Walmart Experience Rant

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I got my tires picked up yesterday from my local distributor and headed up to walmart to have them installed while I did some shopping.

Not much was going on so i figured it was going to be an easy in and out.

The 'tire and lube manager' came out to write me up on his little handheld computer. After explaining that i had my own tires we proceeded to step 1- He had to look at my door jamb to match the tires to the sticker- no go.

Step 2- I cant mount those tires, i can only mount whats on the sticker..its policy. I then showed him that the spare tire size was the exact as what I was asking to be mounted. - no go.

Step 3- I had a badly leaking tire last year and had to limp my vehicle to Walmart to get a tire.. So i had the receipts and the tire from the receipt in the vehicle.. I then pulled the receipt and showed him that Walmart did install that tire last year. - 'they broke protocol' he said.

Step 4- After he did some asking around i filled out a waiver that exepted them from any lawsuits etc etc.

I am now officially going to get my tires installed.

While waiting after my shopping the tire tech came to me and said 'where did you get those tires balanced at last time' 'walmart i said' He said they put about 1/2 lb of lead stickies on them and i should get a refund because theres no way they were balanced right..yay. He then showed me the walmart tire that i bought last year, and showed me that it was patched..hmm. I didnt patch that tire. So i guess they sold me a patched tire and botched the balancing as well.

I furthered the conversation with that young manager and asked him about his 'policy'.. 'So if i have a flat on the road and pull in here and need a tire you cant sell me one of yours and install it due to policy..correct?'

'that is correct'. I can mount your spare if you have one.. was the answer.


To make clarity of my tire size vs door sticker- I have a early 2000s Z71 that came with the aluminum 17" rims. Those rims pit and look like junk after 10 years so i replaced them with 16" rims which also gives me more tire choices and a bit cheaper.

I wonder if i peeled the door sticker off if i would have had a smooth transaction?

I am done with Walmart as my go to tire place unless its an emergency.
 
Well, you're going to be done with a LOT of tire places.

Because of liability, etc, a majority of tire shops will not mount tires that aren't matching the door jamb.
 
As mentioned, this is less of a Walmart problem and more of a 'CYA in the current state of things' problem. You'll see it everywhere nowadays.
 
Wal-Mart and intelligent high end service and " easy in and out" arent things that go together.

Im not at all surprised they wouldn't deviate from stock as too many people go into tire places telling them to " install this" - OK

Then if there is problem they blame the tire place - usually its upsizing vs downsizing, but it happens all the time on an upsize when the hapless customers hits a big bump in a full lock turn and the newer package shreds the bodywork because they didn't check for clearance. " You sold me this and it doesn't work!"

On the prior tire purchased - sounds like you bought the tire and mount and balance and left the place without inspecting it first, or checking the date codes on the tire for age ?

You've only got yourself to be mad at on this one.

The bad balance - thats on them.

UD
 
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It is interesting when lawyers get involved, everything change.

In my area, there are a lot of small tire store selling used tires.
They usually don't care too much when you bring your own tires to install as long as it fits.
Charged like $20 per tire but there is no fuss, of course, there is no warranty either but they use same machine as DT.
No receipt, either.
 
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They didn't balk at all about my Liberty, I have different size rims on it than OE and since it's lifted, obviously run a bigger tire. They balanced mine OK but where they absolutely failed is with TPMS, they had to replace 2 sensors. I had to take it back 4 or 5 times and drove it for 300 miles just to try to get the stupid light off. They were very condescending and rude, they told me I'll have to go buy new sensors and bring it back. They wouldn't even pay for another shop to look at it. They very begrudgingly refunded the $60 for the 2 sensors and luckily a few days later the light went out. Normally, I would've felt bad, but I probably spent $50 in gas driving around to fix it and hours waiting or trying to arrange for someone to pickup me up so I didn't have to wait 4 hours.
 
All this goes away when you have a relationship with where you have service performed. I've never had any issues having non-standard tires mounted - if I say they'll fit my shop knows enough not to second guess me.
 
Originally Posted By: UncleDave
Wal-Mart and intelligent high end service and " easy in and out" arent things that go together.

Im not at all surprised they wouldn't deviate from stock as too many people go into tire places telling them to " install this" - OK

Then if there is problem they blame the tire place - usually its upsizing vs downsizing, but it happens all the time on an upsize when the hapless customers hits a big bump in a full lock turn and the newer package shreds the bodywork because they didn't check for clearance. " You sold me this and it doesn't work!"

On the prior tire purchased - sounds like you bought the tire and mount and balance and left the place without inspecting it first, or checking the date codes on the tire for age ?

You've only got yourself to be mad at on this one.

The bad balance - thats on them.

UD



I bought the tire at the wholesaler where most every tire shop around here gets their tires..just without a markup. The tire i bought has only been on the market for a few months, so its fresh off the boat. The wholesaler stands behind manufacturing defects.

I try to only use walmart for tire work if i have some other shopping to do.. to be honest I try to support my local mom and pops on everything..which my local wholesaler is a small business not a chain.

Yes im mad at myself for not giving the $40 mount and balance to my local mom and pop where they dont have scanners and bar codes and have to scan my vin number.

With talking to the 'manager' for about 30 mins, then talking to the tire installer for about 15 mins, and their 1.5 hour labor involved with my tires they probably barely made $5 profit so im good.
 
No one should get tires mounted at Walmart. They are unlikely to know what they are doing, and often do a bad job.

If you take were to the wheels off of the car yourself, anyone will put tires on them (assuming the tires are approved diameter and width for the wheels). There is no door sticker on wheels. They're not going to be liable if the owner then puts those wheels on to the "wrong" car.
 
Yeah, this isn't a valid rant. Walmart is just for vanilla stuff. It's a good price for mounting and balancing though, around here mounting and balancing tires is typically more like $80-$100 which is why it's typically cheaper to buy it directly from the tire store because they usually waive the mounting charge and they do lifetime balance/rotation if you get it from them directly. The tire stores that also sell rims probably won't be as picky as Walmart with different sized rims. Costco has been offering 1 cent installation and mounting for the last several months. They seem to do that once a month and the tire store guy seems to know about it in advance. I called and the guy told me about the sale next month even though it wasn't in the flyer yet.
 
I'm looking foward to having to deal with Costco because I might buy tires for my Suburban there, however I want the 265 size tires that were optional on the Z71 K1500 pickups but is not an option on my K1500 Suburban, that came with 245 size tires. If they don't do, they'll lose my business, it's that simple.
 
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Find a good independent shop and just volunteer to sign their waiver. I guess it also gets them off the hook if they forgot to tighten your lug nuts. LOL

My summer tires are 17's, and so far, no issue having tires mounted and installed on my vehicle, i might just be lucky though LOL.

The valid question comes down to this.. a good tire shop should do some research and see if the new wheel/tire combo is within 3% of OEM, if your combo is not, than I do NOT blame Walmart for not installing them. If they are within 3%, I would expect them to install them. But... we are talking about Walmart here...
 
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I often refer to it as Helmart! Attorneys run this country so everyone is scared of liability. I bought tires from Discount Tires. At the time I only drove my truck a couple thousand miles a year. After ten years Discount refused to rotate/service the tires. The tires has 70% tread on them and were not cracking. Discount considered them obsolete. I purchased the lifetime warranty. If fine print defines "Lifetime" up to ten years.

I later learned that 10 years is the industry standard.

Helmart rotated and balanced the tires. I always tip the techs....



Respectfully,

Pajero!
 
My 240sx has two tire options per the sticker in the glove box, either 195/60-15 or 205/60-15. When I went in for replacements it had 205's on it, that this exact same location had put on 3-4 years earlier. But now they would only put on new 195's since that was "what is in the computer". He said if I wanted 205's again I would have to go home, remove the wheels, throw them in another car and bring them in loose and they would put on whatever tire I wanted. His reasoning was since they werent putting them on any specific vehicle, they would have no liability for deviating from the computer. It wasnt until I walked out to the car with them and showed them the factory sticker showing both options that they agreed to put new 205's on again. He said most tire places, around here at least, are going this route due to the possible liability issues for putting on tire sizes that the car didnt originally come with.
 
They installed the directional tires backwards on my car last month. All four tires, installed backwards. The tech got an attitude, said they were installed properly. I "educated" him, had them fix it, and had them refund the $60 install price for wasting my time.
 
This is why I strictly use America's Tire for all my tire needs.

Originally Posted By: bubbatime
They installed the directional tires backwards on my car last month. All four tires, installed backwards. The tech got an attitude, said they were installed properly. I "educated" him, had them fix it, and had them refund the $60 install price for wasting my time.
 
Originally Posted By: bubbatime
They installed the directional tires backwards on my car last month. All four tires, installed backwards. The tech got an attitude, said they were installed properly. I "educated" him, had them fix it, and had them refund the $60 install price for wasting my time.


DT did that on wife’s CUV ... had them swapped at another DT store
 
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