3.8 HTRAC Bent Wheels

[Mark_888]

I'm sure your experience with Discount Tire is very good but I like the proverb from President Reagan " Trust but Verify"..... So I was curious and looked for complaints and found this.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/tires/discount_tires.html
These appear to be franchised store so quality varies with locations... Not a pretty picture

I find your comments to be completely irresponsible. Did you read the complaints?

Here the first 7 in order. My comments in brackets:

1. got here 10 minutes before my appt; only to be told it would be another 45 minutes. It's now been an hour. What's the point of making an appointment. [What does this have to do with quality of the techs?]

2. Would not rotate my daughter's tires. This happened before to my wife. [This is because it is dangerous to put tires with more wear on the rear, and there have been many lawsuits regarding this, so they don't do it]

3. Wheels were put on on Wednesday, back at discount tire with a tire going flat on Saturday. Should have taken a few minutes to fix their mistake (like discount said) but now I've been waiting for 2 hours. [more complaints about how long it takes].

4. Unhappy with Discount Tire business section. It took too long a time to receive a refund. Furthermore, a 'refund' came in as a debit card. An unwanted or unexpected debit ties one to a unknown commercial entity. One's credit rating goes to risk. It would be much better just to issue old fashioned refund checks, like many other businesses. Lastly, recommend buying your tires somewhere else. [This person got their refund, but is complaining that he didn't get a check, but got a debit card? WTF?]

5. After sitting for 1 1/2 hours to have two tires looked at, I left with a flat. Had to stop at shell gas station and get air. Conroe TX I 45 and 336.... Damn sham!!!! [What exactly is he complaining about?]

6. I took tires at 2:30pm for rotation and a tire check up. I looked at the time. It was 7pm and nobody had called or left a message. Now I don't have a vehicle, got to wake up at 4am, and I will have to walk to work. I will buy tires at a more professional company from now on. Thank you for wasting my time. I hope in the future you will be more professional with other customers. Thank you. [not sure what he is complaining about.]

7. On Tuesday, the 30th of June my wife and I went to the Discount Tire store at 2623 S. Market St. in Gilbert, Az. for an appointment to have our tires rotated and balanced on our 2005 Hyundai Tucson. We had purchased these tires about 3 or 4 years ago and were happy with the first transaction so we returned. The young man who waited on us went and checked the tires while we waited inside. On his return we were told that the tires were too worn to rotate. [Another complaint about rotating worn tires]

I don't see a quality problem. Quality sometimes takes time to get it right.

If each of the 900 stores installs tires on 50 cars per day and is open 6 days per week, then that is more than 14 million cars per year they install tires for.

 

[xsolara]

Here the first 7 in order. My comments in brackets:

1. got here 10 minutes before my appt; only to be told it would be another 45 minutes. It's now been an hour. What's the point of making an appointment. [What does this have to do with quality of the techs?]

2. Would not rotate my daughter's tires. This happened before to my wife. [This is because it is dangerous to put tires with more wear on the rear, and there have been many lawsuits regarding this, so they don't do it]

3. Wheels were put on on Wednesday, back at discount tire with a tire going flat on Saturday. Should have taken a few minutes to fix their mistake (like discount said) but now I've been waiting for 2 hours. [more complaints about how long it takes].

4. Unhappy with Discount Tire business section. It took too long a time to receive a refund. Furthermore, a 'refund' came in as a debit card. An unwanted or unexpected debit ties one to a unknown commercial entity. One's credit rating goes to risk. It would be much better just to issue old fashioned refund checks, like many other businesses. Lastly, recommend buying your tires somewhere else. [This person got their refund, but is complaining that he didn't get a check, but got a debit card? WTF?]

5. After sitting for 1 1/2 hours to have two tires looked at, I left with a flat. Had to stop at shell gas station and get air. Conroe TX I 45 and 336.... Damn sham!!!! [What exactly is he complaining about?]

6. I took tires at 2:30pm for rotation and a tire check up. I looked at the time. It was 7pm and nobody had called or left a message. Now I don't have a vehicle, got to wake up at 4am, and I will have to walk to work. I will buy tires at a more professional company from now on. Thank you for wasting my time. I hope in the future you will be more professional with other customers. Thank you. [not sure what he is complaining about.]

7. On Tuesday, the 30th of June my wife and I went to the Discount Tire store at 2623 S. Market St. in Gilbert, Az. for an appointment to have our tires rotated and balanced on our 2005 Hyundai Tucson. We had purchased these tires about 3 or 4 years ago and were happy with the first transaction so we returned. The young man who waited on us went and checked the tires while we waited inside. On his return we were told that the tires were too worn to rotate. [Another complaint about rotating worn tires]

I don't see a quality problem. Quality sometimes takes time to get it right.

If each of the 900 stores installs tires on 50 cars per day and is open 6 days per week, then that is more than 14 million cars per year they install tires for.

I find it interesting that you never like to be challenged...... so you attack

"I find your comments to be completely irresponsible. Did you read the complaints?"

Yes I read only 8 pages of many complaints and a least 95% had to do with poor service and lack of it....not very professional. If they handle customers so poorly I would suspect that their training isn't very good. THEY JUST WANT TO SELL TIRES......... I'm sure that some D.T. franchised owners take pride in their work and have qualified people....but to me a Red Flag is up

 

[shoelessj]

You probably don't know much about Discount Tire. They don't have a bunch of untrained tire installers there. Considering that tires and wheels are pretty much their only business, and they have been in business since 1960, and now have more than 900 stores, I would trust them a lot more than a Hyundai dealer tech who doesn't spend a lot of time mounting tires.

Just to reiterate. As I understand it the poster said that DT had showed him a deformed wheel.. then the determination was made that all four were deformed.. then the supposition that this was a widespread issue with comments made about structural strength of the wheels. Just a far reaching conclusion based upon a visit to DT IMHO.

If DT can find this so readily I would certainly suggest a visit to a Hyundai dealer or most certainly communication to Hyundai with info to solicit their response.

Not suggesting issues could not be found and I applaud the poster for raising the question but a bit premature without further investigation.

 

[ckon]

Just to reiterate. As I understand it the poster said that DT had showed him a deformed wheel.. then the determination was made that all four were deformed.. then the supposition that this was a widespread issue with comments made about structural strength of the wheels. Just a far reaching conclusion based upon a visit to DT IMHO.

If DT can find this so readily I would certainly suggest a visit to a Hyundai dealer or most certainly communication to Hyundai with info to solicit their response.

Not suggesting issues could not be found and I applaud the poster for raising the question but a bit premature without further investigation.

Ahhh, the confusion of on-line communication. The message in my original post has gotten lost in the fray.

I went to DT BECAUSE my car had just returned from it's second stay at a Hyundai dealer (two different ones) being worked on for vibrations. The vibration was worse than when it started.

I went to my DT (who I've been to many times before with minimal problems) because the dealers had been unsuccessful getting the wheels balanced. I expected just a rebalance.

During the visit, the tech called me into the shop to show me the wheel he was working on still mounted to the balance machine. He said it was one of two visibly deformed wheels and we could easily see it wobbling back and forth on the machine. He said the remaining two were also bent, but not nearly as badly. I was very impressed with his diligence and the time he took to write up detailed info on each of the wheels so I could show the paperwork to my dealer.

The most baffling thing about the whole thing is that if the damage is so evident (which it is), why hadn't the dealer discovered and reported it to me after being asked to find the cause of a vibration?

 

[balfor]

That is amazing that all four wheels were bent. If these wheels bend from normal driving forces that would be a major miss by Hyundai and will cost them a fortune. I have to believe something else is going on but let us know what you find.

 

[Mark_888]

I find it interesting that you never like to be challenged...... so you attack

"I find your comments to be completely irresponsible. Did you read the complaints?"

Yes I read only 8 pages of many complaints and a least 95% had to do with poor service and lack of it....not very professional. If they handle customers so poorly I would suspect that their training isn't very good. THEY JUST WANT TO SELL TIRES......... I'm sure that some D.T. franchised owners take pride in their work and have qualified people....but to me a Red Flag is up

If just 1% of their customers in a year have a complaint, then that would be 140,000 complaints. Your definition of poor service is the service taking to long or having to wait. Having the service take too long (per the customer) is not a red flag IMO, it is a sign that:

1. They are very busy and have a lot of customers, most of them return customers.

2. They care more about quality than speed.

About a year ago I took my father's car into get 4 new tires. This Discount Tire rep came out of the store and measured the tread on each tire and insisted the car only needed 2 new tires. I told him to go ahead and put 4 new tires on anyway. I have never found them to be pushy and try to sell something that a customer does not need.

If you want a tire shop that has no wait, and you can get right in, I am sure you can find one. But the prices are either outrageous or the quality is poor.

I personally did not shop at DT the last time I got new tires. I used Costco, which is equally as good IMO.

 

[ckon]

That is amazing that all four wheels were bent. If these wheels bend from normal driving forces that would be a major miss by Hyundai and will cost them a fortune. I have to believe something else is going on but let us know what you find.

Will do. I'm totally baffled, too.