Monday, April 21, 2014

The Tire Story

I had to do some serious editing on this post.  It was ridiculously long, and still is.  But the comedy of errors that happened just kept mounting and mounting.  I had to write it all, and then figure out how to shorten it to a palpable story.  Feel free to ask questions, in case I did a lousy job shortening this....which wouldn't be the first time!!!
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Everyone knows that we don't have good experiences with cars.  Maybe this is the universe's way of telling us we either should be urban dwellers (which has zero appeal to us) or live in the country and eat off the land (which has zero appeal as well).  But this one....I really did not predict would turn into an adventure.

Get new tires.  Didn't sound hard.  G-man did all the hard work....figured out what tires I need, made the appointment for me.   All I was supposed to do was go to the tire place, read a magazine for an hour while they did the work, and come home.  The first player in the story is Schmoozy, who went on and on about how great my tires were going to be, blah blah blah

Over the next week, I had one tire that kept going low.  After I put air in 2x, I knew I had to bring it back.  G-man said since they replaced the valve stem (more on this in a minute), it could be loose.  He tightened it.  Should be good to go.  Um, no.

Tuesday my tire was low again.  Put more air in it.  Called them to make an appointment for that afternoon; it was down to 26.5 psi (vs 35 that morning).  Schmoozy proceeded to tell me that I have soft rims or maybe I rolled over something, or maybe blah blah blah.  I said....or maybe your guys didn't do something right.  They cleaned the rim, sealed it up again, and Schmoozy says he is 99.9% sure it is fix.  I told him I only do things 100% (I was feeling a bit punchy).  He said "well, if you have to come back again, I will make it worth your while."  Ok Schmoozy, I will hold you to that.

The next morning....my tire is flat.  17 psi.  This was 13 hrs after I was 99.9% guaranteed it was fixed.  Now I am ripped.  My tires were 10 days old at this point; I had already put air in the tire several times, and been back once.  I called at 8:02am, and spoke to Schmoozy.  He said they would replace the tire.....maybe I got a bad tire......but that is about all they could do.  No Schmoozy, you told me you would make it worth my while.  AH yes, I did say that...Um....I have to talk to my manager.  Ok Schmoozy, I will be in at 4pm, have it figured out by then.

So back I go to the tire place, and the manager said "oh, still giving you problems?"  No....I just missed you so much!!!!

Yes Manager, it is.  And here is what Schmoozy said.   And now the fun started.

He said he was replacing the tire, what more could he do.  I said the tire is 10 days old and still under warranty so you aren't doing me any favors.  I have had to put air in my tire multiple times, and this is now the 2nd time in 48 hrs I am here.  My time and frustration is worth something.  He said that my time isn't their problem.

Oh yes it is.....you don't know who you are dealing with.

I said that Schmoozy said he would make it worth my while.  If Schmoozy overstepped his bounds, that is not my problem...that is between you and your employee.  Manager said he can't take my word for it that Schmoozy said this.  He would have to call him.  OK....go ahead and call him.  I will wait.  *smile*

Manager said, well....maybe I can do a $15 gift card.  NO!!  What the heck am I going to do with a $15 gift card to a tire place when I just spent $576 on NEW tires.  No Manager, I would like a refund, back on my credit card.  (As a side note, the money came from our tax refund.  I used the credit card to get the points and for ease.  As soon as I got home from getting the tires, I paid the credit card).  Now Manager goes in the back....and comes back and tells me he called central office on my behalf and they authorized a $40 refund to my card.  OK.  Fine.  With taxes it ended up being $42.54.

A few minutes later, they come in with my tire.  They discovered that the valve stem was leaking (remember, G-man said that).  The casing was corroded.  So they will replace that and put on a new sensor.  So wait a minute....you charged me for valve stems.  You didn't actually replace them???  He looked at the original receipt....and they replaced the core.  Because Schmoozy used the wrong code, the workers just did what was on the ticket.  Now, I would have liked to think that a worker would have seen something corroded and mentioned it initially.  But no, they just do what is on the ticket.  No thinking for ourselves.

I was tempted to have them replace ALL the casings, but I just wanted to get out of there, and who knows what new damage would have been caused.  I was told I had to drive the car for a minimum of 15 minutes going at least 50mph to get the sensor to link up with my Tire Pressure System so my dashboard light would go out.  No problem.

Well, so far, the tire is holding out.  My dashboard light however.....is still on.  I drive all highway to work....even drove 15 minutes PAST my office to make sure I had a SOLID 15 minutes over 50mph.  Nope...light is still on.

G-man called the dealership, who said that they probably installed an aftermarket sensor, and sometimes those sensors NEVER sync with the TPS.  Well great.  The purpose of the light on the dash is to alert me to a problem....if it is constantly on, what good will that do?  So now we have to figure out what to do about THAT. Additionally, I am missing a lugnut on a different tire, and the Jeep Wheel Cap on the tire with the issues.  I am going to have to call them AGAIN.  

Suffice it to say, we will NEVER use this place again.  It is a large chain places with other locations.  And I will be following up with their central office to complain about the poor workmanship.

I would love just one thing when it comes to cars to be easy.  I don't know how I have this black cloud over me with cars.....but have had enough.



12 comments:

  1. One word: Twitter. You would be surprised how quickly central office will resolve this. Just say you had new tires put on 10 days ago and have had to go back X number of times and still having issues. They will respond - no one want it on social media.

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    1. Thanks for the suggestion. I am new to Twitter, but I looked at the Twitter feed for the company. It is just streams of people complaining, and some poor guy over there answering them with his number and asking them to call to discuss their issue.

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    2. Sorry but I really disagree with this. The manager gave you $40 back and fixed the issue. I would give them another opportunity to fix the sensor at no charge. I think people are too quick to jump to Twitter with professional grievances.

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    3. I am still waiting for the tire store to call me back....they said they will order a new sensor, wheel cap, and lugnut. They needed some info from me, and when I called them back, the manager wasn't available.

      I think my issue at this point is that I will have to return to this store for the 3rd time. Even with a small refund (less than 10% of the total), their central office still needs to know what is going on at this store, whether it is with Twitter or a direct call.

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    4. Oh, and when I was on their website, they said a front end alignment was FREE with tires. They wanted to charge me $49 for it. I declined, as I had just had the alignment done in February. But they are charging for something that shoule be FREE???

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  2. Dang! sorry! I always use Discount Tire, the one time I decided to try someone new NTB I had all kids of issues so, from now on I only use Discount... our yellow light for the TPS is always on, no one can figure out why and Toyota wanted $150 to reset it, I said meh, we can live with it on for now- no big deal.

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    1. The dealership said that an actual "jeep" sensor should sync within a few miles. The store said they will order one....if they ever call me back to get the vehicle info from me!

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  3. Oh wow, talk about bad experiences... my experience changing tires was smooth as can be for a Sunday morning. We sat, we waited, then we drove off. Tires are great and car drives just fine without the shaking it had been experiencing. I'm sorry you had that much of a battle, but glad they did refund you and you made sure they stuck to their word!

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    1. I was expecting to have your experience....get tires, go home.

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  4. Let's put it this way you are very tired of tires....no pun intended;)

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  5. Ughhhhh... I would be very aggravated at all the wasted time. Any car repairs are a huge pain.

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  6. As I read this, I hear the words from the old Hee-Haw TV show... "if it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all..."

    I hate it when things like this happen. Good for you for making sure they stuck to their word.

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