Chicago for a three day training program.  Everything was going great, until we started the hands on part.  The training teacher called a woman up front, and using a program that mimicked our service computer, had her draw up a ticket for a customer repair.  It was a simple tune up.  Long story short, she gets walked thru the whole process (I was the only one of about 10 people in the class, who had been working in a store already), and the trainer uses a whole different way than I was taught, to enter a tune up in the computer.  The way he showed us, was as easy as I had been taught, the only difference?  He made it model specific.  When I was taught, I was taught to use a standard tune up, which was like 100.00 more than the one that is specific to the actual car model in the shop.  During our dinner that night, the training person came down to the bar with us, and I brought this up.  He seemed really concerned, and told me I should bring it up with my GM when I get back to my store.  The next day, I kept finding more and more ways that my GM was using higher priced repairs in the system, and having basic work done.  I brought it up again, and TWO people who were leading the class, said you should for sure bring this up!  Soooo, I go back to my store a few days later, and was feeling just way too uncomfortable to bring this up, being so new.  I mean, I know that the GM was just adding to his bottom line, and I was sure that is how he achieved his Managing Partner status.  

I never brought it up.  But..three days after I got back, the DM, and the GM are there before my shift starts, and ask me to come back into the GMs office.  I walk back there, and they confront me with a story that I was in Chicago telling everyone how my boss was doing things wrong, and teaching the wrong way to do things, and that I was saying he was training us to rip people off.  Now, I NEVER said those things.  All I told my trainers was that I was taught things differently.  The DM told me to take the rest of the day off, and that the GM and I would talk more tomorrow.  I went home, not feeling good about the convo, and came back the next morning.  As soon as I walked into the sales floor, the GM calls me back to his office.  He says, "We decided that it's best that we just go ahead and part ways".  I was shocked, and mad, so I just walked out.  But, before I walked out, he made sure to tell me...."We decided, that you can go ahead and keep you signing bonus".  ( I was hired in being told I would make $40K a year, but I was brought on for $39,500 with a $500 sign on bonus)  WOW!  Thanks Firestone!!

Before I begin this.  Of all the service industries in the world I firmly believe in tipping your technician doing the  work back there. They’re in charge of your life when they work on your vehicle.  Appreciate the knowledge, skill, proffeciency of getting your car back to you safely, correctly fixed, and in a timely matter.  If you believe servers deserve tipping think about the people that actually bust their butts for you.  The service system isn’t what it used to be back in the 70’sand 80’s.  Techs don’t make enough money to take care of a family, afford tools, and work a ratio work/life job.  Treat them with well and with respect. It’s a truly thankless job. 


Worked for firestone a number of years as a technician and gained 6 ASE’s there before leaving for a MUCH better place.

Making ends meat as a technician is cut throat. They’ll start you out as low as possibly as a flat rate technician 10.00 p/hr where you’ll work 50 hours a week to make the bare minimum of wage a company would have to pay you legally. I constantly had to be there for 60 some weeks to make enough to live and pay bills without saving anything.  They have more techs there so that they don’t have to turn away walk in customers, which typically ends up with a couple techs working and a couple always sitting on their hands trying to keep warm. When a job comes by and it pays decently I’ve called guys out to the back parking lot to fight them out for it.  It’s no joke the ruthlessness among the techs in the back. 

Everyone I knew lived pay check to pay check.   Many jobs that call for a specific book rate is stripped  down so that the company can sell more up front and yet be on your time and dime.  They expect you too do a test drive, oil change, remove the tires, get a full vehicle inspection, rotate the tires, check out all the brakes, write up the work order, turn the order in so the actual decently paid hourly worker up front (sales person that knows nothing about working on a vehicle) can attempt to sell you some flush system kit that I probably never even recommended to you and put the vehicle back together in the span of half an hour.  Sure it’s possible but you’re not getting a quality job done by your technician.  And don’t get me started on the 100LB tires that are low profile on your big 22” rims.  The company has no problem selling a set of 2000 dollar tires and the technician in the back making only 12$ total to throw those on for you.  

Find a mom and pop joint, work hourly, flat rate system is broken now days. It makes for poor technicians and shady work ethics.


The Lenoir City, TN Firestone location would a decent place to work if not for the management there, it's often times completely disorganized and feels if sometimes they don't know what they are doing half the time, alot of is flying by the seat of their pants. They tell you,you will work a certain schedule but yet they take large jobs towards the end of your shift and expect you to either hurry through it or stay late to finish the job. They was obvious issues that a certain technition has been not doing their job, but no corrective action had been done about it. Lots of gossip and seemed favoritism towards employes. All in all I would not recommend working here if you have any mechanic experience there is alot better places of employment, there is alot of nepotism at this establishment as well.
The management rushes you through jobs that are 6 hours and expecting them to be done in two hours
The management will schedule two a technicians to open the store when neither has been trained to run the front of the store with no managers here. No spill containers are present in the shop, you are expected to just throw tide detergent on the spill and water and squeegee it outside of the shop, providing alot of environmental waste going outside and into drains. A couple of the lifts in the shop are messed up to where the either don't lock arms, or are angled off, a major safety issue that could get some hurt or killed, there's issues out of the alignment rack to where it either jumps numbers on toe and the printer continuously does not work and no repairs have been made to it. Multiple shop equipment broken and has been brought to attention to the manager and no repairs or replacements have been made. The technicians are forced to eat in under five minutes while the manager can clock out for 30 minutes, or while clocked in go run personal errands while on company time. Doing brake fluid exchanges when their machine they have is broke and not working so it's just a reservoir flush at that point. Technicians are expected to do the majority of the service writers job and still expect Technicians to be speedy on their inspections and repairs. It seems that the manager uncharged only care whether the shop beats the projected amount of money needed to be made every day, not how the yechnitions are overloaded and over worked on the daily. In conclusion I have seen all this happen in under a month of work I can only imagine the amount of stuff in a year I could've added to this.


Firestone as a whole is a successful company with good benefits that a lot of people know of and most of the time have no problem taking their cars for routine maintenance.  Now,  management has no problem selling tires to a customer with 6/32 or 7/32 left on their tires.  They seem to pick on the people that will believe anything when they're told their car is broken.  On the employment part of it, it takes forever to get hired. HR screws up pay, bonuses, loses paperwork and says it was never received, etc. at least with my experience. 

Manager bought lunch pretty much everyday to try and keep technicians around which was nice, but expected them not to take a break and work a shift something like 8am-7pm everyday due to always being understaffed.  When it comes to pay since technicians are paid flat rate, they start you at a low hourly rate and say "oh but if you move quick you can make lots of hours and good money!" Only downside to that is when it's slow they give you a guarantee of 75% of your clock hours when it's slow!  They also will never say no to a waiting customer when the shop is piled with work as it is (stressing out techs even more by adding work to the load), they LOVE bringing in oil changes and tires so most customers only think Firestone does oil changes and tires and when it comes to repairs they normally go somewhere else cause they're told they need all this other stuff along with the repair and scare the customer by the estimate they give them. 

Forget about having a life, especially on weekends, cause Firestone is open Saturday from 7-7 and Sunday from 8-5 and most days you have to stay late for that straggler flat repair. They even stay open on some holidays that 80% of other company's are closed on. If you're an entry-mid level tech there's no chance of getting off weekends and they expect you to use a vacation day if you do want one off.  If you want to learn from the more experienced techs like they claim you can do, it won't happen cause they're constantly bringing in oil changes and tires for you to do so you don't have time to learn.  

Overall Firestone is a good company to learn from, most fellow technicians are fun to work with, and the benefits are good.  but should it be a long term career path? Most likely not, unless you're a lead technician or a manager.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Automotive technician 108 salaries reported	$24.70 per hour
Automotive mechanic 20 salaries reported	$23.78 per hour
Retail sales associate 17 salaries reported	$19.99 per hour
Sales specialist 9 salaries reported	$19.89 per hour
Store manager 12 salaries reported	$106,149 per year

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