Discount Tire Rim Damage

[kevin01cobra]

Today I went to Discount tire to have two new front tires put on( cheap Falkens). While there I was told the new tires MUST be put on the rear even though I told him I was coming back in a week with some NT05's to put on the rear. He said they could flip flop them when I come back so everything was going to work out fine. Unfortunately my wheel lock broke and I had only removed the lock from the front two tires (key was at home jammed in a 12mm deep socket) so he said he could remove the wheel locks on the rear and replace them with lug nuts for $10. I said fine, I just wanted my tires changed and done.
Fast forward 50 minutes. He says the car is done and the new tires are on the front because as he was taking off one of the locks he noticed I had spacers. Apparently discount tire has a policy against putting tires on cars with spacers. But he did say he was able to remove one of the wheel locks. I check the front tires and drive off. When I got home I decided to change out that last locking lug nut only to see the damage. I immediately called back but they were closed.The locking lug was even loose enough to be taken off by hand! I'm heading back at 8 am tomorrow to work something out.
Long story short I paid $10 to have someone chip the shit out of my rim. I'm almost positive it wasn't a peon who did this but someone below the manager.
Does anyone know how Discount Tire usually goes about handling these things?

 

[soccerman002]

One of the reasons why whenever I have tires mounted or dismounted, I walk the car with the manager and make note of the wheel condition beforehand, and do the same afterward before driving off. Hopefully they take care of you somehow.

Is there anything on the receipt or invoice, fine print, etc. that would address wheel damage?

 

[kevin01cobra]

There is a $10 charge for labor to remove the nuts. it says "BREAK LOCKS" And I was charged for two Chrome Sleeves. I plan on bringing in my broken wheel lock key and leaving the locking lug not on the tire. It's very obvious it was them since all the other holes have near perfect edges.
EDIT: Bringing in my wheel lock key to show that I wasn't even going to have to hammer a socket around the lock since the inside of the key was lodged in a deep socket which made it temporarily usable.

 

[2KBlackGT]

GL op, you're going to need it. Hopefully they're honest about what happened.

 

[kevin01cobra]

Also the other two rims have chips on the edge of the holes due to my own stupidity(much much smaller) and the chips are filled in with dirt and grime so you can tell they are old. These chips show nothing but sparkling metal and like I said before the other holes on the two rims are free of chips.

 

[Screw-Rice]

Hopefully you have a good manager at the store. Friend worked at one for years and they were pretty quick to resolve these type of issues. He mentioned other stores that would deny and misdirect blame.

 

[twojustins]

Something similar to this happened to me in my 04. Since then (I realize this isn't ideal) but I dont let them mount shit on my vehicle. I'd rather use my daily and make as many trips there I have to just to keep them from bangin my shit up! Good luck op!

 

[clbailey]

Something similar to this happened to me in my 04. Since then (I realize this isn't ideal) but I dont let them mount shit on my vehicle. I'd rather use my daily and make as many trips there I have to just to keep them from bangin my shit up! Good luck op!

Agreed, I dont even let too many of my friends touch my car.

 

[slidai]

Agreed, I dont even let too many of my friends touch my car.

Exactly. This is why I have plastic sleeved sockets for removing lug nuts and I get the stud loose with a breaker bar first, not an impact gun. I then use my 1/2 makita to remove the nut. I do this to all customers cars that have rims and or take care of their car. Too many people in the shop get in trouble for screwing up a rim like this.

 

[dirtyd88]

Damn,

What discount was this? So I can tell my sister to steer clear of it with her car.

 

[99 GT vert]

As an employee of discount tire for the last 5 1/2 years we have replaced or repaired several wheels over the years. My best suggestion would go in calmly and talk to them and if they don't do anything about it which they should ask for the regional corporate office number and bring it up with a regional vp and they will het it fixed for you.

 

[jdh1213]

I have 1" spacers on my back wheels and they put four new NT555's on my car last year with no problems. Even torqued the spacers before mounting the wheels back on the car. Sounds like you found a bad shop.

 

[Zemedici]

Unless you showed the manager the damage WASNT there beforehand, he probably wont do anything. Wouldnt hurt to try, but I wouldnt get your hopes up.

Never know, though the manager may be a stand up guy.

 

[Teal Terminator]

Sorry to hear about your situation, hopefully they take care of it. I made the mistake of letting them mount/balance some new tires I ordered through them for my wife's car. I almost always take the tires up to a place I trust (a performance shop) and let them M/B but the guy gave me a "discount" on the M/B so I let them do it. Long story short is they gouged up the edge of the rim on at least two wheels.

I didn't see it until I got home and the car is 10 years old but I know for a fact where it was messed up was not before I took it into them. The gouges were fresh and I just know b/c I clean the car nearly weekly. The problem is 99% of the population doesn't care about shit like this and will never notice. But folks like us do and it's just a shame they can be so careless. I know it can be done without damaging the rim, I've done it myself and watched many a tire swap done at quality shops where no damage occurs. But at any shop like this they are all about getting people in and out (for their sake and the customers) and taking the time to ensure things like this don't happen just isn't a priority.

In DT's defense, I wrote something similar above in the online survey they emailed me and someone from the store did call me back. They said I could bring my wife's car back in and they would take a look at it. I told him I appreciate the phone call but it wasn't worth the hassle at this point and that most likely I just wouldn't have them M/B tires in the future. To piss me off more though, my wife just told me this past weekend that one of the wheel/tires is vibrating pretty bad and it looks like some of the weights have come off the rim. So now I'm going to have to take the damn thing back in and have them mess with it again anyway! I may just say screw it and take it to the performance shop I usually do and spend the $80 extra I should have spent in the first place to have it done right!

Lessons learned.

 

[wht93gted]

A day late a dollar short, but I never drive my car anywhere to have tires mounted/balanced. I put my car on blocks, and take the wheels & tires there for whatever. This way I don't have to deal with their "policies"...back when I had my fox, BJ's wouldn't mount the gForce T/A KDW because they weren't the factory size OR alternate factory size.

So I went home, brought 4 rims/tires there, and they mounted/balanced the new ones no questions asked.

If you didn't note down the original condition, you're screwed. They ruined 2 of my lug nuts on my truck (it's my DD; my rule of bringing wheels separately doesnt apply ). After like 20 minutes of arguing with the guy, I gave up.

 

[Viking42]

I have had two sets of wheels damaged at two separate Discount Tire locations. First set of wheels were already kinda crappy, so I didn't fight too hard, but the next set were on a Focus with about 15K miles. I could tell they laid two of the wheels down on the face of the wheel and scraped them up. All I ever got out of anyone there was basically "You can't prove we did it, so too bad." Needless to say, I will never have tires mounted or balanced at any Discount Tire location again; on the car, off the car, whatever.

 

[kevin01cobra]

Talked to them this morning. They are sending me to a shop to look at the rims and have them repaired on their dime. I just took it calm and explained how I understand chips happen at these places all the time and that I don't ever worry about the small ones but what happened to my rims was complete negligence. They didn't have any opportunity to deny what they did since the job I was charged for that caused the damage was not even completed.
The whole spacer thing irritates me.

 

[Dominion]

Sounds like all you need is a good rim job.

 

[tnuce10]

Exactly. This is why I have plastic sleeved sockets for removing lug nuts and I get the stud loose with a breaker bar first, not an impact gun. I then use my 1/2 makita to remove the nut. I do this to all customers cars that have rims and or take care of their car. Too many people in the shop get in trouble for screwing up a rim like this.

I have a set of those sockets from Griot's....they are awesome!

 

[Never_Enough]

Something similar to this happened to me in my 04. Since then (I realize this isn't ideal) but I dont let them mount shit on my vehicle. I'd rather use my daily and make as many trips there I have to just to keep them from bangin my shit up! Good luck op!

This is what I do. I always take loose wheels & tires to get M&B. Never take my toy to the shop.