Walmart Tire Experience: Never again!
- Thread starter DemoFly
- Start date
I use locally owned shops for tire mounting.
much more than 50 bucks....
Me! Discount Tire used a metal cup shaped clamp to balance my Volvo wheels. I think the gasket on the cup rim was missing and it cut a circle groove into the face of all four alloy wheels.
They bought me four new wheels
Watch the instruction video online for Road Force Balancing and you will always want JUST THAT!
Watch the tech doing it at the shop and you will almost always know that he never saw those instructions.
Last time I got Road Force I asked the Teen Aged tech, “were the numbers good”?…he said,”I don’t know what you are talking about. There are no numbers …I just balance tires”.
Watch the tech doing it at the shop and you will almost always know that he never saw those instructions.
Last time I got Road Force I asked the Teen Aged tech, “were the numbers good”?…he said,”I don’t know what you are talking about. There are no numbers …I just balance tires”.
He probably said the numbers were not good.. I did not win the Powerball...
About $20 more than I'd been paying at the local Discount Tire. $120 was the last I paid as I recall.
Yes, they have hunter equipment in their van. No on the alignment though.
Honestly it's about as much as other tire techs. Even if you go to the dealer, the low man on the totem pole does tires.
There are two variables with a road force balance:
1. The user knowing how to use it.
2. Trying to optimize a bad tire to a perfect rim, or vice versa. The answer is you can’t. A bad tire on a perfect rim will always have poor results.
It’s not a magic balancer, it’s a diagnostic tool.
It's just my experience that WM employees can barely do any job, jobs pay little and nobody is motivated to move a finger.
But if the guy knows the drill…at least you will know WHICH is at fault.
The tire or the wheel.
If not? They just balance the defective pair.
Why do some continue to post gripe threads about the same experiences every one else has over and over gain?
Other posters above-BTW have said the same thing I have.
I don't drink the KOOL AID. But I will take my meds......
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Yes see post #34. Oh I forgot to mention, before they started the job and had my van on the rack, the manager came to me in the waiting area to alert me of a problem I had with my front end. He asked me to go inside with him so he and the tech could show me the problem. Keep in mind the van had passed NYS inspection a few days prior and I checked out the front end during a grease job. I also had the mechanic check it when he did the inspection because I told him I was getting tires and an alignment in a few days. Anyway they pointed to my king pins and informed me my ball joints were bad and needed replacement. I questioned him saying are you sure the ball joints are bad? Yes sir tires and front end work is our specialty, or some other BS reply. Here's where I screwed up. I should have told them not to put tires on it and left. Instead I said do the tires but not the alignment. He questioned why and I said you don't align a front end with bad ball joints, oh and BTW if you're going to try and screw someone at least know the name of the part you're trying to screw the guy for. So never again for them!
First and only WM tire experience I had was with a spare on my truck. I replaced it because of age with one of the cheaper Goodyear tires. I was waiting for well over an hour and I finally went up to ask about it.
The lady went back and looked and it had been done. No idea for how long, but dang guys… one tire.
The lady went back and looked and it had been done. No idea for how long, but dang guys… one tire.
OK, it's pretty much been established over the last 4 pages that Walmart is a roll of the dice, as far as getting new tires installed and balanced properly. So with that said, where is the best outfit to go? Assuming that getting a good job was preferable to chance getting screwed in order to save a few bucks.
Are all of the chain stores like Big-O, Goodyear, Les Schwab, etc. all hit or miss? I have no problem with small local tire joints. But how do you know your're not getting a meth monkey doing the same thing there?
It doesn't require a PHD in mechanical engineering at MIT to replace and balance tires. In short who do, or can you trust?
Are all of the chain stores like Big-O, Goodyear, Les Schwab, etc. all hit or miss? I have no problem with small local tire joints. But how do you know your're not getting a meth monkey doing the same thing there?
It doesn't require a PHD in mechanical engineering at MIT to replace and balance tires. In short who do, or can you trust?
Well it depends, which sort of makes sense when you think about it. These places have hundreds if not thousands of locations.
As for Walmart, I've had very good tire work at some smaller town locations where the employees know many people in their communities and have more of the old school work attitude. Otoh, I've had a couple of aloof and don't give a rap types in other locations. At the end of the day it still seems to be a roll of the dice.
Sadly around here it might require a PHD. The guy who does my NYS inspection is over double the $80 that WMT is asking for the job, the others are charging $35/wheel and are a crap shoot. In my case it might pay to give WMT a shot. Worst case is I have the credit card to dispute the charge if they screw up the job........ Not exactly how I want to do business but on any given day, any of the shops I reached out to can screw up.
