Argh! Hate retail tire stores

[masraum]

My wife got a flat and drove on it. Not far, but far enough to put a groove in each sidewall of the tire. So I ordered a couple of Toyo T1Rs from edgeracing. I took the two wheel/tires off of the rear axle and took those and the two new tires to the local NTB to get the tires mounted and balanced. I picked them up an hour later and paid my $32. Last night when I started to put them on I notice that one of the center caps was loose and flopping around. Looking at the loose cap and the tight cap on the other tire I realized that the hubcentric rings are what hold the center caps firmly in place. Kind of weird, but whatever. I have a lead mallet and a brass bar so I started to seat the hubcentric ring. THat's when I noticed that there were no weights on either tire. I then started to look at both tires more closely and realized that in trying to get the ring off of the other wheel they drove a screwdriver or something out through the side of the center cap. So now I have a ruined center cap and wheels that appear to not be balanced plus one of the press fit hubcentric rings was not seated fully which could have resulted in a problem if that had caused the lugnuts to come loose later because the wheel didn't seat properly.

When I asked to speak to the manager he just looked at me so I asked if he was the manager. He said yes, so I told him the problem. Not much for customer service.

I was able to pop the hubcentric rings out in about .5 secs with a claw hammer without leaving a mark on either one, but they were covered in scratches where the tire shop goons had worked on them.

I took them back this morning. The manager listened as I explained all of the problems. WHen I got done he said "those rings don't come off." I popped them off with the hammer that I had taken with me. It literally takes one quick tug and they literally pop off. he looked at the bunged up center cap and carried those and the two tire/wheels to the back. Apparently the tires and wheels were balanced with no weight which is amazing. THen I asked about the center cap and he said bring a receipt and I'll reimburse you. He never said, "I apologize", "I'm sorry", "what can I don" or anything like that. He didn't even seem concerned. Fortunately he did fix the problem by checking the balance and offering to buy a new center cap, but jeez.

The only thing that's keeping me from being more pissed is that I know his job, retail sales/public service is a nightmare and he probably wasn't happy about having to deal with an issue first thing this morning.

I'm about ready to buy a tire mounting machine. THen the only thing that I'd have to get those monkeys to do is balance my tires.

[widebody911]

It's simple - the "volume" shops just don't give a rat's ass. They employ ($minimum * 1.05) flunkies who, after a certain amount of time mounting tires 8 hours a day, would love nothing better than to see you devoured by a pack of rabid hyenas.

Here's a good one - the local Big-O tires actually gets a surcharge specifically for mounting tires bought at Tire Rack. Seriously! If you take a set of tires in and say you bought them @ WalMart, it's $X to M&B, but if they have a Tire Rack label or you admit that you got them @ Tire Rack, it's $(X + Y) to M&B., where Y, based on aspect ratio, is taken from a table taped to the counter

[masraum]

Originally posted by widebody911
It's simple - the "volume" shops just don't give a rat's ass. They employ ($minimum * 1.05) flunkies who, after a certain amount of time mounting tires 8 hours a day, would love nothing better than to see you devoured by a pack of rabid hyenas.

Here's a good one - the local Big-O tires actually gets a surcharge specifically for mounting tires bought at Tire Rack. Seriously! If you take a set of tires in and say you bought them @ WalMart, it's $X to M&B, but if they have a Tire Rack label or you admit that you got them @ Tire Rack, it's $(X + Y) to M&B., where Y, based on aspect ratio, is taken from a table taped to the counter

Yeah, I know, minimum wage people won't give a damn 999 times out of a 1000. It's the same whether it's a tire store, muffler shop, computer store, auto parts store, whatever. That's retail.

Wow, Tire Rack tires cost more to mount. Nice. I was actually surprised the mount and balance cost so little and they didn't try to charge me for valve stems. (the wheels on my wifes car have 2 Al valve stems per wheel) I expected to see a charge of $7 for 2 rubber valve stems on the bill, but it was just mount and balance.