Wow what a place. One of the worst customer experiences I've ever had in my life on every level. I see lots of good reviews and I was even referred to this place by a friend, but me and my friend will never come back.
I paid to have 4 tires replaced. I come back 38 days later (over their warranty period) but only 20 miles later (should not be any issue for mileage), so I figure Bud would try to help a customer out who spent over $200 at his place so recently and only drove 20 miles even if he doesn't give a refund or give me a new tire. Turns out the tire itself was fine, but the valve was bad. Alright, that's not so bad, but I figured they should have noticed that 38 days ago when they swapped out all 4 tires. I'm not saying they needed to be dramatic, but they could have at least mentioned that the valves were acting a little weird or seemed a little weak. It should have shown up in the bubble test when they submerge it in water, so I'm assuming they just didn't do the test on the tires again after they put the new ones on the rims. But I'm told it's a $15 charge to get a new valve on there, so I say it's fine because I don't want to break anyone's back over $15. They replace the valve and I pay the $15 and then someone comes in to tell me they noticed the back tire was low on air so they're going to fill it up for me. Now if I had just stumbled into the shop and hadn't checked the tires earlier in the day I would've thought nothing of it, but I had just checked all 4 tires before coming in. It may have been at 25 psi but it was not dangerously low. Visibly it looked properly inflated or inflated enough that it didn't matter. But all of this would have just been good customer service if that was it. But right after I'm told this, a worker comes in with my valve in his hand. Apparently it broke off when they went to fill it. Now this $15 fix for a set of 4 20-mile old tires is turning into $30. And for what? Because they couldn't even check the valves the last time I was in? So I tell them that I never even asked them to touch that tire and I actually didn't want them to touch that tire at all. Bud I assume realizes at this point since I'm visibly upset that I don't want to pay so before I even say I won't pay or anything he tells the guy to put on a new valve for free. This seems fair and I'm cool with it. And once again, at this point there may have been a testing mistake the last time I was here but so far everything's been straight shooting. Until he decides to lecture me about how great of a guy he is and tells me to leave his store. I've been nothing but polite even though I am livid (I even have a recording of him admitting that I was nothing but polite), but I leave as soon as he asks without any hassle. I'm not an idiot. This a shop full of big guys and I'm not going to waste my time arguing over some ego. He then proceeds to follow me out and continue lecturing me about how I need to understand how business works and that it's my fault for the valve breaking. Whatever, this guy is a nutcase and over-the-top rude so I respond enough for him to shut his mouth and leave. He does eventually, and then the two workers come back. The guy who has been working on the car was polite and a great guy the whole time. The other guy however, tells that guy to "don't touch nothing on there" sarcastically. At this point I've realized all but the guy that actually was working on my car aren't right in the head so I just ignore him. And as I hop into my car I hear him say "I hope they all break".
So that's my experience at Bud's. I don't mind a few messups, but I draw the line at anger management issues and I would not feel comfortable with a wife or kids there. I felt threatened and I don't need to be lectured on how to live my life by a used tire business.
Virginia is a single party consent state and I do have video recordings from my phone of the conversations. If someone chooses to deny these claims, I have no problem uploading them to prove what I said was true. read more