Long-ish story, but in the end, I am really pleased with Discount Tire and their satisfaction guarantee (if ever you're not satisfied, please feel free to bring it back).
I bought a set of Pirelli Scorpion Zero A/S Plus in the OEM 20" size for my Flex last Black Friday. They were mounted and balanced at that time, but they were not put on the car because I run a winter set of tires and wheels. I switched them on March 24th of this year and noticed that they vibrated pretty badly. OK, I brought them back to where I bought them and they told me that they were pretty far out of balance. Road Force values were good, they were just balanced wrong.
I still noticed some vibration so I brought them to a different Discount Tire store where they proclaimed that the balance was still off, so they rebalanced them again. This time it worked as they ran really smooth finally.
However, I noticed that these tires vibrated a little when they were cold, and it didn't go away until I had driven a few miles. It happened every time I ran them cold which I had not experienced with two previous sets of Yokohama's or my winter tires. After 800 miles of dissatisfaction I called Discount Tire and said that I wanted to take them up on their guarantee. To my actual surprise, the store manager did not even flinch or hesitate and told me that he would give me a 100% refund on the Pirelli's, even though I bought them last year.
I bucked up and spent a few more dollars and got a set of Michelin's which I swore that I would never buy again, but they run smooth and Discount Tire did a great job Road Forcing and balancing them the first time. They had me in and out in one hour.
I'm not sure what happened at the first store, whether the techs were not trained enough, equipment was not maintained enough, or somebody was having a bad day. Shame too, because the first store is 2 miles from my house and the second is 8 miles further.
I bought a set of Pirelli Scorpion Zero A/S Plus in the OEM 20" size for my Flex last Black Friday. They were mounted and balanced at that time, but they were not put on the car because I run a winter set of tires and wheels. I switched them on March 24th of this year and noticed that they vibrated pretty badly. OK, I brought them back to where I bought them and they told me that they were pretty far out of balance. Road Force values were good, they were just balanced wrong.
I still noticed some vibration so I brought them to a different Discount Tire store where they proclaimed that the balance was still off, so they rebalanced them again. This time it worked as they ran really smooth finally.
However, I noticed that these tires vibrated a little when they were cold, and it didn't go away until I had driven a few miles. It happened every time I ran them cold which I had not experienced with two previous sets of Yokohama's or my winter tires. After 800 miles of dissatisfaction I called Discount Tire and said that I wanted to take them up on their guarantee. To my actual surprise, the store manager did not even flinch or hesitate and told me that he would give me a 100% refund on the Pirelli's, even though I bought them last year.
I bucked up and spent a few more dollars and got a set of Michelin's which I swore that I would never buy again, but they run smooth and Discount Tire did a great job Road Forcing and balancing them the first time. They had me in and out in one hour.
I'm not sure what happened at the first store, whether the techs were not trained enough, equipment was not maintained enough, or somebody was having a bad day. Shame too, because the first store is 2 miles from my house and the second is 8 miles further.