Never have I ever thought that I would go to a corporate tire store and end up having to install my own tire! But that is exactly what happened today. Upon getting a flat tire and putting the spare tire on myself, I arrived at Discount Tire in Howell, MI at 8:00 AM on Thursday morning. The tire had to be ordered and fortunately it came in on Friday. When I showed up to have the tire installed, the worker rolled the tire out to me and said he would throw it in the back. SHOCKED, I said, "You're not going to put it on for me"? His response was that I could park the car and he would get someone to do it. The worker told me to wait in the waiting room. Please note that at no point during the time in which the tire was being ordered did I say I intended to change the tire myself. Why would I go to a corporate tire store if that was my intent?
After an hour went by and I saw my car still sitting in the parking lot with the new tire just sitting on the ground behind it, I realized I was actually going to have to put the tire on myself.
I am not a mechanic whatsoever, and the fact that I was able to put the spare tire on was a miracle in itself. While jacking the car up (in plain view of everyone working in the garage), the jack toppled over and the car fell slowly to the ground. A few minute later another worker appeared asking if I was OK. Of course, I wasn't and told him so. He brought out their professional jack and lifted the car back up and left. I put the new tire on and when he came to retrieve the jack he did double-check the lug nuts and "explained" it was a communication issue. There was absolutely no communication issue on my part. I paid for service that I did not receive. I told him I never thought I would pay a $21.99 installation fee and have to do all the work myself. He said the installation fee was for removing the spare tire and balancing the new tire. I informed him that NOBODY removed a tire and NOBODY balanced anything!
Needless to say I will never return to Discount Tire. No matter how evil I think Belle Tire is, at least they never charged me for something and made me do the work. I have never written a review for a business before but I feel people need to know what to expect if they patronize this company. Imagine finding a place with worse customer service than Comcast. Even as I write this I can't believe any of this actually happened to me today, but it did! read more