Hey everyone

I just got back from Discount Tire where they rotated my tires for free. I have the OEM wheels on the non-sport 2005 sedan. After the rotation, the tech told me, "You know the wheels were already a little scratched up, right?" I assumed he was talking about a little curb rash from parking (which I knew about), so I didn't think anything of it.

I got home and noticed that there are scratches an all four wheels, in the same area on each wheel. The scratches (splotches) appear to be paint chips and they're all near the lugs and in toward the center of the rim. Most of them seem to have a black ring at the edges of the "chip".

Anyone have any idea what might have caused this? The tech did write on the sheet that "wheels were scratched before work began". I want to give Discount the benefit of the doubt, but I'm just stumped as to how this might have happened. The Dealer performed the only other tire rotation on this car. Also, I should note that I was caught in a hail storm about six months ago.

Thoughts?

JoshNjuice

EDIT: I just went and had another look. I'm fairly certain the marks were <i>not</i> there before I took the car to Discount. Also, it seems odd to me that Discount would see that much damage (there are three or four good size chips on each wheel, very near the lugs) and do the work <i>before</i> bringing it to my attention. Wouldn't they come get me before rotating the tires, say, "We just wanted you to see all that damage before we worked on it.", then proceed to do the rotation?

 

When I first bought the 18 sports they were in excellent condition. I brought it to shop to have them put Avon tires on and afterward I noticed scratches around the lug nut holes. I believed it's done by the impact wrench. Since I don't go looking crazy into the lug nut holes, it's ok with me.

 

I decided to take it back to Discount and talk to a manager. The manager was very understanding and took a look at the rims. He noted that it had definitely been done recently, but neither of us could figure out what exactly would've caused the marks (the paint chips were not inside the lug holes, but <i>near</i> the lug holes and pretty consistent on each rim).

He said he'll have them sent off to be re-finished for me at no charge. I will be taking the car in on Monday morning to have them swap my rims out for "loaner" rims while they send mine off to be re-finished (about 24 hours).

Question: Is there any reason I should be concerned about having Discount Tire send my rims off to be re-finished? I figure they look pretty bad right now, so I don't have much to lose.

Anyway, so far Discount Tire has been very easy to work with and they're having the rims re-finished for no charge and without putting up a fight.

JoshNjuice

 

Would be helpful if you can post pics.

 

I'll try to post some pics tomorrow (my camera battery is dead right now).

After my last post, the <i>other</i> manager at Discount called and basically said he was there when they worked on the car and that he noticed the scuffs before they started working on it. I mentioned that we could've avoided this whole deal if he had come to me and asked about the scuffs rather than just assuming I knew.

Anyway, he backed down from their offer to pay to have the rims re-finished. He said the marks looked like balancing marks and since they didn't balance the tires, they couldn't have done it. He asked if I'd had the wheels balanced. I called the dealer and the last balance was in November 2005 (8 months ago). He said there's nothing they can do since it's been so long and since someone else has worked on the rims since then.

I called Discount back, talked to the original manager (who still wasn't putting up much of a fight) and after talking for a bit said, "How about you pay for half, and I'll pay for half." He agreed to that, so I'll be taking my car in on Monday, letting them send my rims off to be re-finished and eating half the cost. It'll cost me about $250 out of pocket (ironically, I went there to begin with so I could get a free rotation and save the $20 from the dealer).

I'm wondering if I acted too quickly in offering to pay for half. There's really no logical way the marks could've appeared aside from something Discount did. The chips on the rims haven't "oxidized" yet (I'm pretty sure that just means there's no rust) and I had been looking at one of my rims a few days ago after bumping a curb (I couldn't find any curb rash or other marks). Still, I don't know how much of a fight I can put up now that I verbally agreed to pay for half the cost... although before I offered to pay half, one "manager" told me they'd pay for it all.

Any suggestions here? I'll try to get some pics up tomorrow.

Thanks everyone.

Josh

 

You had it in the bag when the one manager said he would get it done at no cost to you. You should have just pushed for that and not looked back.

You could just call them and tell them you really don't feel comfortable with the whole deal and ask that they honor what the one manager had already told you would take place...re-finished at no cost to you.

Discount tire has always had great customer service each time I went there. (about 6 times). Very friendly, very eager to help. They also "scratched" every one of my OEM rims with their speed gun/socket, in every lug hole. I got 2 free new tires and free warranty on all of them. They offered to get them refinished but I didn't care to have that done since I knew I would be getting other rims anyways.

Good luck

 

I agree that I should've held them to the original commitment. The reason I backed off was that apparently the original manager thought they had also balanced the tires (hence the "balance marks") when they had not, so he offered to have them refinished under false pretenses. That's not my fault, but I was concerned that since they didn't balance them, they would just pull out all together. I figured that by offering to split the cost, I'm saying, "I think y'all did it, but I can't prove it, so why don't you pay half as a gesture of good faith to me as a customer".

Maybe I acted too quickly.

 

I went into Discount for a rotation. When they were done, one of the techs came back to have me sign papers and said you know your hub cover was missing before you came here right. I had hand washed those same covers the day before! I said I had seen them there the day before, and that I was pretty positive I came in with them on. He said, nope it is written on this work order. I asked if he was the one who took them off. He said he wasn't. I was getting upset, and said well ask the guy who did.

He thought I was being a jerk, so he turned to the cashiers and asked who took off my tires. Someone said Mike. So the tech shouts across the garage, "Hey mike, did that infiniti have all of its hub covers when it came in?" You should have seen his face when Mike yells back, yep!

It turns out Mike misplaced my hubcover while working on my car. He wrote down "missing hubcover" so it could be looked for. I was pissed! They tried to play it off and it was totally their fault. If I hadn't stuck to my guns, they would have passed the buck. They looked for 10 minutes, found my cover under a rag, and put it back on.

I complained and discount asked what they could do to make it right. Afterward, when I had calmed down I was like it wasn't that big of deal. They weren't lieing to me on purpose, it was a miscommunication. The tech dealing with me thought he understood the note and made up a story to go with it.

I said I had new tires put on, but I didn't get the full warranty and that if they were willing, I wouldn't mind a warranty on the tires I had purchased. The manager was awesome, he cleared it with his supervisor and it was done.

I am going back to discount tires. They messed up, but treated me well afterward. Over the course of my lifetime that 100.00 warranty offer will be worth thousands of dollars in tires sales for them.

 

It seems really odd to me that their policy seems to be to notice something wrong, ignore it and complete the work, then <i>after</i> the work is complete, say to the customer, "You know such and such was wrong when you brought the car in, right?"

They could save themselves a lot of trouble by talking to the customer <i>before</i> they start the work. The whole situation I'm in wouldn't exist if the tech had (and apparently a manager who also worked on the car) had just come inside and mentioned it to me before they started the rotation. If they'd done that, I wouldn't be in this mess and I wouldn't be looking at spending $250 to have all my wheels refinished.

Anyway, I'm glad they found your wheel cover. I think I would've been even more frustrated if they had "lost" one of my rims!

 

Had the exact same thing happen to me after the dealership rotated my tires for the first time. Definitely came from the impact wrench. I didn't notice until several days later when I was cleaning the car the extent of it all. Two of the four wheels were damaged.
Really pisses me off that people don't have enough respect to take care of OPP.

 

Damn. All of your stories turn my stomach into a knot. I will add another Discount story. I was getting a tire rotation as well...trusting good ol' Discount. Until I heard a big noise come from the bays. I'm glad my car was in the first bay and I could see that the tech had dropped my rims right on their face. I'll give them credit that they didn't try to write up anything on the work order about them being scratched, but sure enough, they just threw 2 scratched rims right back on the car and gave it to me. I wasn't out of the parking lot before I had the manager come look at it. I was lucky that they bought 2 new rims for me. But hell, I've lost confidence in Discount. Management wise and customer service wise, they do try to do good. But hell!!! I don't trust the 18 year old techs working on the cars anymore. I do my own tire rotations from now on.

Good luck with your situation. I agree....you should've stuck to your guns and had the first manager pay everything off. To me, it sounds like they are feeding you a bunch of BS to cover themselves.

 

All right, I'll throw another Discount Tire story into the mix. Last winter I purchased sedan wheels (used) with no tires on them. I had Discount Tire mount 4 snow tires on them, and they scratched the face of every spoke. The manager explained that they should be able to mount the tires with no damage to the wheels, but that the person who mounted them did not adjust the machine correctly, so one part of the machine hit a couple spokes on each wheel as the tires were mounted. The manager apologized many times. He did the right thing and reimbursed me what I had paid for the wheels.

 

I went into Discount this morning and they took the rims to be refinished (we're still operating under the "halfies" deal I made on Saturday afternoon). I asked if they would look at one of my tires as it had a knick in the sidewall and my "low pressure" light had come on (I bumped a curb last Wednesday, so I wasn't surprised to see the sidewall damage). They looked at it, determined that the tire had a slow leak and they put a new one on. They only charged me half price ($100 for a $200 tire) and I'm going to buy the replacement/repair warranty for $23/tire.

So, I'm frustrated that they probably scratched up all four of my rims while doing a simple tire rotation BUT they're paying for half the cost of the repair AND giving me half off on a new tire (which I damaged). I feel like they've made a good effort to do right by me, and I will probably go to them in the future if I need tires installed, etc. Of course, I'll be <i>very</i> cautious and make sure to inspect everything before they work on it.

Total cost to me: $455 for all four wheels being refinished (I'm paying half), plus a new tire (Goodyear, OEM on the non-sport 2005 Sedan) and a replacement warranty on all four tires. I can think of better things to do with my money, but it could've been worse, I guess.

Josh

EDIT: Question: Can anyone tell me if $100 for one of those Goodyears is reasonable? I'm not sure what model # they are, just know they're the OEM 17" tires that came with the car (purchased March 2005).

 

I think we're all still curious (at least I am), about what exactly the damage looks like.

It's disappointing to hear all of these negative stories about Discount Tire.

 

$455? You could probably buy a set of mint coupe 18s for that much.