Bonehead tire "mechanics"

[daves87rs]

Originally Posted By: 92saturnsl2
I haven't seen any Discount Tires in this area... But I travel often enough that I find them. I received impeccable service from discounttiredirect.com, I may have to wait until I come across a DT store for my tire service in the future.



Our local DT's are pretty good....

 

[JustinH]

I do most of the small work on our cars, and I take pride in how they look. We drive paid off cars, the misses drives a 03 pontiac sunfire.

The car has steel wheels and plastic hubcaps.

I took the car in to patch two tires that had screws in them.

Sure enough, the tech broke two of the hub caps, and the tire still leaked.

Its just annoying.

I bought a blackjack kit, and fixed the tire, and torqued all the wheels myself.

 

[CapriRacer]

It might be time for me to wade into the discussion.

On the one side: Busting tires is not an easy job. It's dirty; it's complex; there's lots of bending involved......

As a result, many experienced mechanics don't want to do it, so it becomes an entry level position.

On the other side: Consumers don't want to pay a lot of money for what appears to be a simple straight forward procedure (it isn't!) Plus they want it done quickly.

The last time I mounted a set of tires, it took me 2 hours - and I mean I did everything from driving the car in, taking the tires off, balancing, etc. I followed all the procedures and took my time. If we go by a shop cost of $50 an hour, then each mount cost the shop $25. There was no money to be made doing it the way I was doing it!

So there is a competing set of issues here.

While it should be expected that a consumer should drive out without pieces being damaged, what comes along with that is the amount of money being paid for the service.

And on the other side, the people managing tire busters need to assure that safety procedures are being followed, that care is taken not to damage anything, and that the customer gets what he is paying for.

But on a political note: In our free market system, cost always seems to trump quality - and the only way the quality stays up is if people complain about it. Complaining about the cost of something is counter productive. There is already a mechanism in place to take care of that - and it's called price competition - and it is readily apparent. However, complaints about the quality of the product or service generally result in people taking their business elsewhere - and that isn't as apparent. So if you don't get the service you expect (for the price you are paying), then a complaint is in order.

 

[IndyIan]

Originally Posted By: alreadygone
At my shop we do a LOT of tires/flats for a LOT of people. Most want in and out as quickly as possible with reasonable attention to detail. We still charge $5. to mount, $5. to balance. That doesn't buy a lot of perfection! If you want perfection, you'd better bring it up in advance,,and be willing to pay for it!!!

Actually, I'd prefer the picky-boys just go on down the road,,we're almost allways as busy as the present # of employees can handle.

Also, don't expect a lot of enthuisasm from someone you didn't buy from initally. We're a Tire Rack prefered installer, while we try to do a competemt job of the installation, You're not buying from us, so you've earned no future comps.

Bob

You and your shop sound just like the tire shop I go to. Fast and cheap for people with regular cars and steel wheels. Keep doing what your doing, I for one don't need anything more. If I end up with $2000+ set of rims someday I'll probably take them some where else which saves us both aggravation.

 

[Sayjac]

Originally Posted By: 92saturnsl2
I haven't seen any Discount Tires in this area... But I travel often enough that I find them. I received impeccable service from discounttiredirect.com, I may have to wait until I come across a DT store for my tire service in the future.
Stopped at a DT store today, away from my local store. The assistant manager there went to high school with my son. They move their managers and assistant managers around here quite regularly. Guess I'm sort of a DT nut. I won't buy tires anywhere else now.

When they accidentally broke the center cap (cheap plastic) out of my Nissan alloy wheels, they got me a replacement within a week. Everyone makes mistakes, but if they make it right what more can you ask? That said, they have consistently been the most professional outfit I have dealt with in any area of sales and service after the sale.

 

[MrWideTires]

Surprisingly.. walmart does a decent job with tires.

But this is why I mount, balance, and align my car MYSELF.

My friend has a tire shop, I help him out when it's really busy.. but I can go in there anytime and work on my car, use all his special tools, mounting and balancing machine, take tires, etc.

 

[EricF]

walmart where I'm at is actually pretty good with tires and even oil changes. I stand out on the entryway and watch 'em. they talk more than work, but the work gets done, and they haven't made any rookie mistakes that I've seen.
I got 4 new tires for my van last week, had the blown tire in the back, with my torque wrench, I forgot to hide it.
so the guy got the tires on, and I watched him torque the lugnuts, the whole van was rollin' back & forth. then a 2nd guy got in and drove around the walmart building twice, came back in to the bay and torqued again. OK.. seemed impressive. I get the van and drive out to the parking lot, and proceed to loosen each lugnut and re-torque myself. one of the tire changers comes out to ask what was wrong, and I said, nothing, just making sure things are what I want them to be. so as he was explaining how he was trained, I found 3 lugnuts total that weren't as tight as the others. So I showed him and said it wasn't his fault, but his torque wrench is constantly set for 80+pounds and the tension is always "ON" and never relieved and with all the tires/rotations they do daily the torque wrench they use to me, and in my opinion is no longer accurate because of all the abuse. I told him his TW is as accurate as the $10 asian knockoffs sold at harbor freight!
They even used those torque bars that stop at a specified rating, but as they ran the nuts down with the wrench they were still pushing till the clicker clicked.

 

[Colt45ws]

Yeah that was one of my things when I worked there was people taking the torque sticks and hammering on it with the gun for 10-15 seconds after it stopped. Then they torque it with the brake off so it is rocking and absorbing torque, and after it is done leave it on the floor with it still set. There, we were required to have managers check it as well, so you would have women managers come out and use two hands, usually with their left in the middle of the wrench, which is not what it is calibrated for. I pointed this stuff out as much as I could. Made a little headway. Never did get it across that the 5-75 torque wrench they use on drain plugs is not accurate in the bottom 20%, and therefore using it under about 19ft.lbs. is about useless. Still keeps people from overtorqueing still, but I think there may be a risk of them being too loose, though I never saw it happen.