Taking Issue with My Local Tire Auto Shop
 

Won't get into the huge back story of my day, but it started off with a flat tire on my wife's Durango. We need this car to drive us to Boston on Thurs and I was supposed to be out of town today and tomorrow. I knee jerked and went to 'damn, I need a new tire.' They are 4years old and ~50k on them, which I know means the tires have plenty of life in them.

[Skipping drama]

Take it to my local tire joint, they are a big-ish chain here in the NoVA. Call the closest one and they said Thurs was the soonest they could get to it. Called the next closest and they said they could get the tire in and installed Wed. Perfect. Put down the req $50 deposit.

Gathered my thoughts. Yell'ed at myself for not just going the plug route. Called and voiced that to the dude. He said they'd def look at that, but the deposit was not refundable. Fine, Ill fall on that sword.

Got a call a couple hours later from him with this explanation why I now need FOUR tires. The screw went in sideway and compromised the sidewall. The tread depth was getting thin (the measurement I forget) and that there was dry rot. All the other tires are in similar shape, sans screw.

The one dug my heals in on was the screw angle. I told him, 'no, it went straight in and unless it was over 6" there is no way it is close to the sidewall even if it went in sideways. I am not buying your story. Tell the tech NOT to throw away the screw. I want to see it.'

REcall I said that the tire I put the deposit on that was not to arrive until tomorrow to install.............yeah, my car was ready for pick up today. I got the text notification at 6PM. The magic hour they close. Called at 6:15 when I saw the text, VM. I 10000000% bet they plugged it.

I leave you with this. Picts of the screw and the tire. The podium is open.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1719361563.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1719361563.jpg

Someone wanted commission on a set of tires :)

You sound like the type of customer every shop doesnt want to deal with. A real PITA. You bought one new tire!? seriously. Either plug it or buy 4 new

I just returned from Florida, the tread depth on my tires were similar to your tire. I had no issues.
I had a similar screw in one of my winter tires.It was repaired and I drove to Arizona and back in January. Nothing happened.
I plugged hundreds of tires when I worked in a gas station 50 years ago. Your tire could be plugged or patched from the inside.
I would like to see the screw, after reading the description from the tire guy, I’m thinking grassy knoll.
Sadly, it’s getting harder to trust auto repair shops. I’ll only go to a place now if friend/family recommends the place.

I carry a plug kit in my truck. I've only had to use it once and it worked great! Screw in the front right tire - looked just like yours.

Ideally to have an impact wrench in the truck would be even better. I do that whenever i go on longer trips somewhere.

Well time will tell and I bet you got a $50 plug and now you don't need to go to that shop again.

PS that photo is basically an advertisement for the home plug kit. It's pretty easy.

Yep. Any place that you go for anything on a car potentially makes that you'll run into either unscrupulous or incompetent folks wanting to separate you from your money. The old theory that "they" will only try that crap on women is not true. I've seen them try it on plenty of men.

Two things, if they were trying to screw him, then screw them. I've had folks try to sell me brakes 100 times over the years because my "pads are thin" including one time when is port new pads in less than 2 months prior.

But with 50k miles on a set of tires yes, plug or at least replace both tires on the axle if not all four.

The sad part is that I have the plug kit, I just didn't have the time.

I would take the plug since the tire is old. Get your money back for the new tire. If they won't reverse the charge take it up with your credit card company. BS on that screw hitting the sidewall.

On the other hand, about 6 years ago I got a nail in the sidewall of my kubota diesel tractor tire. The big tire on the rear. My framer had a plug kit, so we gave it a try. Not worried about a leak, it's offroad and slow, but it works hard. This thread reminded me that plug is still holding up.

I've plugged tires many, many times over the years in all sorts of cars. I usually use the sticky fiber/rope plugs. One time back in the nineties, I had an issue where I had a super slow leak in a tire. It ended up being a leak through the rope. At least after the plug was replaced the leak went away.


These days if you don't need to do the plug yourself, the way to go is to take the tire to the nearest Discount Tire where they'll install a plug-patch for free. I've never had anything but great service from Discount Tire.

Yeah, that does suck. The last tire that I plugged was on my wife's outback. I didn't even have to take the tire off of the car.

Being in construction, screws and nails, find their way into tires quite frequently. I keep a couple of the tire plug kits in my truck and I’ve used them many times over the years.

Two times it has happened to my daughter. Tire shop said they can’t fix and she needs 4 new tires. Two times I’ve plugged two different tires on her car. Still holding air.

This thread reminded me of the old Allied Discount Tire ads with Sam Behr.......

<iframe width="539" height="404" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rQZwtGmK1KQ" title="Allied Discount Tires (1988)" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I use the regular rope plugs, but always wanted one of these.

https://www.revzilla.com/product_ima...Repair_Kit.jpg

I've also used the tire screw type, too.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/...AC_SL1200_.jpg

That would have to be a pretty long screw to have reached the sidewall. Judging by the tire wear indicators in your picture, it doesn’t appear that you have “plenty of life left” in that tire.

I like the screw type plugs…haven’t seen that before. At my advanced age it’s getting harder and harder to muster the strength to push in the rope type plug!

Why no mention of taking the tire off and patching from the inside? This assumes the sidewalls are okay.

The best plugs are tech permacure II we have done many thousands of plugs over the past 30 years and they almost never come back leaking. The plug patches are good too for the larger holes but you need to remove the tire

Sorry, not buying this, as plugging the tire would've taken less time than making the phone calls you cited.

_

Sorry you went through that. I have never in my life had a tire shop ask for a non-refundable deposit or any kind of a deposit for tires. I don't mess around when it comes to tires; when they get even close to being worn, I replace all 4. The last thing I want is my wife being stuck somewhere with a flat.

they are liars. that screw is nowhere near a sidewall.
i would give 'em a concise review via google, etc.

Shocking that a tire shop would try to sell someone 4 new tires with 4/32" tread left .

Porsche cars North America’s policy is dealerships don’t plug tires. If the customer did not want a new tire, we had to refer them to a local tire shop. Liability issue, I guess. They didn’t want to plug the guy’s tire and have a high speed issue the next day (I’d guess). I’ve plugged my own passenger car tires many times without issue.

This has always been my philosophy.

Except seeing I'm a free agent.....it's me that I don't want being stuck on the side of the road!

Change your oil and refresh tires are the two fundamentals for happy vehicle ownership.

Yep, Discount Tire is a great company in my experience. They are tied in with Tire Rack, when I buy tires in MN., I pick them up same day at TR's local warehouse and then have DT install them. Never had to wait for an appointment in the distant future, just in and out quickly with friendly, helpful employees.

It's a smart company that recognizes an opening in a service industry like tire shops where the bar is set really low in terms of the competition from independent shops. Pricing, customer service, all really bad in that sector.

My shop in Los Angeles is fantastic, they are either independent or part of a small chain and they not only beat TR's price on tires every time but give me great, prompt service on tire repairs and alignments. The tire business must be more competitive out here or something...there are a lot of great tire dealers. My experience in the middle of the country has been the opposite; terrible prices on tires, appointments a week out for an alignment, etc. They absolutely act like they are doing you a favor getting you in. If I called my guys in L.A. today for an alignment, they would say, "sure, can you be here in an hour?" And they are busier than a whore on payday...waaaay busier than these half-assed places in the heartland I've encountered. Of course there are exceptions, I've also gotten good service in WI. a couple of times. I buy more tires than the next 5 people combined some years.

$50 for a plug?? My shop here will not accept $$ from me for that, always free and I just pull in unannounced. Part of this is the fact that I've sent them virtually everyone I know for tires, they always take care of my friends the same way. Everybody is happy. :cool:

Two day wait to plug or install a tire? Never heard of such a thing.

Me neither. My shop either has the tire in stock, makes a phone call and has it 30 minutes later or if it needs to be ordered from further warehouse or manufacturer, UPS delivers it the next day. The tire distribution network in America is vast and there are warehouses everywhere there are vehicles, which is everywhere.

Some of these shops in uncompetitive markets are just so used to treating people like crap that customers think it's normal, I guess. :confused:

I hate liars. I give them no quarter. I'd get a refund, call my CC company, whatever. Send a note to BBB. Tell all my friends.

I'm not impressed with those screw type plugs. I like the rope kind.

Inside patch is best.

I don't know guys.
You make an agreement to purchase and give a deposit.
I don't think it's right to call the CC company and dispute it. What are you going to tell them?
Or am I missing something?

You're missing that they told him that the screw was too close to the sidewall for a plug. Other than that, on general principle, you are right.

I get that and it was very slimly, but didn't he order a new tire and put a deposit on it?

Great info, thanks! I'll keep an eye out for these or a kit for them.
My first reaction was the same, but then I realized that there may be lots of other things going on that kept him from putting in the plug himself that he didn't want to share. Easier to just say "I didn't have time". There could be (almost certainly is) a LOT going on in the background that we don't know about.
LOL! The sarcasm is strong in this one...

It definitely reads that way. But I don't know what he got. One new tire? A patch? Four new tires?

I can't blame the shop for trying to sell four new tires given the condition of the one shown...I would 100% drive on those tires, but I would also ever agree to a $50 deposit when a patch would work.

Did they plug it and send him on his way? Put a new tire on? Did they refund the $50 or offer a store credit? :confused: Does he know but isn't sharing? Or has he not picked up the car?

Putting one new tire on a four wheel vehicle is like buying one new tennis shoe and wearing the old one on the other foot.

Only one was dry-rotted. ;)

Where is the picture of the screw that damaged the sidewall?

Being a liar is one of those things thst disqualifies businesses from getting trade from me

I did once take a tire to a shop for a plug. There was a nail/screw in the middle of the tread similar to the photo in this thread. They told me "we can't patch it, it's in the shoulder". I was a bit perplexed, but it turned out that the tire that I took in had 2 nail/screws in it, and I had only seen one of them.

It’s in the first post of this thread.

lol!