Question about ball joints
 

This may be a long one, but here goes.

I recently took my truck to a mechanic because i too was having trouble with clunks when I steer and go over bumps and that sort.

I asked him to replace all 4 ball joints, axle joints, and radius arm bushings.

He ended up finding that the tie rod ends were also bad, i did confirm this personally, and the sway bar and bushing was bad.

So, after 2 1/2 days of hell with this place, i find that they only replaced 1 upper and 1 lower ball joint on either side. They did not replace the axle joints like i asked, but then told me "we had a problem with the u-joints, they go up and down, but not front to back, so we cleaned them up and lubed them, hopefully they will loosen up."
Then he said they tried aligning it 4 times and couldn't get the steering whell straight! They never replaced the radius arm bushings either!
I told him to get it the hell off the rack and I took it home, and guess what. The clunk is stikll there! Not as bad, but still there.

I was pissed!

My question is: Isn't it common sense to replace all 4 ball joints together?

His reply was, those other two ball joints still have at least 30,000 miles on them. Well, thank you Kreskin! Hehe

What would you do? Better Business Bureau?

Thanks in advance for your input.

Depends, did they try to conceal the fact that they hadn't change them, or were they going to charge you to change them? If they didn't charge you to change them, and they didn't change them, then just take it somewhere else and have them do it. If they charged you and didn't do it, then you've got a lawsuit on your hands.
Yes, it is fairly common to do all four together. And when I lifted my truck last year I did all four ball joints, all tie rods (inner and outer), as well as idler arm and control arm bushings, since everything was apart anyways.

I changed all four when lifting my truck. They were obviously worn down to the bone even the ride still felt OK. And I knew all of them were 110K+ miles old. Now I start with the new ones at the same point. The tie rods looked OK.

I would only complain if they tried to tell you they did the work but didnt.
If they simply decided that you didnt need the work done and told you so (and didnt charge you) then just take your money elsewhere, another shop will gladly take it ;)

What would I do....never go back and never recomend his shop. BBB isn't going to do anything but list a complaint against him.