One star. I brought my car in at 10am because I had a nail in one of my run flat tires. The…read moreemployee looked at a picture of it, saw the nail, and said it was fixable. They had no appointments open, so he told me to come back at 3pm and that I would be fine driving on it for up to fifty miles until then. I drove less than ten.
When I came back at 3pm, another employee by the name of Luis suddenly said the tire was more damaged than they originally thought and needed a full replacement. He even told me that if I had come in earlier, or driven on it less, it probably would have been fine. That was frustrating to hear, since coming back later was exactly what another employee told me to do in the first place. I pointed out that their advice to wait until 3pm was what caused the extra damage, and asked if I could get a discount because of that. He said it was not their fault, it was the tire manufacturer's fault, and that I should take it up with them after buying the new tire.
Luis: "Well, if we gave everyone a discount, we'd run out of business"
Me: "Aren't you guys a literal Fortune 500 Company"
Luis: "What's a Fortnite 500 Company"
He said they would have to order a new tire, and that he would call me the next day so I could come in and get it installed. He also mentioned that I could probably get a refund from the tire company and maybe even press charges, and that I should take a picture of the tire once it came off.
That call never came. I had to call them twice the following day just to figure out what was going on. When I finally got through the second time, he told me the tire had already arrived, but said I would have to come in another day. I kept pushing back and reminding him that coming in the same day was what had originally been promised to me. After I kept asking, he finally gave in, but made it feel like he was doing me some kind of favor rather than just honoring what he had already told me. I drive for work, so all this back and forth meant missing more work just to deal with this.
Once I finally made it in, I had to remind him myself that I needed to take a picture of the tire once it came off, since he had brought that up the day before. When they removed it, I looked at it myself. There were a few small creases on the side, but nothing that looked like it warranted a full replacement.
I asked what would have happened if they had just patched it instead. He said I most likely would have been fine, but they did not want me to take the risk. He saw I was annoyed by his response and that I bought an unnecessary new tire, so then he switched gears and tried to scare me into continuing the purchase by saying if I went somewhere else and the tire failed, I could end up damaging someone's car or hurting them, and then they could press charges against me. He was really trying to make the point that I should not go anywhere to fix the tire.
I asked for a refund instead. He said it would be a long and arduous process, I called his bluff and told him to go ahead. He pressed one button and said, all done! His spongebob watch went off and he said to himself "Oh boy! 5 PM! Time for din din with the family!" (admittedly wholesome). He then clocked off, removed his costco uniform, put on his youth size 5 Jordan shoe, and left without communicating the status of my car to the rest of his team. I had to ask other employees about my car, and after an hour, I finally got it back.
I waited 30 minutes to get my old tire off, and after asking for the refund, waited another hour to receive my car back and get my old tire put back on, which felt more like punishment for not buying the new tire than an actual wait time.
After exiting and driving pass Luis in the parking lot trying to trick the next punk into letting him hitch hike a ride home, I drove straight to American Tire Co down the street. They looked at the same tire, said it was fine, and patched it for free in a matter of minutes.
Me: "Is it fixable?"
American Tire Co: "What? Is what fixable?"
Me: "The small nail in the tire"
American Tire Co: "Yeah? Why wouldn't it be?"
Me: *Clenches fist* "Luiiiissss....."
I never go out of my way to one star on Yelp, but this experience was frustrating enough that the employee by the name of Luis at the Costco Burbank Tire Center singlehandedly pulled me out of my hate-reviewing retirement just to leave this one star review for the first time 11 years, and honestly, that's pretty astounding, so great job buddy!
