Really tire shop, really?

Warning Rant!!!

Just got done doing my FIL's brakes on his SRX and noticed the tire shop put the berkeleying directional Toyos on backwards!!!. As if the arrow pointing tread wasn't enough, the arrows on the sidewall.

OR THE berkeleyING WORDS LEFT AND RIGHT WRITTEN ON THE SIDE WALLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I want to move to these peoples' world because apparently you don't need to do anything right to survive there!

Calmly take it back, ask to speak to the manager, show him your reciept, and have him look at the car and ask him if he can figure out why you might not be happy.

He/She will either immediately spot it, recitfy it, and make it up to you, or they'll be completely clueless in which case you know to never go back and be sure to tell all your friends to never go there either.

I fixed it while I was doing the brakes.

I would have been a prick and taken them back and demanded new tires stating that the "set" of the rubber and the steel belts in the tires had now been compromised and that reversing them back to the correct way would pose a safety hazard.

All BS of course (I hope) but it would be fun to see what they do.

I think the only service every ricemart tire shop offers is "berkeley up your car"

I seems as if nobody knows what they are doing anymore, excepting of course all of us here. How could a tire shop be so stupid when of course their business is tires!!! Good golly it's depressing.

And people wonder why I lug the wheels and tires for the cars I care about to a shop fifty miles away...

Reminds me of the time a friend of mine took her Civic to one of the quickie oil change places and when she got back home they hadn't put any oil back in her car. Thankfully the shop was near by and the car was still running but............how could you forget to put oil back in? It's like one of only two main things that an oil shop does. You take out old oil and put in new oil!!

It is crazy how many unqualified people there are working on cars. If you don't do everything yourself (and even if you do almost everything yourself, but sometimes don't want to deal with it) find a good private mechanic and be a good customer. They're out there, and when you find one, they're worth hanging on to.

For wheels and tires, I'm very glad I have access to a tire machine and have gotten somewhat competent at using it.

fast_eddie_72 wrote: For wheels and tires, I'm very glad I have access to a tire machine and have gotten somewhat competent at using it.

You are so lucky. I got so tired of paying someone and risking damage plus the actual cost of changing tires and wheels that I now have multiple sets already mounted. But that's also expensive and storage is a problem.

I always pull the wheels off and take them to the tire shop to replace tires. The last set I had put on I had a nice little conversation with the guy at the counter about old BMW's. I had a slow leak on one of the rims and took the car in to get it fixed. The guy remembered me and as I was getting my key back he said "Remember when you had the tires installed, I told you about the loose balljoint on the left front?" I said no because I brought the wheels in, I never had the car here, this is the first time you've seen it. He disagreed with me and said it is a safety hazard that they have brought to my attention twice and he should'nt let me drive it away.

I know the ball joints are fine. There is nothing loose or worn on the front end of the car. I got pretty irritated at that. In a rather loud and agressive tone I said look man you've never seen this car before period end of story, the balljoints are fine period end of story, and if you crooks try to pull this crap on the average person who walks in here I don't know how you can sleep at night. There was about eight people in the showroom and seeing that they where all paying attention to what was going on he tried to save face and walked me quietly to the door. I stopped him looked him dead in the eye and told him he should be ashamed of his self. He just put his head down as I walked out the door.

It's a sad situation, I can't help but to look at all these places as crooked. I can't wait untill I can get my own tire changer and balancer. If they are not incompetent they are crooks.

I cross state lines to get to the only shop I let do my tires and alignments, they actually ask me for my settings when I book a car in.

Worth the drive every time.

Zurcher Tire, Monroe IN. They deserve the plug.

Around here you HAVE to cover the out side (side) of the side wall with duct tape and write, "This Side Out." EVERYTIME you get tires mounted, no matter WHERE to go.

One of the reasons that we now have a tire machine.

I can TOTALLY sympathize with your rant. It's completely insane that "good enough" has now become the normal working model for most shops/stores/commercial outlets these days.

Now you've got ME agitated ! ! !

A good friend had work done on his 535 at a BMW dealer, and when they gave him the car back they didn't actually attach one of the front wheels–or, at any rate, they didn't attach it very well. This shortly resulted in a Wheel Departure Incident in downtown evening traffic. My friend was very restrained about it, figuring that mistakes happen to everybody. The only time he indulged himself was when he got the estimate in from the body shop: he used a fax cover sheet from his law firm to send it over to the dealer. They paid promptly & in full. (I mean, what else can you really do, under the circumstances?)

Flight Service wrote: I fixed it while I was doing the brakes.

swapped wheels side to side ?

Feedyurhed wrote: Reminds me of the time a friend of mine took her Civic to one of the quickie oil change places and when she got back home they hadn't put any oil back in her car. Thankfully the shop was near by and the car was still running but............how could you forget to put oil back in? It's like one of only two main things that an oil shop does. You take out old oil and put in new oil!!

+1! Dad had that one happen to him. Fortunately, he hadn't left that places parking lot.

Flight Service wrote: Warning Rant!!! I want to move to these peoples' world because apparently you don't need to do anything right to survive there!

It's the same world weathermen live in.......

In reply to nicksta43:

Must be something about ball joints. I had a tire shop swear to me a car had bad ball joints on both sides. Nope-the one on the right front was less than 2 weeks old.

I am a veteran of a tire shop, one that prides itself on the knowledgeable staff and the quality of both their work and product. And let me tell you, it was no picnic working there. For every savvy customer out there, there are about twenty knuckleheads who don't know anything about cars period, let alone tires which in and of themselves are a kind of specialized topic.

But, in a perfect demonstration of the Dunning-Kreuger effect, EVERYBODY is a tire expert and/or knows more than the tire guy. After all, I only made $11/hr, so I must have been pretty stupid, right?

The Mechanical Engineer who buys knobbly tires for his Explorer, then brings it back half a dozen times because the tires are out of balance -- despite us balancing them every time to the 1/10 oz (the tires were balanced fine the first time).

The riceboy racer who complains that his tires are wearing out too fast, when his Civic has 5° of negative camber all around, and shows obvious signs of repeated burnouts.

The country bumpkin who threatens physical violence when we won't mount bald, corded tires on his 1980s Caprice, tires that he brought in and obviously got from a scrapyard.

The soccer mom who is mad that her tire got a nail the sidewall, and that we can't fix sidewall punctures.

The lawyer who threatens to sue if we so much as get a smudge of tire lube on his MB's chrome rims.

The doctor who accuses us of stealing his new BMW's spare tire, when it has run-flats and doesn't come with a spare in the first place.

The contractor who is angry that we couldn't finish the job, since he lost the lock for his F-350's McGard lug nuts, but that's "not his problem, we're the tire guys".

I could go on forever. Point is, not all shops are crooks. not all tire jockeys are mouth-breathers, and, and this is the most important thing: the customer is not always right. Give a chance to the guy who does it for a living.

In reply to rallymodeller:

Truth. Stupid can be on both ends of the transaction.

I'm dealing with a defective just now who decided he would drag a rusty, parked for 5 years 240 Volvo with Kjet injection out of the bush and use it for his daily driver. Three different people at my shop told him it was a waste of our time and his money, the $500 he had budgeted wasn't even close to enough cash to get this thing mobile, let alone legal. Should have punched him in the face and thrown him out in the street, cause now it starts, barely runs, and the injection is plugged up solid with E36 M3 from the tank, and we've spent his budget, plus some. I now have a pile of E36 M3 sitting on my lot that I'm going to have to crush after I remove the used starter and distributor, break the wires I fixed, and put the crank pulley on 1/3 of a turn out of time again.

In reply to Streetwiseguy:

And I bet the floors are pretty much not there at all, judging from my own 240 experience.

I am a big supporter of my local tire store. They are efficient and can compete with almost anyone's prices. I still take my rims to them and they mount the tires on the rims - that's it. I check the air pressure and mount the wheels on the car. Call it trust issues, but I just do not let anyone work on my cars if I can help it at all. Nobody cares more than I do. Some uneducated laborer making $9/hr sure as hell doesn't.

Ned Beatty wants nothing to do with your canoe!

They're using a throwaway account (good5321@hotmail.com) to create the spam.

I've bought my last three sets of tires from Discount Tire in Spartanburg, SC. I could not be any happier. While I like to buy from the local mom and pop stores, the best store in town refused to put HR rated tires on my wifes Solara. When I pressed the issue, he said he would do it but would not warranty them. He was also $300 higher.