cotton_gin1

Maybe you'll get a kick out of this.

Here's how it all started...

I was heading to work on Monday in my Evo X and the Low Tire Alert came on as soon as I was out of my driveway. I spin around to home so I can re-inflate the low tire only to find a screw head sticking out.
This is the first TPMS monitor I've had so I was glad they worked and I didn't drive on it!

I took the wheel off at lunch and wanted to drop it off at the Ford dealership where my brother-in-law is a mechanic (The Mitsu dealer is an hour away and we don't have any specialty shops around in this small town).
He doesn't want to touch it. He's a good mechanic, but didn't want to have to buy me a new rim if he scratched it. He says to take it to Goodyear; they send Goodyear wheels they don't feel comfortable working on. He also says to ask them to be careful with my expensive wheels.

When I drop it off and do that. Travis, the front man, says he can see they are spendy and acknowledges they'll take care of them.

I'm worried all day because I think these guys are pretty shady mechanics. When I go to pick it up I pay for the repairs and he brings out my wheel with a BRAND NEW... SCRATCH!! Sure enough, my worries came to fruition and I was furious. I pointed out to Travis they damaged my wheel and even took off paint where they scratched it (See pictures).


He claims that was there when I brought it in. I'm thinking - WHAT?!?! This car is only three months old, I don't drive it that hard and I am always in the car if I let anyone drive it. When I took it off I know for a fact there wasn't any damage on it whatsoever (Yes, it is all one word). The receptionist decides to take a look at it and thinks I hit a curb with it. Um, no way. Travis says the black in the scratch tells him that it's been there for a while... He's obviously trying to weasel out of it. Even if I didn't know anything about cars I would be able to tell you since I live on a dirt road there would need to be dust in the scratch if I had caused it. He takes me back to show me the wheel machine and points out there is a plastic tip on it so that wouldn't have done it. I was worried about this and I wasn't going to leave until they replaced what they damaged, but the manager wasn't there and was out until Friday. You know I made an appointment with him!

In the meantime I have the family mechanic examine the damage. He says there is no doubt it was a wheel machine.
You can see how it goes around the lip:


They have had to replace wheels before and that is why they take them to Goodyear. Now he's thinking they aren't going to do that anymore.
I talk to my dad about it and they have never had this happen. They buy all their tires from them. He's knows and has dealt with this manager before so he comes with me on Friday - 8 AM.

The manager says the same thing! He points to another part of the scratch that has vertical marks in it - says if those weren't there he would definitely say it was their wheel machine. He wants to refurbish it and that might take 2 to 3 weeks. I said no... That isn't going to remedy the situation and I want a replacement. He doesn't want to budge.

How are you supposed to get a shop to own up to their mistake? You wait for the receptionist to show up, that's how! She comes in when we are talking and says, "I think they mounted that one upside down." At the time I was going to chew out anyone who butted in. But the manager has a change of heart, goes and looks at it again. "Okay, that was a wheel clamp that did that - no question." He's going to have Travis get me a replacement.

Ha! That will teach ya!
Maybe they should take another look at their business model for the "Patch and Scratch Service"

Hole Patch: $20
New Stock Wheel: Free
Misc Shop Parts: $3
Crushing their Egos: Priceless

/vent

JoeyM3

iTrader: (10)

im assuming these are the stock wheels? you should just have them pay to get all the wheels powedercoated lol. . . .

Kurt

iTrader: (1)

I went through the same thing a two years ago. The place that was putting the tires on my old Lancer left some gouge marks on three of the four wheel when they took the old valve stems out. They ended up replacing the three wheels.

ducker

iTrader: (3)

Ya its totally their fault, and its good they stepped up to pay for the damage.

But u really need to speak up, and say u are concerned about ur expensive wheels getting scratched when u bring the car in. Then they will give the car to a vet not a tire monkey. If u state your case up front to more than one person working at the store u have a much better chance of them taking extra care with ur wheels.

JWA

iTrader: (9)

That sucks, but it could have been worse:

dek0026

is that your lotus jwa?

i had that happen to all four of my wheels at a tires plus. they claimed no fault and that is how the job is done. they didnt replace them nor got any of my or anyone else i know's business

JWA

iTrader: (9)

Thankfully no. That was an EliseTalk member who took his Elise to the local Goodyear store for a new set of tires. He explained the jacking points and left them the manual opened to the specific page, and they still dropped it. In the end it was totaled as the fall damaged the aluminum chassis.

cotton_gin1

Good thoughts, I'll keep those in mind next time.

This is first time something like this has happened to me, but I'm already tired of their shenanigans. Maybe I'll go so far as taking pictures or film of whatever they plan on working on and make them sign a waver to repair or replace any damaged piece. That should make them be careful.

Yeah, I didn't chance their lift vs. my aero kit so I brought them just the wheel/tire.

Correct

Thegame

iTrader: (26)

Put up a fight man. NTB bought me two brand new Enkei's for my VIII when they gouged them up. Same thing as what Kurt said.

DRAGHICI

iTrader: (2)

same thing happened to me about 13 years ago at Sears, i had white wheels and they scratched one of them, i immediately asked for the manager, called the dealer to get a price in his office, two days later i received a check at home to cover the new wheel.

ThunderOZ

iTrader: (26)

Wow shops here always say that work done is at the owners risk... I guess this is why.

xPRimNT

iTrader: (4)

^ How the hell do they get away with that?

How can the owner be responsible for the shops screw ups?

Man.

vvhiteix

iTrader: (10)

yea...i went throw the same thing..i ended up just not paying them for mounting my all season tires.the guy wanted to fight me it was pretty funny. tried to say my car was a piece of sh** scratches all over making it seem like it didnt matter that the scratched my wheels

Asta4125

My buddy had a special anniversary edution supra. It was silver with a custom veilside body kit. It was all molded in the creases so it was seamless. The car was beautiful...one of a kind for sure. Well my buddy isnt a very smart guy, and decided to bring it to sears for an aligment. Well they did the alignment no prob..but when the tech wen to park the car me smacked the bumper into the curb forgeting how low it sat. We come out to see the fiberglass laying on the curb still. They guy of course said that was there before..but he shut up quickly once I picked up the broken piece. They bought him a new bumper and paid for all the labor. But that was all throwin out the window when he got his t76 turbo kit put on. He crashed it into the median on the highway at 120...He is a moran...but his daddy bought him another one...this time its a 6 speed. Good I feel bad for that car....he is by far the worst driver ive ever seen...shouldnt be allowed to own a car like that. He cant drive for sh*t

b1g4l

This exact same thing happened to me. As I was pulling out of the driveway, I got the low tire pressure alert. Had a piece of metal in my tire. Took the tire to get patched and they scratch my wheel exactly like yours. I asked to speak to the manager and he was useless and tried telling me they couldn't have done it because they use plastic blah blah blah. I was like well it wasn't there when I came here.

Is there some sort of scratch repair kit for wheels?