I dropped off my tire for repair at 3:30 PM. They said it had to be replaced with a screw lodged in what they define as the sidewall (see photo below). I purchased the road hazard package and explained this to the individual manning the automotive department. She gave me attitude so it was not clear if she understood this or not but just told me to sign without explaining to me that the whole vehicle needs to be present to honor this road hazard warranty package which I learned the next day. Mind you I have no spare to bring then the whole vehicle without towing it in at great expense or plugging the tire with slime but I wanted to to maximize the potential for repairing it so got if off the vehicle when a tire pressure sensor alarm notified me of an issue. I purchased four road hazard packages (one for each tire) when these tires were put on so its not like I'm trying to scam them replacing one tire that is not under their package.
This shop honestly needs to change their policy to ask a customer to take a photo of the vehicle jacked up as well as its current milage on the odometer for walk in tire repairs. The photos on iPhones show the date, location, etc. it metadata to accomplish exactly what they need to know for prorating their tire value on the road hazard package replacement tire during shop repairs. It is not rocket science and this meta data is embedded in the photo.
I received a call at 5:50 PM (even though the paperwork showed the replacement tire work was completed by 4:45 that day of drop-off). What took the extra hour for notification? I showed up at 6:15 PM after immediately leaving home and no one was manning the desk even though they the automotive department does not close until 7:00 PM. Twenty five minutes after standing around, two mechanics came Moseying out at 6:40 PM. They called customer service to automotive and had about the same look customers have getting employees to show up at the locked shelves in different departments of the store... I.e. no one showed up. They wanted to charge $75 for the work and said they might be able to ting it up. But when I explained I have the road hazard warranty, they said the paperwork didn't process it that way and they didn't know how to fix the paperwork and had me stand around while they incompetently milled around trying to find a manager until closing at 7 PM and then nonchalantly disappeared. The SOL walk-away maneuver since I was too inconvenient to help.
I picked up the paperwork and took it to customer service up front to complain to a manager who refused to ever show up their either having me wait until 7:20 PM before I finally gave up and left the store... without my tire yet. The customer service rep. told me the manager was finishing up some other details before getting to me. Basically blowing me off once more. I gave up and left when I saw the task of getting a manager to help me was being passed off from peon to peon between their breaks at customer service. Was simply not going to get anywhere on this issue that evening.
I showed up the next day and the same female worker who in-processed the tire gave me attitude when I complained that they have no one working the desk during their listed hours the night before and no one solved my issue at hand with the warranty package seemingly not covering my tire replacement. I also again explained I have the road hazard package once more. She gave me more attitude then I needed so I asked for her manager to make this right. She shrugged rudely and started helping another customer until I gave her a nasty look and said... "now please."
It took another 15 minutes to get this far and manager on staff to finally help. The manager seemed reasonable and prorated my tire value, (I actually gave the store the benefit of the doubt telling them my mileage was at 132,000 miles when my odometer was actually 131,250 but I didn't have the exact milage and knew it was less then 132,000 miles but more then 131,000 miles so I rounded up to be an honest customer. She prorated the value of the tire after much hemming and hawing and explained to me that in the future I need to have the vehicle present for tire repairs or replacement no matter the cost to me to have it tower in or otherwise even though I have my own jack and tire changing equipment.
Ultimately I was charged the prorated price for the tire under the road hazard package after all of this inconvenience. Maybe fair to them... not fair to a customer whose time was so wasted.
Nothing on their in store sign says the vehicle needs to be present to warranty their tires. Too much attitude from their employees, too much fine print on their tire warranty policies, too much incompetence by their employees not manning their station during store hours at great inconvenience to me, and they did the absolute bare minimum in the outcome at cost to me which did not leave this customer happy given how much of my time they wasted. read more