Tire rack has one job

[horse123]

Mounting/balancing tires on wheels and sending them to the cusotmers...

I bought some tires which happened to be directional, had them mounted on cheap steel wheels. They got here today... I have 3 of them mounted in the direction the passenger side rotates, and 1 mounted for the driver's side.

Are they actually serious with this [censored]? THERE'S GIANT ARROWS ACROSS THE WHOLE SIDEWALL THAT SAY DIRECTION OF ROTATION.

 

[robertcope]

Relax. Everyone makes mistakes now and then. I bet you have, too. Tire Rack is awesome 99% of the time. The question now is how are they going to make this right for you; ie, will they pay one of their installers to fix it or not?

robert

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

Originally Posted By: robertcope
Relax. Everyone makes mistakes now and then. I bet you have, too. Tire Rack is awesome 99% of the time. The question now is how are they going to make this right for you; ie, will they pay one of their installers to fix it or not?

robert
That's been a given down through the ages. On the other hand, how do you explain an employee at a tire story not knowing the some tires are directional? Had that happen to me. Not going to purchase tires from that particular vendor again. One out of four mounted incorrectly is a mistake. Not knowing that some tires require a particular mounting is something else.

 

[raytseng]

Well you'd explain it by saying you went to tire rack some virtual place on the internet where you don't know where it is in meat space, instead of local because it's the cheapest. And those saving trickle down to low wages for the employees and most of the money going to that fancy website, advertising, and profit. And if you're only playing low wages you don't get the best of the best, or the most attentive tech.

Do you think a aspiring mechanic envisions a career at tire rack? Even the oil monkey at dreaded jiffy lube will get more satisfaction as he can at least do different tasks every so often and works on a car.

You get what you pay for, its a race to the bottom.

 

[Pop_Rivit]

So what did they say when you contacted them about the error? Or did you jump on a discussion forum and rant about it first, rather than contact them and give them an opportunity to make it right?

Originally Posted By: raytseng
where it is in meat space,


Do I want to know what "meat space" is?

 

[supton]

Stuff happens.

Stuff like this is kinda why you think twice about ordering online. It may be the best price, but if something goes wrong... now you'll spend more time running around fixing the issue than had you spent a few extra bucks shopping local.

Win some, lose some. I bet for $20 and a half hour of time you could have this fixed locally, either a mom&pop shop or Walmart. Might be easier/faster than contacting TR too (although if you have a local TR that would be best, give 'em a chance to fix).

 

[Virtus_Probi]

This happened to me at a local tire shop I actually like a lot...drove off with my new tires (purchased from them) and thought I had bought the worst model in the world. Got an urgent call from them several hours later saying they had found ONE of the tires I had ordered in their warehouse...yup, I had 3 of my tires and 1 of a different model AND SIZE.
That same place mounted Destination LEs on my car instead of my Destination STs...lemme tell ya, these are VERY different tires.
Why did I keep going back?
They were still much better than other places I tried.
Had a slow leaky tire after using another local shop for the first time and they just told me that was the way it was sometimes. I was told later that they probably forgot to wire brush my aluminum wheels.
Tried a big chain after the first debacle mentioned above and they were so busy screwing up somebody else's car (customer kept leaving with it and returning within a few minutes saying there was something wrong) that the line of 4 people I stood in for half an hour made no progress.

When I ordered winter tires on aluminum wheels (which were 1/2 price and I really liked) from TireRack, they arrived in great shape. If my good local shop is within $50-60 of TR including shipping and mounting, they have my business....they were nearly $100 more on my last order, so TR got the tire order and a local repair shop (and TR installer) got about $170 to mount/balance/align.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: horse123
Mounting/balancing tires on wheels and sending them to the cusotmers...

I bought some tires which happened to be directional, had them mounted on cheap steel wheels. They got here today... I have 3 of them mounted in the direction the passenger side rotates, and 1 mounted for the driver's side.

Are they actually serious with this [censored]? THERE'S GIANT ARROWS ACROSS THE WHOLE SIDEWALL THAT SAY DIRECTION OF ROTATION.

I once ordered 4 tires from them in size 195/60/15. They sent me 3 in this size, and 1 in a different size. The tires were sent directly to one of their recommended tire installers. The installer went ahead and installed them, too. I only realized what happened after I noticed a vibration when driving. So, failure at multiple points in the process.

TR has been good about making it right, but it was still an inconvenience.

 

[Virtus_Probi]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete

I once ordered 4 tires from them in size 195/60/15. They sent me 3 in this size, and 1 in a different size. The tires were sent directly to one of their recommended tire installers. The installer went ahead and installed them, too. I only realized what happened after I noticed a vibration when driving. So, failure at multiple points in the process.

TR has been good about making it right, but it was still an inconvenience.


Funny that you posted this immediately after my story about a local indy shop doing basically the same thing with tires ordered from them!!

 

[dparm]

ITT: OP forgets that Tire Rack is staffed by humans that occasionally make mistakes.

 

[DuckRyder]

I'm sure if you call they will make it right. If you can get swapped locally they will probably let you do that and reimburse you....

 

[pottymouth]

Thanks to the Internet, people have become more and more impatient and demanding (often demanding mutually exclusive things.). If you want the best price, it would be folly to think you won't sacrifice something in quality or service.

I'm willing to bet that Tire Rack will bend over backwards to fix this, but it will still inconvenience the OP. Sorry, you choose to save money over a local tire shop and it means that errors are harder to correct. Of course, nothing feels better than trashing a company without even allowing them the good faith opportunity to address your grievance.

Some customers are just not worth having.

 

[69GTX]

The local tire shops I work with will beat any on line price + free delivery and mounting. No reason to buy on line. Tire Rack does a good job in showing the various tires they carry and ranking/rating them.

 

[exranger06]

I find Discount Tire Direct has better pricing, free shipping (unlike Tire Rack), and doesn't charge sales tax (unlike Tire Rack). I also had them mount tires to wheels once before, and they didn't screw it up. Granted, they're non-directional tires, but they did listen to my request about installing the white sideall lettering on the outside and didn't scratch my fancy aftermarket wheels at all. Balance was good too.

 

[Rand]

Tirerack has really good customer service for most issues.

I'm sure they could send you another tire/wheel and have you send that one back.


do the tires have inside and outside ? or just directional?

IF they don't you could also go for $$$ refund and take it somewhere to be remounted..

obviously if they have an inside,outside, and directional that is not an option.

 

[Sayjac]

Hey, son's new Audi Q7 came with directional tires mounted from the factory on the wrong sides, wrong direction. He noticed it, sent me pics and I concurred. Used it to negotiate some free stuff from the dealer along with the tire rotation correction. So worked out for him, but also good he was observant.

Stuff happens. Key is how does Tire Rack responds to make it right.

Never used TR for other than research and price check. DT b&m stores here have always earned my business, and I doubt that will change.

 

[CKN]

The OP has disappeared!

Rant first.....ask questions later!

 

[Andrew1972]

Unfortunately Murphy's law in effect. Especially happening to a reactive person like you.

Unfortunate but my guess they'll arrange a local shop to correct it or have them shipped back. Good luck.

 

[UG_Passat]

Originally Posted By: horse123
Mounting/balancing tires on wheels and sending them to the cusotmers...

I bought some tires which happened to be directional, had them mounted on cheap steel wheels. They got here today... I have 3 of them mounted in the direction the passenger side rotates, and 1 mounted for the driver's side.

Are they actually serious with this [censored]? THERE'S GIANT ARROWS ACROSS THE WHOLE SIDEWALL THAT SAY DIRECTION OF ROTATION.


I don't see anything in your rant about you picking up the phone and calling them to explain the issue and attempt to make things right.

All I see is you [censored] on the forum, and somehow magically, expect a correct tire will magically appear on your car.

 

[stephen9666]

Originally Posted By: 69GTX
The local tire shops I work with will beat any on line price + free delivery and mounting. No reason to buy on line. Tire Rack does a good job in showing the various tires they carry and ranking/rating them.


My experience is that some tire shops will match normal online prices.

But, when you're getting into times that DTD has sales stacked with additional rebates, then you're getting into really low prices that local places can't touch.

In my area we just got Discount Tire retail stores, so it's not an issue for me anymore. They'll meet anything DTD will do. But before DT moved to my area there were real savings to be had by shopping DTD sales and buying online.