God Awful grinding on new brake pads

I own a 2004 Malibu. I travel a lot in this car. I have now over 73,000 miles on it, and have had it for a little over a year. So, I know that I will incur problems fairly quick because of the high mileage. I had my brake pads replaced at 62,000 miles back on May 27, 2004. The very next day, I could hear this scrubbing noise. Although faint, I could still hear it (I know and notice every little sound with this car since I spend most of my time in it). I attributed this noise to the fact that the brakes were new and they needed "breaking in". Well, it went on for the next 2 weeks. I attributed that to all of the rain that we had that previous week. Well, it progressively got louder. After a month, I went back to the shop that did the job. They took a look around and said that they couldn't see or hear anything. I made the tech ride with me. He then said that it may be shocks or struts and he would not worry about it until it got worse. I've had that problem before with previous cars and knew that could not have been it. At anyrate, I went on. Now, come August after driving with this "strut or shock noise", I go to a different service shop on my sacred Saturday morning. They tell me that my brake pads are worn down to the metal! And that no one has touched my brakes. I'm furious! They can't get my wheel on fast enough for me to speed back to the shop that did the brake work. I get there within 15 minutes. They keep my car on the rack for 2 hours. They come and tell me that I have collapsed calipers and that it would cost $262 bucks to fix it. I'm thinking that I paid them $150 2 months ago to fix my brakes. And even brought the vehicle back 2 times for them to check out the noise. And now I have collapsed calipers? Why couldn't the tech see that when I brought the car back 2 weeks after they fixed it the first time? I wanted to get a second opinion, so I took it to yet another brake shop. They tell me that this is still the original manufacturer's brake pad on the car (how can you tell that??) And that I don't have a collapsed caliper. How can I tell who is telling the truth?? I will now be out of $100 for brake pads and $108 for the rotor (I shopped around). And they have to order the part since dealers don't keep these in stock for such a "new" car. And then the cost of labor. But I don't want to buy all of this and pay for this, and then have it happen again 2 more months down the road. Someone out there please tell me what is going on. I am a woman always on the go. I don't have the time for this. And this can't be safe still driving around like this.

i'd get the work done by another facility but have them document the reapirs and keep the parts. then sue the others in small claims court. if they are indeed the factory parts and they were supposed to have replaced that set then you have a good case. before i'd sue i'd give them one chance to make it right by reimbursing you for the total bill.

Yes. That was my plan to keep the part. The 2 mechanics and a former customer of where the work was done have agreed to sign statements for me. I may just sue them for fraud!

my husband replaced our brakes on a 2001 and then they sounded worse than ever..car even squeaked when it was driving and worse when brakes applied to a grinding stop...he took everything off and put them back on and they seem to be ok right now.

Has anyone heard of a collapsed caliper? I have no idea what that could possibly mean. It just sounds bogus to me. Sounds like they never did the job you paid them to do.