Discount Tire, Cracked wheel.

[Spazdog]

I went to Discount Tire for new tires yesterday.

I was watching the installer through the glass. He appeared to be having quite a bit of trouble removing the old tires. He was jamming the wheel weight pliers in between the bead and banging on the tire with the removal arm. I should have said something but I didn't because they are the old tires. Why worry?

Naturally another installer calls me over, "Your "rim" is cracked.

I go out to look expecting a hairline surface crack. Nope. there is a substantial chunk missing. At least 1mm wide. Push down on the tire and I can hear the hiss of air coming out of it.

I was not having any air loss problems. Tread was worn out but I was not losing any air. Pressure has been consistant on all four tires and I check it about once a week.

I argued with the manager for a long time working hard to keep my tone low and calm. He dismissed everything and basically said it was already like that.

I sold tires for years and I never had an installer damage a wheel like that. I had them gouge them and ruin the finish, but never fracture them.

What recourse do I have against Discount? Should I take the wheel and throw it through their plate glass window like the old lady in the commercial (kidding).

I could probably get my money back and keep the wheels they sold me in small claims court, I know which JP to use. I've been on the losing end of that proposition, but to me, that is dishonest and I'm not good with that.

Anybody have any positive response from their customer service line?

 

[sasilverbullet]

Call their corporate...

 

[Stewart Fan]

Thats too bad. The guys at my local DT generally bend over backwards to take care of their customers.

As far as getting the wheel replaced,go right over the store managers head. You gave him the chance to make it right and he refused. Now its time to talk to the district manager.

The last time I dealt with Sear's auto center (10 years ago) they ruined one of the wheels on my Ranger. Took it in for a flat repair,and the wheel got gouged when they pulled the weight. The tech decided he would use a die grinder to try and polish out the gouge. Same thing applied,the manager told me the wheel was already damaged when I brought it in.

The manager was awfully embarrassed when he called the tech in and the tech admitted to grinding on the wheel.

Sears cut me a check for almost $400 and I drove down to Ford and bought a new wheel.

 

[eljefino]

Call corporate and be sure to mention in the first thirty seconds you used to sell tires.

The local store/ manager decided off the bat you looked like you knew nothing about tires, and that if they started with a lie they could continue down that path and probably get away with it.

 

[TooManyWheels]

As others have said, go to the district level. I have only had to do that twice with DT, but have had extremely good luck both times.

 

[Ken2]

Spaz, what did the broken surface look like? Was the broken aluminum surface shiny or was it gray & dirty? It is possible that the rim was previously cracked, and getting the tire off broke the cracked part completely off. In any case, DT should have had you look at the damage first thing. By not calling you over and showing you, they left themselves liable, I think. Yes, do go higher up in the corporation.

 

[Win]

I feel for you.

About ten years ago, I had to have some emergency tire work ( i.e. buy a couple of tires ) done on my Xj12 when I was in Arlington, TX, and I'm pretty sure the tire place was Discount Tire. I can't say for sure as it's been a long time, but that's who I think it was, and it was down in the vicinity of Ranger stadium.

The doofus that worked on it had apparently never heard of a reverse lockout and managed to destroy the mechanism that holds the transmission in park until the brake pedal is depressed. Of course, they denied doing the damage.

Tire and wheel work is not that hard - I used to have a nice mounting machine and wheel balancer before I downsized my home workshop. There's really no excuse for damaging a wheel.

 

[Cristobal]

Also send a complaint letter in writing to their corporate office. I once had a set of tires from Costco that were soft and wore down prematurely. The manager there refused to even look at them or the warranty when I brought them in for replacement. So I left and wrote a letter. I got a call to apologize really fast after that, and they honored the warranty.

 

[EricF]

unfortunately this was due to arrogance on the tire installers part. There is no one size fits all to changing tires.

You can try to goto small claims, but remember, the burden of PROOF falls onto you. YOU must prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that DT damaged the rim. saying it was fine before the installer got to it is an opinion.
IF you had a picture or video before hand yeah, you might have a chance.

But go to the district level and be cordial but firm.

I used to do tires back in my day, and the process hasn't changed, and I regret not buying a used rim clamp when I had the chance.. but even today, I'd have no place to put it.
But when I used to balance my tires, I'd have no more than an ounce of weight on my rims.. nobody understands what the white dot on the tires means, let alone rotating the tire around to get the balance minimized.
one time I got a tire perfect! It did take a while to do, but it was a dead day so I had time to play.
AND.. make them do a static balance (where weight is only put on the inside of the rim). when I request that I kinda get a double look because very few people know about that outside of tire installers.
And.. I don't want ugly weights on my rims that were hammered in and chunks of aluminum taken out.

 

[Spazdog]

Originally Posted By: EricF
You can try to goto small claims, but remember, the burden of PROOF falls onto you. YOU must prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that DT damaged the rim. saying it was fine before the installer got to it is an opinion.
IF you had a picture or video before hand yeah, you might have a chance.


The company I worked for has been before one Justice of the Peace in particular. He won't even let the business owner or representative testify or defend themselves. "Give them their money back" is his verdict in every complaintant vs business small claims court case.

But I find that distasteful, dishonest, bad karma....whatever. I don't want to be a part of a bigger problem to solve my small problem.

The wheel was definitely damaged by them. Air comes out now as fast as it goes in. I could not have driven the car in like that. They would have noticed it before they pulled it in as it took them over an hour to even get started.

Did they exascerbate an existing problem? That is a possibility. I accept that. But it was not leaking at all.

As many times as I was forced off of the sales counter and into the shop to install tires for Western Auto's 59 minute install guarantee, I cannot recall one time jamming the wheel weight pliers under the bead nor can I remember beating on a tire with the bead tool.

 

[sciphi]

Go write a polite complaint to corporate. They should fix you up properly. I had to do the same thing with Wal-Mart when one of their TLE techs trashed the OEM hubcaps on my old Buick. It took a month, but I did get new hubcaps out of the deal.

 

[Spazdog]

Originally Posted By: EricF
,... and I regret not buying a used rim clamp when I had the chance.. but even today, I'd have no place to put it.


and to throw my own topic off for a second, when Montgomery Ward went out of business, my then boss bought all the scanners he could. Got them for like $250 apiece with cartridges and connectors. They were grey plastic instead of red but were otherwise Snap-On MT2500 scan-tools.

I should have bought one. That was a good tool. And one of the Coates tire mounting machines...and one of the balancers. Bear I think. Probably would have sunk a grand into all that but I would not be having this problem now.

 

[Papa Bear]

I wasn't aware that a tire machine could "break" a rim.

 

[The Critic]

Auto shops carry insurance for these types of incidents. Their insurance company shouldn't have an issue paying out a small claim like this one.

 

[Spazdog]

Originally Posted By: Papa Bear
I wasn't aware that a tire machine could "break" a rim.



It shouldn't, when used properly.

The installer was jamming other balancing tools in between the tire bead and the wheel and beating on it with the bead tool

I haven't used a tire machine in a long time, but I don't recall using the bead tool as a striking implement. Nor do I recall using the wheel weight pliers for any other purpose beyond installing and removing wheel weights. I never slammed down the remover/installer head repeatedly let alone even once. The touchless was actually pretty easy to use.

I drove the car in with the recommended pressure in the tire, that it had been holding for a long time. You can't even put air in it now, It comes back out as fast as you can put it in.

They broke it. Improper use of the company assets. Improper or inadequate training or just plain ineptitude.

 

[TooManyWheels]

Originally Posted By: Spazdog

I drove the car in with the recommended pressure in the tire, that it had been holding for a long time. You can't even put air in it now, It comes back out as fast as you can put it in.



Your case makes itself. The store manager should be worried about how he will look when you elevate your complaint, unless he is alleging that you drove in with it flat.

Let me add, in line with Critics comment, that this should no big deal to DT. The ones in Houston have standard ongoing relationships with wheel repair and supply shops to take care of these problems. That should make it doubly embarrassing to the manager.

 

[mrsilv04]

Could you have driven it in on that wheel, in the condition it was in after it had been damaged?

If it wouldn't even hold air, then you've won.

 

[Ken2]

Originally Posted By: EricF
nobody understands what the white dot on the tires means, let alone rotating the tire around to get the balance minimized.
Agree with you about finding best balance vs. doing the quickest balance job, but...

I haven't seen a white dot on a tire, unless they've been outside with the birds. Some tire makers use yellow or red or yellow and red dots, and some tire makers give these dots different meanings. Generally, the yellow dot is the light spot on the tire. The red dot is stiffest spot on the sidewall. If the tire has only a yellow dot, put that by the valve. If the tire has a red dot, ignore the yellow dot, and put the red dot by the dimple in the steel wheel (low point) or by the valve on an aluminum wheel.