OT: Tires Fucking Plus

[T-Bone]

I got off work this morning and on the drive home, the steering felt a little weird in my Trailblazer. I pulled in my driveway and looked and noticed my front drivers side tire was very low. So I began checking it for the nail or screw or whatever punctured it. I found nothing, but noticed that the valve stem was damaged. I wiggled it and it hissed at me. No biggie... go to the local Tires Plus and have them put in a new valve stem.


Rewind: When I first got this vehicle in November 2005, it had Wrangler ST tires on it and they were horrible in the winter, so I replaced them with Bridgestone Destination LE's. The vehicle had 16,000 miles on it becaue it was a program vehicle, but I got a great deal on it. I also bought the extended warranty that covered it to 100,000 miles. I was told it had a 80+ point inspection on it as well so I was pretty satisfied when I bought it. Summer, 2006, my front tires were worn unevenly, so I went to Tires Plus and got 2 new front ones put back on, as well as rotating the others as well. August 2007, the front tires are very very bad again with the outsides being worn to hell, so I went back in and had them check the vehicle again and they wouldn't touch it. The reading they were getting were that of a vehicle that had been "ditched" or hit a hell of a pothole and were well beyond correctable by their methods.

I went back to the dealership and I was fuming. They checked it and said that it was too far off and asked me if I had ever put it in the ditch or over a curb or worse. I know for a FACT that I've never done that, but I got it with 16,000 miles on it so the person before me possibly did. They checked the history and there was nothing regarding any damage in the past from before I bought it. I then asked them about this 80 some point inspection they supposedly did, and they responded with "well.. a wheel alignment isn't included in that" WTF? A GM certified vehicle inspection doesn't even include a wheel alignment?!?!?!?!?!?!? How the hell can you resell a vehicle without even checking to make sure the frame is straight or the wheel alignment os fucked up? On top of that, the extra warranty I paid for wouldn't cover it either...

So they had a special wheel guy, supposedly the best in the area, do a bang bang job under the truck and when he was done, he found that the passenger side tire/mount is about 1" pushed back from the drivers side. He managed to get both tires pointing 100% the same direction, but that fact still pisses me off. I went back to Tires Plus and got my 2 new tires and I was off...


Back to this morning: The Tires Plus guy comes back out and says there's a problem with my vehicle and they can't fix the valve stem... WTF?!?!? So I went in back and he showed me the INSIDES of my tire tread, they they were bald. How the fuck does that happen? I just had the wheel alignment done! They said they cannot fix the valve stem unless they replace the tire, but by THEIR policy, they'd have to replace BOTH tires, but since my vehicle is 4wd, they'd have to replace all FOUR tires! BULLSHIT!!! Just fix the fucking valvestem! No dice.... So I said fine, put on 2 new tires, but he said that THEIR policy says they'd have to do 4. There's NOTHING WRONG WITH THE BACK FUCKING TIRES!!!!!! They have less than 20,000 miles on them! He said that they're great, if it was on a 2wd vehicle. But... we don't even have 4 of those tires here anyway... Just the cheap ones... That's it.. you lost my business.. get it off the damn rack and out the door....

I went down the street to the Goodyear place that's run by another guy I know, and he said they'd replace the valve stem, but I'd have to sign a release form. No problem... Just get it fixed for now so I can drive it this weekend. I then asked Dana about the 4 tires vs 2 tires thing and he looked at all 4 tires and measured the tread on the back. He said they were just fine and he can order 2 new tires for me, but make sure they were put on the back, and the 2 backs rotated to the front. The 4 tires is just the Tires Plus way of making you spend more money than needed. If the rear tires were bad, he'd understand, but when checking the tread depth, he said it's well within the "just fine" zone. Besides... it's summer and I won't be using my 4wd any time soon anyway. The weird thing is that they checked the wheel alignment again and it's just fine, so why did the insides of those tires wear so badly? SOMETHING is out of whack...

I'm going to go down to my cousins body shop and have him check the frame to make sure it's straight. This is pissing me off to no end. $589 a year on tires not acceptable.

[RedWingFan]

Dude, I feel bad for your troubles, but I gotta be honest reading these stories and rants of yours is great!
Still love the delivery guy one the best though.

[T-Bone]

The Fed Ex guy has been very very nice since then

[larryfromnextdoor]

its a long shot BUT, maybe your spider gears have stuck together because of a previous wreck,,

back in the day, guys used to weld thier spider gears together for a true positive track,,

you couldnt turn much or it would tear up you tires badly.. but since yours is a 4wd, could be..

[T-Bone]

Already checked all that in the last wheel alignment. Everything was good except for the front right wheel being pushed back a little.

[Andrew]

I went down the street to the Goodyear place that's run by another guy I know, and he said they'd replace the valve stem, but I'd have to sign a release form.

Is America completely and utterly run by lawyers???

I'm owed $1000 by a sponsor from MRF and the shit and forms I have had to go thru to get money is fucking ridiculous.

[Andrew]

The Fed Ex guy has been very very nice since then

LOL..sometimes asshole companies need a beat down. You can still be a nice guy that plays it straight but tough.

[conversationpc]

I've gone to Tires Plus many times and never had a problem with them.

[T-Bone]

Me either until now... It was some new guy I'd never seen there before.

[nikki]

Jiffy Lube isn't much better. My sister-in-law sent me this link the other day. The company itself doesn't deal with this situation very well, either.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiCAJ8ULnaI

[Rip Rokken]

LOL..sometimes asshole companies need a beat down. You can still be a nice guy that plays it straight but tough.

T-Bone, now I see why maybe your co-worker waited so long to get tires for his vehicle... haha!

But Andrew brings up a very valid and timely point, because I was going to propose that you and I team up for an Internet show called:

A-HOLE PATROL

Each week, T-Bone (the Sherriff) and Rip Rokken (the Chief Instigator) track down a-holes where they live, and follow their stories thru until some measure of karmic justice is meted out to them, at which point we make GREAT sport of them for the enjoyment of all. We'd be the guys that rolled down the window and pointed and laughed at that jerk in the new Cadillac who ended up scuffing up his ride, or exposed the Tire Plus scam. The chemistry would be the mix of your penchant for extreme WTF?!? reactions mixed with my passion and zeal for shoveling a little more coal into an already dangerous fire for my own amusement. We could rule the Internet!

I'm halfway serious about this... we'd just have to find a way not to get sued into oblivion in the process. Yes, Andrew, America is ruled by lawyers, unfortunately.



Speaking of tire scams, recently I had to replace 2 tires on the front of my 2006 Eclipse (the "Silver Bullet"), and one of them was perfectly good... Firestone didn't offer it back so I asked them if I should keep that tire perhaps as a spare, and he told me it wouldn't be worth it. I didn't want to get my hands dirty that day, else I would have taken it anyway and kept in in my garage for the next time I screwed up a single tire.

[T-Bone]

I didn't really have a problem with the 2 new tires, because it looks like I'll efinatly need them, along with some adjustment to the front end somewhere. My main beef was that they wouldn't fix the damn valve stem so I could at least drive my truck until they would get the tires in. When he said I'd need to buy all 4, that's what really ticked me off. On top of that, Tires Plus does sell used tires as well and I have no doubt that my 2 good rear tires would end up on their used rack and they make anouter $25 of each tire that I paid $3 each for them to dispose of. That's OK... I have the goodyear guy getting me a pair and they'll be in on Monday-Tuesday. First thing I need to do is figureout why they're wearing so fast....