I'm boycotting Tire Rack
 

To Moderators,

I don't know if this message violates the rules or not. I am just relaying my experience lately with Tire Rack. I have exhausted all other means of communicating with Tire Rack: multiple phone calls with their service departments (including the manager Penny), and multiple emails (all of which went unanswered).

I am not bashing a vendor. I am simply relaying my experience as I feel the level of service with Tire Rack has deteriorated lately. I have no problems with them other than the warehouse and the service department. I still think they are a great vendor, and provide great information and sponsorship (especially Neal) for the EvoM community.
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For reference, in 2005 alone I bought the following from Tire Rack:

* 5 Kumho ECSTA 711 in 225/50-16 (replaced 1 blowout)
* 4 Sumitomo HTR Z in 234/45-17
* 4 Nissan 15x6 steel wheels
* 4 Sumitomo HTR 200 in 205/60-15
* 4 Honda 14x5.5 steel wheels
* 4 Kumho Touring Plus 732 in 195/60-14
* 4 Toyota 14x5.5 steel wheels
* 4 Kumho Powerstar 758 in 195/70-14
* 4 Kosei K1 Racing 15x7 +38
* 4 Kumho ASX in 205/50-15
* 4 Kosei K1 Racing 15x7 +38
* 4 Yokohama AVID H4S in 195/60-15
* 2 Brembo solid front brake rotors for a 1994 Nissan Altima
* 2 Brembo solid rear brake rotors for a 1990 Nissan 240SX
* 2 Brembo solid front brake rotors for a 1991 Nissan Sentra SE-R w/ ABS
* 2 Brembo solid rear brake rotors for a 1991 Nissan Sentra SE-R w/ ABS

I do most of my orders online. The previous 2 orders for the Nissan I received the wrong lug nuts. Nissan lugs are 1.25 pitch. They sent me 1.5 pitch. No problem. I called and within a week I got the right lug nuts.

I phoned my last order for the Civic and ordered a set of Kosei K1 Racing. They said it was on back order, but ended up shipping out a little early to their credit. When the wheels got there, 2 wheels were 5 lugs and 2 were 4 lugs, as shown below in the picture.

I called immediately and the rep was very hostile towards me. She questioned whether or not I knew about wheels, and that I should try to mount it to see if it fits. Um, obviously I can count. 5 lug wheels won't fit a Civic!

So after a while she promised to ship out new ones. I made sure and double checked with her that since I had directional tyres, the 2 wrong wheels had 2 tyres mounted for the left side of the car. Please please please mount the replacement tyres for the left side.

So to their credit, the tyres miraculously showed up 2 weeks ahead of schedule. I looked at it, and one tyre was mounted for the left and one for the right. I was very upset because I had confirmed with the rep multiple times to make sure this would not happen.

I called them again, and I was put through the service manager. She was very hostile towards me. I told her to pull up my order history and she saw that list above. I told her that I support Tire Rack wholeheartedly, and I did everything they asked me to do and I still do not have tyres on my car after 1 month, and it's snowing in 2 days.

She again was very hostile, and told me that I should NOT, repeat, NOT, rely on Tire Rack for my wheels and tyres to get there on time and in good conditions. She also said that the warehouse workers occasionally make mistakes, and as long as people fill orders there will be mistakes.

I understand, but I would have appreciated a little more courtesy. I know I don't move quite as much inventory as a retail store would, but for an individual person that's a load of stuff. I've ordered more in recent years as well.

She offered to have a local Tire Rack installer flip the tyre, and they would credit the balance to my credit card. The only problem is that since it snowed here recently, every Tire Rack installer within the 20 mile radius is booked up for weeks at a time.

So now there's snow on the ground, I have one tyre that's mounted backward, I had to send the other 2 back (they did offer a $75 credit), I still can't get an appointment with an installer, and I'm left with a really bad taste in my mouth with the Tire Rack service staff. I honestly did not expect that type of hostility for all the inventory I moved through them.


So as of right now I have no choice but to source through somebody else. I even told them that I'm about to put in a huge order for race tyres, but she said she did not care and I should do as I see fit. She said there's nothing they can do for me, and made no mention of trying to keep me as a customer.

Can somebody recommend a good online store that sells the same stuff as Tire Rack, and hopefully has slightly better service? :(


http://g6civcx.angryhosting.com/random/WrongWheels.jpg

Boo, horible service for such a great customer

I've had nothing but great service with http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/home.do

Not as big as tirerack, but they still have a good selection. I've bought 4 sets of tires from them in the past year and haven't had a wrong order yet and have received all orders within a week from ordering.

I hate to hear this. Tire Rack has been good to me for 20+ sets of tires over the past 15 years or so with nothing but excellent service. They recently sold out to an investment company. I hope they don't go downhill:(

Last time I checked this was a EVO Tires/Wheels/Suspension.
But since I believe Neal would like an opportunity to see this and respond I will not move it to other cars for now.

I'm surprised also. Always great service from them.

Wow I didn't know they had a customer service like that.. that sucks man..

with all the money you spent on this company, i'll send you a free tire just to keep you as a customer. that is... if i'm the manager.
i'll say (censored) them and take your business somewhere else and never come back.

Wow man thats BS - not the way to be treated by anyone especially after the immense amount of business and being a loyal customer.

Doesnt sound like TR to me just because Ive had such positive experiences. However I guess it all depends! Weird you got 2 hostile females on the phone right after another....

I apologize that we did not offer the level of assistance we should have. It also saddens me to hear things like this. I would like to look into this further and see how I can help. Our sales and customer service managers also wish to look into this. We would like to find a way to help you and avoid situations such as these in the future. Please contact me with your order information. You can phone me directly at 1-877-522-8473 ext 624, or pm me your contact information and I'll call you.

Yeah, good luck.

Worst case, they'll send you a shiny flashlight for compensation.

i've had good service from Tire Rack for the past 3 years, but that's also cause my pops is a dealer for them, so all my shipments are just picked up at their shop.

I'm sorry to hear about this, man.

Right on, Neal! That's good to see. {thumbup}

Well at least Neal is on here taking responsibility for the situation. It is totally unreasonable for them to treat a client with your order history in that manner, let alone any customer. The problem with large companies is that there are some bad apples who just don't care. I know that if I ever had a problem with an order, Neal would take care of it. In fact, any order I place with them I go thru Neal.

On a side note, Neal has helped with tire info and pricing even if I am ordering thru him or not. Hopefully this all gets worked out in a positive way, good luck.

It is unreasonable to treat ANY client with that kind of attitude no matter what their order history is. I've ordered unmounted tires through Tire Rack before and haven't had any problems.

Unfortunately in a world of cost cutting and slim profit margins, customer service usually is usually the first thing to go. Look at Wal Mart - every time I go there it is the worst customer experience ever, shelves in disarray, huge crowds of people fighting over items, unhelpful staff... but hey the stuff is cheap.