At about nine o’clock last night, I thought I might go out and get a milkshake. As I pulled down the driveway the right front tire was wobbling badly. I stopped the car and inspected the tire. There was a large bulge, or blister on the sidewall. I ran my hand over the inside sidewall and there was an even larger blister there, about 9×3 inches.
I have had this happen with very old tires and once when I ran off the road and struck a culvert. But, these were new tires, two months old with less than 2,000 miles on them. I bought them at Wal Mart. I didn’t want to mess with it late at night so, I grabbed the yellow envelope marked “Tire Warranty Information” and went back in the house.
One of the irritating things about buying tires is the added costs, excise tax, $5.00 for balancing, and $7.50 for a valve stem, like these things are options. They also try to hit you with $8.00 a tire for “Road Hazard Warranty”. I never go for the warranty because it’s a racket. A true warranty is to protect you if you get a defective product not if you destroy the product. With tires, it is a serious matter. That’s why every tire ad mentions safety.
This is what the warranty section of my reciept says…
Workmanship and Material Warranty:
Every tire we sell is covered by a workmanship and Materials Warranty. This warranty covers defects caused by faulty construction or materials and is offered at no additional charge to the customer.
This morning I put the banal, donut, spare on, drove six blocks and it was flat. I pulled in to a mechanic’s that I had been to before and explained my woes. I asked one of the mechanics to look at the original tire, strut, and spring to see if the damage could have been caused by any of that. He said, “Nope, you just got a bad tire, they should replace it”.
The flat donut would not take air so I rode to Wal Mart on the rim.
I explained the situation and the cashier asked to see my paperwork. She said, “We can’t do anything about this because you didn’t buy the Road Hazard Warranty; we are not replacing any more tires without the Road Hazard Warranty”. I said it didn’t have anything to do with a road hazard; it’s a bad tire. I quoted the warranty above and she said, “I don’t care what it says on the paper, we’re not replacing the tire. We got an e-mail from district, and we’re not doing that anymore”. I pointed out that the info I was quoting was on the actual receipt and that it was written very clearly. She said, “You got a problem with legal then”. I said, “Let me talk to legal”. I was told I could file a complaint and said “no, I want to talk to somebody that’s here”.
She got on the phone and called a manager. After talking to someone she, finally, said she would get a service guy to look at the tire.
I went out with the guy and showed him the tire and he said, “This tire is deformed, you can tell by the wobbly tread wear that it didn’t happen from you hitting anything”. Got that, “deformed”. Service guy goes back in and talks to manager and the cashier tells me, “We will go ahead and replace the tire but you will still have to pay the $5.00 for balancing because you “only” paid for a one-time balance. I said’ “but that was on a deformed tire you sold me”. At this point I really didn’t want to argue.
The more I thought about it, I started to get a little steamed. When I got home, I decided to call the corporation and, for the record, file a complaint. It truly is a safety issue and actually, the company should not only stand behind the product it sells, but consider itself fortunate that there wasn’t tragic results.
So, I spent seventeen minutes on hold listening to Tom Jones. I will say this, the person that I finally talked to was very pleasant and seemed genuinely concerned about how I was treated. I was told that the local store would be contacting me in three to five business days. I have no idea what they will say. I’ll keep you posted though.
Jayne d'Arcy wrote,
I’m glad you caught it. I’m also glad that you complained to corporate. I sometimes embarrass the hell out of hubby because when I get treated badly or something is messed up, I want it dealt with, properly, so no one else has to go what I went through.
Btw, did you ever get a milkshake?
Link | March 16th, 2007 at 9:11 pm