Who are good tire places besides Discount? I scheduled an appointment today to have my tires rotated and balanced at the Discount by my office. Simple job, or at least I thought.

Well, and I guess I shouldn't be surprised, Discount found an issue with one tire and refused to do the balance and rotation. Because my wheels aren't the factory wheels that came on the truck when it rolled off the line (they are factory wheels, just takeoffs and the tires are factory size tires) and had some uneven wear (no sht sherlock, that's why I'm getting them rotated - and I know I'm horrible about it), they couldn't/wouldn't do a simple rotate and balance and instead tried to tell me I need to buy new tires.

That's the second time in a row that Discount (or at least this store) has refused to do any work. Last time was because the DOT stamp on my buggy tires was too old and they refused to swap tires onto a different set of wheels I bought. Never mind that the tires were in near perfect shape - they wouldn't touch them unless I bought new ones. Nope on that nonsense.

I just wanted a simple rotate and balance, never in a million years would I have guessed it would be such a PITA. The work ethic in this country is absolutely gone.

schmellba99 said:

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I just wanted a simple rotate and balance, never in a million years would I have guessed it would be such a PITA. The risk of getting sued by stupid people in this country is absolutely ridiculous.

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Old tires are actually somewhat dangerous to drive on. Really old tires are definitely dangerous to drive on. For buggy tires, not so much, but it's probably a corporate policy that applies across the board.

As for refusing to rotate your tires, have you tried a different Discount Tire location or is it just the one? Safety related to tire wear is somewhat subjective and if you get an over zealous associate or store manager trying to boost their sales numbers you may run into issues with them trying to get you to replace your tires prematurely. That can happen at any tire shop.

Dr. Nefario said:

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Old tires are actually somewhat dangerous to drive on. Really old tires are definitely dangerous to drive on. For buggy tires, not so much, but it's probably a corporate policy that applies across the board.

As for refusing to rotate your tires, have you tried a different Discount Tire location or is it just the one? Safety related to tire wear is somewhat subjective and if you get an over zealous associate or store manager trying to boost their sales numbers you may run into issues with them trying to get you to replace your tires prematurely. That can happen at any tire shop.

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I'm not even bothering with Discount, my time is too valuable to make the appointment, drive in, wait, etc. only to be told that because the tire has some wear on it (shocking that a tire may have some wear!) that they won't even rotate them and instead they think I need to spend $1200 or whatever on a new set.

It's not worth the hastle anymore to me, my time is worth more than that and when it's time to buy new tires, i'll make that call and go buy new tires. Not at a discount though, but somewhere.

I just want my tires rotated and balanced. It shouldn't be this difficult. At least the NTB guy said "Sure! Bring it by this afternoon." So I have that going for me, I guess. But it should have been done already and now I have to take more time out of my day. I've got the redass over this because of the sheer laziness displayed by Discount, and am in a bad mood in general today anyway.

Was a cord or belt showing? Was the tread separated? What was wrong with the one tire?

Lot of liability involved with working on tires, especially for a large, private corporation. Perhaps you actually have an issue and it needs to be addressed on that tire... maybe not though.

555-PINF said:

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schmellba99 said:

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I just wanted a simple rotate and balance, never in a million years would I have guessed it would be such a PITA. The risk of getting sued by stupid people in this country is absolutely ridiculous.

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I think this is probably accurate.

Those guys are going to be swapping tires and doing rotation all day, every day, so I doubt they were being "lazy" and refusing to do yours due to some kind of terrible work ethic. You're going to leave and the next guy is going to come in and they're going to do the same thing they would have done for you.

The guys on the ground would probably love to just do what the (potentially soon to be irate) customer is asking them to do, so for them to not do it is likely because of some internal policy those guys have no control of.

Not suggesting you continue to go there or anything, just saying that in these types of situations the guys who catch hell are rarely the ones who make the decision.

dude, have a snickers

Just because they refuse to let you roll out of their store with a worn/unsafe tire doesn't mean they are lazy. It's a CYA so they don't get sued when someone spins out in the rain after leaving their shop (or whatever).

Go to Firestone, NTB, Walmart, etc, if you don't like their policy.

As far as service, I'll rank DT up there with Southwest as one of my favorite companies to work with. I wish the prices were haggle-free (only able to match best offer elsewhere), but that's not too big of a deal. Dealing with DT, tire warranty refunds, etc, is always very smooth and transparent.

Discount rotates & balances tires for free, even tires not purchased from them. Obviously this isn't community service - they want a chance to sell you tires.

So they said for the current tires (not purchased from them) they weren't comfortable doing the work (for free) this time due to x,y,z factor. Seems fair to me.

Lots of places will mount/rotate/balance tires for $20 cash without even grabbing your name or license plate #. They generally speak Spanish too if that is of importance.

Flaith said:

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dude, have a snickers

Just because they refuse to let your roll out of their store with a worn/unsafe tire doesn't mean they are lazy. It's a CYA so they don't get sued when someone spins out in the rain after leaving their shop (or whatever).

Go to Firestone, NTB, Walmart, etc, if you don't like their policy.

As far as service, I'll rank DT up there with Southwest as one of my favorite companies to work with. I wish the prices were haggle-free (only able to match best offer elsewhere), but that's not too big of a deal. Dealing with DT, tire warranty refunds, etc, is always very smooth and transparent.

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I pretty much agree. I've been doing business with DT since the mid-80s. Probably bought 12-14 sets with them. Maybe more (haven't counted). I will concede there are good stores and not so good stores. The College Station store when I was there (on Texas) was terrible and had people hard to deal with but that's been one of only a few bad experiences with DT over the years. They put the wrong set of tires on my wife's car a while back but they changed them.

Honest question: did your bad mood get the best of you in your dealings with them? By that I mean, did you go in there looking for a fight because of your previous bad experience? That sort of stuff makes all the difference sometimes. I would have no issue telling a store manager of mine to tell a rude customer to go get _____ if he or the staff was treated poorly, regardless of the circumstances.

mosdefn14 said:

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Discount rotates & balances tires for free, even tires not purchased from them. Obviously this isn't community service - they want a chance to sell you tires.

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Discount charges $40 if not purchased through them. Been told that by 2 different stores in the past month.

Dennis Reynolds said:

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mosdefn14 said:

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Discount rotates & balances tires for free, even tires not purchased from them. Obviously this isn't community service - they want a chance to sell you tires.

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Discount charges $40 if not purchased through them. Been told that by 2 different stores in the past month.

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They rotate for free. If you're a long time customer, they'll likely balance for free too (on something like a new vehicle, not something you bought tires from somewhere else). Or maybe I just know the right folks from working there in college…

Mexican tire shop is what you need.

OPee

ETA: Let us get a pic of said poorly worn tire

Discount and Chick-fil-A-

2 of the best run businesses.

You could always go to the place that's painted red and yellow and says "llantas" on the sign out front.

They probably also have a tire snowman built out by the road just so you know what they do there.

ttha_aggie_09 said:

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Was a cord or belt showing? Was the tread separated? What was wrong with the one tire?

Lot of liability involved with working on tires, especially for a large, private corporation. Perhaps you actually have an issue and it needs to be addressed on that tire... maybe not though.

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No, and no. Some outer shoulder wear on the tread on one front tire. Thats it.

Buy your own tire machine? You can get an OK balancer and mounting machine new on eBay for around $2k. Well worth imo to not deal with those issues and swap/balance tires in the comfort of my own shop

Flaith said:

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dude, have a snickers

Just because they refuse to let you roll out of their store with a worn/unsafe tire doesn't mean they are lazy. It's a CYA so they don't get sued when someone spins out in the rain after leaving their shop (or whatever).

Go to Firestone, NTB, Walmart, etc, if you don't like their policy.

As far as service, I'll rank DT up there with Southwest as one of my favorite companies to work with. I wish the prices were haggle-free (only able to match best offer elsewhere), but that's not too big of a deal. Dealing with DT, tire warranty refunds, etc, is always very smooth and transparent.

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1. Tire was not worn
2. Tire was not unsafe

I was literally told that because the wheels werent factory and because there was SOME wear on one tire, they would not rotate them.

I would completely understand if there was belt showing or the tread was gone or there was a bubble or some other issue that legitimately had merit. But that isnt the case.

Here, this is the tire in question. Tell me how this is some problem.

https://instagr.am/p/Ca5abCwuyze

My mood wasnt bad until they made it that way.

Dennis Reynolds said:

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mosdefn14 said:

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Discount rotates & balances tires for free, even tires not purchased from them. Obviously this isn't community service - they want a chance to sell you tires.

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Discount charges $40 if not purchased through them. Been told that by 2 different stores in the past month.

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Yep, and I have zero issues with them charging when not bought there.

Never had a problem with discount. They've rotated, balanced and even repaired tires for me that I didn't purchase from them for free. Literally one of the easiest and best companies I deal with.

Post pics of all your tires in question.

Looks like an alignment wouldn't hurt

I've never had OEM wheels on my car, no issue ever getting rotation/balance performed. That may be just that location/CSR, idk... that's a weird reason

Also, in that picture, the outer wear on that tire looks really bad. Major uneven wear, and I don't think a rotate and balance is going to fix anything.

DT doesn't do alignments, but NTB does. Get one while you're there getting your rotation and balance.

Whats wrong with them is that they're Goodyears ( just joking). You have shoulder wear but nothing that should prevent a rotation.

Whats up with the aftermarket spline lug nuts on the OEM wheels? Did you put those on there as a theft deterrent? Did they mention anything about those during your discussion? Some factory wheels require specific lug nuts, although I am not sure that is the case for these.

mosdefn14 said:

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Looks like an alignment wouldn't hurt

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Yep, have that on the books next week. But heading on the road manana and want to get the rotation and balance done today before I go.

ttha_aggie_09 said:

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Whats wrong with them is that they're Goodyears ( just joking). You have shoulder wear but nothing that should prevent a rotation.

Whats up with the aftermarket spline lug nuts on the OEM wheels? Did you put those on there as a theft deterrent? Did they mention anything about those during your discussion? Some factory wheels require specific lug nuts, although I am not sure that is the case for these.

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Those are factory spline lugnuts.

Had the price not been where it was, I would have gone with different tires. These arent bad, but not ones I will buy again.

Interesting! The more you know...

And I was just giving you crap about the goodyears. They're not terrible tires but not something I would buy brand new and put on a truck/suv,

txyaloo said:

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Buy your own tire machine? You can get an OK balancer and mounting machine new on eBay for around $2k. Well worth imo to not deal with those issues and swap/balance tires in the comfort of my own shop

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No. Just no.

Is the outer tread down to the wear indicator? I've had them turn me away for rotation/balance in my broker days with wear like that on the inside of my lowered civic.

I effing hate tire shops. Walmart is the worst. They declined to patch a fairly new tire for me before because the hole was within 1" of the sidewall. WTF? Other places like try to constantly upsell you on crap you don't need like transmission flushes and cabin air filters. GTFOH. That tire in your pic.... there's no way they shouldn't rotate those for you. I finally found a family owned local tire shop (non-Mexican) near me who will do whatever I ask and that's it. And they're fast. Look around for one of those.

Based on that picture, they should have been able to balance and rotate just fine. Sucks they wouldn't do it.

For the DOT TIN stamp, I can see it getting refused. Tires have a lifespan measured in miles, and also one measured in time. If the stamp says the tire is too old, a shop should consider it as such. Most manufacturers say 6 years is the limit. For tires that get regular use, you typically won't reach that date. It seems petty that Discount would refuse for this reason, but maybe that's the company policy. Maybe it's an aggressive manager trying to drive up sales.

It is a company policy due to safety concerns. There's a reason they'll only add air to a tire if it's mounted or in a cage.

At my old shop, there is an indentation in the 20-25' ceiling from a tire flying up during inflation on the machine.

Never had a problem with Discount Tire. They've always treated me right regardless of location, and more importantly my kid right in CS if they had a tire issue.

Shelton98 said:

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I effing hate tire shops. Walmart is the worst. They declined to patch a fairly new tire for me before because the hole was within 1" of the sidewall. WTF? Other places like try to constantly upsell you on crap you don't need like transmission flushes and cabin air filters. GTFOH. That tire in your pic.... there's no way they shouldn't rotate those for you. I finally found a family owned local tire shop (non-Mexican) near me who will do whatever I ask and that's it. And they're fast. Look around for one of those.

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I plug at home, don't have to remove wheel and it takes 15 minutes.

Do not go to the discount on shaver in Pasadena. Go see Rubio instead. He is on Spencer. His is the spot with the beer bottles piling up and the fighting roosters in the back. Make sure he balances then cause sometimes he forgets.