the BIG O TIRES SCREWUP

[Atlantic Blue]

Hey everyone, I need to tell as many as possible about the grand screw up from big o tire stores as possible.
I took my Cobra to these clowns the first week of December 09 to have my winter tires and rims installed on the car. I left the car there , and about an hour later the guy at the front desk called me to say that the NUTS were stripped and they couldn't get them off without breaking the studs. This is the same store that put those summer wheels and tires on last May.
About 4 hours later they called and said it was done!
When I went to pay the pre-stated amount for the job which was $30.00, the bill was now $78.27. They broke 2 other studs off, and used my spare nuts in the trunk to finish the job.
I told them last May that I didn't want them running up the nuts onto the new wheels with the air wrench, and that I wanted them to tighten the Nuts per the print-out from my car manual. Obviously the didn't do it that way. The nuts had to have been torqued to at least 150 lbs/per/ sq/inch in order to ruin the studs per the service manager at Local Ford store "O'Mera Ford"!
At any rate I refused to pay this extortion and wanted the bill at $30.00, which they wouldn't do. The sales guy finally relented after at least 15 minutes of us arguing over the cost, but would not come down lower than $42.86, which he said was his cost for the studs.
My beef is, that if they had done the job correctly the first time, the studs and nuts would not have needed to be broken off to remove the wheels.
After more push and shove the guy wouldn't let me have my keys to my car till I paid the extra $12.86. I figured to hell with them, paid it and left. I have since then taken the complaint to their company, and never heard a word from them. Then I took it too the "Better Business Bureau", and they sent BIG O a letter, and as of today the BBB still haven't heard back from BIG O!

I am letting you all know what chicken shits that BIG O is. If you do business with them BE VERY CAREFUL!
Sorry about the length of this, but I just want everyone know the jerks are amongst us!:cuss::cuss::cuss::cuss::cuss::cuss::cuss::cuss:

 

[94venomV8]

I am not saying your in the wrong, but there are alot of things that can contribute to the lug nuts being tight on there (rust, corrosion, excessive heat) So you never know. This is why I do my own work on my car and something as simple as changing wheels on your car, you could of saved that $30 and seen for yourself if they came off. That way you know that if they ended up saying they were stripped that they did the damage.

 

[BITDIFFERENTSVT]

Wouldnt have had that issue if you would have done it yourself......
Then you know it was right. But if you had to have the tires mounted to the rims then $30 is a good deal. I usually go to Wal-mart to switch out tires (they let me use their machine and do it myself) and even without it I think its $7 per wheel/ tire as apposed to others who charge $25-$35 per wheel/ tire.

Went in to have 4 tires taken off of 4 wheels, and switched with 4 other wheel/ tires (dismount, mount/ balance 8 wheels/ tires total.... Big O, and Ken Towery's wanted roughly $200 to do it.

Wally world did it all for $34.

Cant beat that.

+ we have a brand new flagship store around here that has all new equipment and nice clean poly braces to make sure it doesnt scratch up my equipment

 

[Erick]

After getting new tires, Discount Tire torqued my wheels down so tight, I snapped the key to my wheel locks breaking them loose. Discount stood behind their work, broke off all the locks and gave me new locks free of charge.

 

[006]

This is why I never leave my car when getting an alignment, tires or jobs that require a shop to do it. This way if they're about to do something ****ed up, I'll intervene immediately.

All other work on my car is done by me.

 

[Tabres]

Just playing Devil's Advocate here - May to December is a long time. For all they know, you or anyone else could have had the wheels off and back on and it could have been no fault of their own as to why the lugs were stripped...

I can appreciate why you're frustrated though. Just be glad it was only an extra ~$12 and learn from this experience.

 

[gq916]

i feel your pain. I think we need to be careful everywhere we take our car. Some shops are just horrible and some are out to make money any way they can.

 

[crash549]

just hope they didn't do the same thing again. that would suck!

 

[cobraman1024]

I forget what the name of the place was but back when I first bought my '95 Cobra I had to have the Virginia safety inspection done on it. Not only did they charge me too much for it but they also cross-threaded two of the lugnuts back onto the stud. I found this out by driving the car home immediately following the inspection so that I could remove the wheel and replace the fuel filler neck gasket. Two of the lugnuts broke off in my hand. The guy I bought the car from recommended the place--and the specific person for the inspection.......He also had done a few other douchebag things concerning the car so I wouldn't doubt the lugnuts were intentional.
A different place didn't tighten the lugnuts enough and one of the wheels almost came off the car while I was driving. I pulled over and tightened it with my breaker bar and socket that I keep for spare tire changes.

 

[Nitrous SSC]

Big-0's are all over in Utah. I worked at one for 4 months and was fired because I took to much time properly cleaning hub/surface area's and torquing wheels. They wanted us to just "airgun" the nuts on.

I hate most tire shops period. They treat your car like crap and don't give a shit.

 

[Cookieman00x]

Could be worse.

They could have put your keyed lugnut socket on the impact gun and stripped it, only to change your gears by pulling the axels with the wheels still attached and say, sucks for you we cant get your lugnuts off.

 

[crash549]

i waited almost 6 hours to get an alignment and then they said they couldn't align my car and still charged me for putting it on the lift. i was really pissed.

 

[cobra916]

all shops suck.. they dont care.. always keep an eye on them..

 

[fast_lane]

This is why I learned how to do most of the work on my own car. Most shops (IMP) don't do the best work. The shop pays the Mechanic so much per hour, and the Mechanic has only so much time to do the job.

Some Mechanic's can do a great job in that same time, but those are far and few.

 

[crash549]

i'm getting best buy to put my viper alarm in. i'm pretty nervous. the guy i talked to had no clue about alarms. hopefully the installer is better qualified.

 

[bobbys97r]

Discount stood behind their work, broke off all the locks and gave me new locks free of charge.

this is why I like discount. They have also given me really good deals on preordered tires that people didnt come pick up.

 

[Goindeafonmtx]

Just playing Devil's Advocate here - May to December is a long time. For all they know, you or anyone else could have had the wheels off and back on and it could have been no fault of their own as to why the lugs were stripped...

I can appreciate why you're frustrated though. Just be glad it was only an extra ~$12 and learn from this experience.

You are logically correct and that is exactly what the business is thinking. But a business who wants their customers to come back, the shop will eat it. Also the shop should not have continued with the work without customer approval.

FWIW, our shop charges $45 per stud replaced, with each additional stud on the same axle at $5 a stud.

i waited almost 6 hours to get an alignment and then they said they couldn't align my car and still charged me for putting it on the lift. i was really pissed.

What is the name of the shop? Is it a national chain?

 

[Atlantic Blue]

I am not saying your in the wrong, but there are alot of things that can contribute to the lug nuts being tight on there (rust, corrosion, excessive heat) So you never know. This is why I do my own work on my car and something as simple as changing wheels on your car, you could of saved that $30 and seen for yourself if they came off. That way you know that if they ended up saying they were stripped that they did the damage.

I appreciate everyone's words, Big O is the co. that put the tires and rims on last spring, and they overtightned the nuts, or they stripped the studs. I wouldn't have taken the car back to them to change the wheels except, that due to the fact that due to my health problems and age I am not able to do allot of the things I used to do, including working on my car.
I used to be an auto mechanic way back in the 70's after being in the Army, and believe me I don't want to be grubbing around trying to work on my car, so I have to rely on someone else to do it for me.

 

[94venomV8]

I appreciate everyone's words, Big O is the co. that put the tires and rims on last spring, and they overtightned the nuts, or they stripped the studs. I wouldn't have taken the car back to them to change the wheels except, that due to the fact that due to my health problems and age I am not able to do allot of the things I used to do, including working on my car.
I used to be an auto mechanic way back in the 70's after being in the Army, and believe me I don't want to be grubbing around trying to work on my car, so I have to rely on someone else to do it for me.

I can respect that and feel bad but like the others have said count your blessing and be happy that it was only $12.

And Crash, Here was the last and only experience I have had with Best Buy installing something on my car (Not current car but my 92 GT back in high school). I went there to get a CD player installed as the one I bought came with free install otherwise I would of done it myself. So I asked if I could drive my car in and of course no way against there policy. So I said ok but I didnt feel comfortable and opted to sit outside in my buddies car for the whole install. And I couldnt be happier that I did because they came and got my car from the front of the store and had a idiot drive it around back, as he went along the side of the building he decided to do a brake stand on my car then decided to drop the clutch and take off down the side of the building!

I ran into the store and back to the install dept. and told them what I just witnessed they didnt believe me so I had the manager go out and first feel the tires which were still warm and then had him look at the 50 ft long black marks on the side of the building. I told them I wanted new back tires and that if anything happened with a week of that incident (ie motor, trans, rearend) they would pay for it. They did not agree with them paying for any problem but I did get new tires and also a best buy gift card for $50. Also they assured me the employee would be let go.

I will never take my car anywhere ever again. I was going to have someone re-tint my windows and bring it somewhere but opted to have an employee of the local shop tint them on the side in my garage. Like it 10X better that way. That is just my experience and I am not saying all Best Buys suck or anything.