golfproatl

Just a rant but thought I would share.

Walk into local Tire Plus to get a set of Yokohama S-drives put on. Called first, guy says come on and that it should take about 1 1/2 hours to install and align. Fine. Check in, now he says more like 2 hrs. Ok, walk down to sandwich shop, do a little strip mall shopping and manage to kill over an hour.
Walk back to shop and they are just starting to pull the old tires off the car. Not good. Go inside kill about 30 min reading mags. Go outside and see tech balancing one of the tires. Looks like he is on #2. Kill another 30 on cell. Time is 2.25 hours and still no tires on car. Finally tech starts to roll out the two front tires and put them on. After he gets done with the fronts I inspect. First thing I notice is how nice and clean the rim is on the front. Yep, you guessed it, mounted the rear tire on a front rim, which also means that they mounted a rear tire on a front rim!!! I walk into the shop and point out his stupid mistake. Dude looks at me like I got 3 heads. I point out that they are staggered rims. He tries to tell me no. So now my voice level gets pretty loud and the manager comes over. I explain it to him. Tell the guy how pathetic of a mistake it is...something like tire 101 should tell you to separate the fronts from the rears when mounting. I also explain that I'm no dumbass when it comes to cars. He soon realizes that his tech F**** up so he yells at him to fix it. Great, now I got a pissed off tech working on my rims. I then tell the manager that I don't want that guy balancing my tires cause I have no faith in his skills. Manager agrees to do the balance himself.

Ok..so now it's off to alignment. That's where I encounter the next brain surgeon. Guy checks things out and tells me that my front is fine. I walk him over to my old tires and show him how that is not possible. I then explain to him that the rear toe is off and once he fixes that, his equipment will then show the front being off. This guy looks at me like I'm an idiot. So I go back inside and get the manager and ask him to go tell his tech how to freakin align a damn car. Manager goes and looks and tells the tech the same damn thing I did. ARE you freakin' kidding me.

4 HOURS later my car is done!!! I tell the manager how unsatisfied I am and he offers a "sorry about that."

NOW FOR THE FINAL BLOW. I'm all the way to my driveway and reach up to hit the garage door button and notice some black ****** on the visor. I hit the brakes and really take a look. I've got grease all over the A-pillar, the visor, and the headliner. Looking back on it, I remember the alignment "pro" reaching in through the open widow to move the steering wheel. I'm pretty sure he was holding on with the other hand and thus leaving his grease damn hand prints all over the roof of my car

Back in my younger days I would have turned around, hauled *** back to the shop and starting spitting venom and making ridiculous demands about how they are going to buy me a new car or else. But time has taught me a thing or two. I will compose my thoughts, get in touch with the district manager first thing tomorrow and give him a chance to make things right. I really don't see how the cream suede liner can be cleaned free of black grease so I would imagine a new headliner, A-pillar liner, and visor are in my future.

Great day huh?

ChrISF

holy magoo.

were they ASE certified?

HHAHA im just kidding, that sucks to hear though. i would definitely demand new parts cuz cleaning grease from ANY soft surface can be a b**** and rarely turns out clean

good luck man

rdgdawg

I had oil and tire rotation ($128.00- RIDICULOUS) done yesterday at Lexus and Service Manager and I were talking about the best way to clean wheels. He SWEARS by Simple Green for anything.... if you really dilute it, he claims it can clean any grease spots.

Not sure the shop will do it as they may f--- it up worse, maybe give it a shot yourself?

Joeb427

iTrader: (1)

I had the same grease on A-pillar experience.
Some 50-50 diluted Simple Green on a damp towels worked well for me.
The headliner may be tough but I'd give Simple Green a try there too.

dw8787

Be careful trying it yourself until you reach some agreement with the shop. If you make it worse or somehow ruin it, then they could say we could have fixed it before you made it worse and not do anything. If they don't replace it they should at least pay for a professional in the line of work to clean it. I don't see letting them touch it. Then you can decide it you want to try it youself.

That really sucks by the way.

KayGee

I don't want to rub salt in your wounds but that was your first problem. Don't take your Lexus to the same shop that people buy tires for their work vans and pickup trucks. Next time go to Butler Tire. I have been going there for over 6 years and never had a bad experience.


http://www.butlertire.com/

LIS350A

Sorry about your crappy experience. I'm surprised the Manager didn't give you a discount right there. Hope you get something out of this but don't ever use them again!

What are staggered rims? I know our tires are wider in the back, so the rims are wider in the back too? thanks

pisaykotik

18 x 8 for the fronts and 18 x 8.5 for the rears

javyLSU

iTrader: (21)

Man, sorry to hear about your experience! Stories like this make me appreciative of the fact that I have a wheel and tire guy who is an absolute magician, and gives my car the white-glove treatment. I won't take my car to anyone else for anything having to do with wheels or tires. I hope you can find somewhere else to take care of your car!

Javier

Joeb427

iTrader: (1)

I feel the same way.
I have a combo collision and repair shop that treats me the same way.I'm friends with many of the guys there.It's 45 miles away from me but it's worth the trip.
They know how I am with my vehicles.No place but that shop touches my vehicles except for warranty issues.

LIS350A

Thanks. I want to make sure this never happens to me. If some idiot put the rears on the front, what could I look for to know?

Thanks, you guys are better than boyfriends

ne130dy

they owe you some new parts and at least 2 hours of your life back. it sad having people doing that kind of work, when they don't really know what they are doing.

Little E

iTrader: (2)

golfproatl ...what tire place did you go to?

Buds

Wow that sucks man. Hopefully the shop with correct everything (although I highly doubt it).

golfproatl

Yes, you are correct. My first mistake was going to Tires Plus. I can assure you it will be my last time.

This all happened late yesterday afternoon. I went to work this morning and got the car out on the road. All felt fine until I hit 75 mph and then I started feeling some shaking That just adds insult to injury. I think I also forgot to mention that they did not put the center caps back in correctly on three of the rims. They also replaced the nice metal value stem caps with some cheap metal green ones to I guess remind me that they are filled with nitrogen. They look like crap.

Anyway, I spoke with the owner of the store this morning and pretty much let him have it. He did not have much to say other than to bring it to his other store as they have better and newer equipment and he will get them rebalanced and correct the center cap issue. He also told me to take the car to a detailer to clean the grease stains and give him the bill. I told him that I want him to see the stains in person so that if the detailer can't completely remove them, he will be paying Lexus to replace all damaged pieces.
I also told him to be thinking of a number that he plans to reimburse me off my purchase price and that I have a number drawn up already.

I'm looking at another two hours to drive to his "better store" and have the tires rebalanced and realigned. An additional two hours of my time to go to a detailer to have the stains removed, if possible. If not, god only knows how long the lexus dealer will have it if they have to replace the interior pieces. Basically I'm looking over 8 hours of my time to have a set of tires installed, best case scenario.

Unfreakin believable huh? I am going back on Friday and I'll let you know how our face to face meeting turns out.