Thumbs Up to Continental Tire and my local Sears

[javacontour]

I woke up last Saturday, the on-call engineer and headed to the Y for a work-out. (No bike ride since I needed to be ready to go.)

I get out of the driveway and the car is not driving right so I pull over. Right rear tire is nearly flat if not completely flat. I pull back up and go to air it up. No-go! The air is coming out as fast I as I put it in. Seems I picked up a nail that went in the tread on the inside edge and then out the sidewall. No repairing this tire.

I've had my Continental ExtremeContact DWS since June so about 6-7K miles on them.

I put the spare on and drive up to Sears where I got them. Mac looks to see if they have any, and they don't. Since oilBabe is out of town with her mom, I simply decide to use her car until Mac can call Continental on Monday to get an adjustment.

One of the perks of Continental tires is the included road hazard the first 2/32nds of tread wear. I think I had used 1/32nd, so I good there. Mac wasn't aware of this, but showing him the PDF of the warranty was sufficient and he handled it. Mac calls them and gets the ok to provide a replacement tire, and one is shipped to his store in 3-5 business days.

Seems the 195-50-16 is a low volume size so there were not many options. I managed to score a steel wheel and picked up a tire to get me off the spare.

Yesterday Mac calls letting me know the tire was in and I got it installed. So it arrives within the window quoted.

I took my wheel with the damaged tire up there last night, dropped it off while I did some shopping. I returned in 45 minutes and picked up the replacement tire. My cost? $17.xx

I wish I could carry a full sized spare in the Protege5, but I'll just keep the other tire at home, ready to go. I figure as hard as it seems to find this size, having a full sized spare in the garage, mounted and ready to go is the next best thing.

Since it seems we only hear about bad service, I thought I'd give a shout-out for good service from both Continental and my local Sears Tire and Auto.

 

[Mr Nice]

Most places would have argued about the PDF.

Good to hear they took care of you. I always hate going to the tire shop.

 

[javacontour]

Had he said otherwise I would have asked him to produce the Continental warranty document. I don't think they had them in the store. They certainly didn't give me a copy when I got the tires in June.

I'm sure he checked with Continental as well. But at least it got him moving in the right direction.

Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
Most places would have argued about the PDF.

Good to hear they took care of you. I always hate going to the tire shop.

 

[Hokiefyd]

I've always had good experience with Sears. Now that I know they price match nearly any price, they may start to get more of my business.

 

[daves87rs]

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
I've always had good experience with Sears. Now that I know they price match nearly any price, they may start to get more of my business.


Nearly any price? Hmm...I wonder what they would match...

 

[javacontour]

The good experience continues. I went in tonight because I had a slow leak in one of the Continental tires. I wanted them to swap it with the Falken I had mounted on the steel wheel and check the valve on my space saver spare.

They were a little busy, but eventually did the job. The bill for swaping over my tire, cleaning up the wheel (the cause of the leak) and changing out the valve on the space saver?

Nada.

So I bought the guys dinner. I picked up a pizza, breadsticks and a 2L of soda.

I too dread going to the tire place because I dread the upsell. But not only no upsell, but no bill.

Hopefully I can make it to late summer/next fall on these tires. After 32-33K The S was disappearing on two of them. One is now the "spare" on the steel wheel.

 

[Rolla07]

Originally Posted By: javacontour
The good experience continues. I went in tonight because I had a slow leak in one of the Continental tires. I wanted them to swap it with the Falken I had mounted on the steel wheel and check the valve on my space saver spare.

They were a little busy, but eventually did the job. The bill for swaping over my tire, cleaning up the wheel (the cause of the leak) and changing out the valve on the space saver?

Nada.

So I bought the guys dinner. I picked up a pizza, breadsticks and a 2L of soda.

I too dread going to the tire place because I dread the upsell. But not only no upsell, but no bill.

Hopefully I can make it to late summer/next fall on these tires. After 32-33K The S was disappearing on two of them. One is now the "spare" on the steel wheel.


Nice of you to buy the guys pizza!! That will allow you to keep getting the good service there, as long as the staff stays the same!!