Kudos to Tire Barn

[Starman2112]

I bought a set of General Altimax RT43s a couple weeks ago for the Camry at Walmart. When I got up to 60-65 mph I was getting a vibration in the steering wheel. Took the car back to WM a few days later to have them balanced again. They told me they would balance again but I probably needed alignment. I knew that was [censored]. So, they "balanced" them again and now the vibration could be felt in the seats as well.

Convinced WM couldn't balance them I took the car to Tire Barn to get them properly balanced or find out if there was another problem (tire out-of-round, etc.) I've bought tires at TB before and never had a problem. About 10 minutes later they gave me my keys and said try it out. Got her out on the highway and up to about 75 - smooth as silk.

Went back to pay them and they said "no charge". When I asked what the problem was they said 3 out of 4 were out of balance. Pretty nice of them to balance tires I didn't buy from them for free. I shook the guy's hand and thanked him. That's how you earn customer loyalty.

 

[SatinSilver]

I had tires installed at Walmart and had to have them redone. A few weeks after they installed them I checked the tire pressure and they were all low. Which wasn't a surprise since the wheel covers were jammed against the air pressure stems. When I returned they acted all huffy puffy with me like I was making it up. The first guy took 25 mins to install them, younger guy. The older guy that redid them took over an hour and did it right. The attitudes went away towards the end when they realized the bad job they did initially. Plus it was a waste of my time.

 

[Starman2112]

Yeah WM won't be installing any more tires for me.

 

[LotI]

My experience is that people buy tires at Wally World once.

You get what you pay for from a local independent.

 

[Eddie]

I have bought 5 sets for my family at my local Walmarts and nothing but excellent service. Ed

 

[Sayjac]

Good to read of good customer service, going the extra mile, should keep you coming back.

As for WM, sounds like one or two things going on, out of calibration balance machine or an untrained or uncaring employee.

 

[ragtoplvr]

Maybe it is just me, but when WM made them buy smocks to wear, with a target on the back, attitudes seemed to get a lot worse.

Rod

 

[Kira]

The "human" in me wants to believe it's a store-by-store thing. I suppose it's because it'd leave a human at the source of good servive and bad....if that makes any sense.

A friend bought tires at one of Connecticut's "Town Fair Tire" shops last week and I went with him.

I will NEVER go to one of them.
1) The upsells for an alignment came as one suggestion and two threats.
2) They hit my friend with a totally bogus $17 per tire fee for replacing valve stems in the name of TPMS.
3) Their selection was highly limited in my friend's size (225-55-18)

And shame on my friend for "having to have tires today" because he didn't really.

I will see if Tire Barn is anywhere near me or my travels. Kira

 

[Mr Nice]

It comes down to the quality of employee.

Some tire techs have zero desire to do a quality job... if it were their tires it would have been balanced properly.

Low paid techs have little pride and incentive to do the job correctly.

 

[sciphi]

It varies by store. I've had excellent service at some WM's, and horrible service at others. IIRC I have a thread on here that details how one WM employee destroyed the expensive OEM hubcaps on my old Buick. At a different WM a few years later, excellent service having tires mounted/balanced.

 

[Sayjac]

Quote:
It varies by store....

Like many retail chains, I believe that to be true and didn't mean to imply with my post the OP's experience is representative of all WMs. Though I don't use WM for tires, I'd think there are some that do a good job. I'd also think though that stores that mostly specialize in tire sales and service would generally speaking, do a more consistent job.

 

[HTSS_TR]

It varies by store for sure, but percentage-wise WM tire service are less satisfactory than let say Discount Tire(America's Tire in So Cal).

I used to buy tires from DTD(Discount Tire Direct) and had it installed at local Walmart.

The installation went smoothly without much problem, but the included lifetime balance/rotation didn't go as I expected.

I had my car there for balance/rotation, I was ahead of several drivers but they were buying new tires so they were served first, it's supposed to be first come first served. I waited almost 3 hours for a simple 15-20 minutes service. After that experience I didn't come back for any service.

Since then I bought tires only from AT and with appointment I can get balance/rotation done in less than 20 minutes.