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[geost]

Sigh. So I woke up to a flat yesterday (Thursday) morning on my right rear tire. No worries I figured. I used my compressor to pump air and drove to America's Tire Co so they could remove the nail. They took my car in and everything went downhill from there.

They had a very hard time separating the tire from the rim. I mean at one point there were three guys working on the tire with metal crowbar type tools trying to separate it. It literally looked like they were beating the hell out of my rim. I watched the ENTIRE time they beat my rim to hell. Finally after all was said and done I knew something wasn't right.

Check out the pics: https://app.box.com/s/ihhq0plmd1ld3udc6mbv

Mind you, I did have minor curb rash as seen in Picture 1. Everything else was done by them. I spoke to the manager and when he looked at the rim right away he said "that was already there. You brought it to us like that." WTF?! The hell I did. In the end I got into a heated argument with the Manager who just kept telling me his machines didn't touch the rim.

I mean, they had my rim mounted upside down and right side up beating the hell out of it with the metal bar. But he completely dismissed everything and just kept saying his machines don't touch the rim.

I've already contacted corporate and submitted a complaint to the BBB. I highly doubt they'll do anything or get my rim replaced. I will NEVER go back to any crap America's Tire Co store ever again.

[skiparock]

I had this happen to me at Walmart (I know...I know). I typed up a demand letter and their insurance replaced all 4 wheels. They don't have the proper equipment to do run flats and didn't bother saying so. See if an attorney friend could write a letter for you, might take 20 minutes and see if their insurance will cover for you with no fight. Good luck

[JesseJames]

Wankers

[NJ Krish]

Wow reading that got me heated. Good luck on what you do, the more proof the better. Should of also taken a video/pics when they were working on it. I do that discretely when I get tires installed. Might sound paranoid but I take a video of the before at the shop with time then an after with time at the shop.

"Oh yea it was there when I got here? let me just look back at the video and see what they did"

[geost]

Well, two weeks later and no response from corporate. BBB is still waiting for a response from them. Disappointing.

[VMRWheels]

Wow, I don't know how I missed this thread. That's horrible! It's kind of hard to believe that they couldn't debead the tire. We mount and balance tires all the time here, and we swap tires for employee cars every so often, and it's never an issue getting a tire off of them. All it takes is one tech with the right equipment to get a tire on or off. Discount Tire/America's Tire is usually pretty good about replacing wheels that they damage. Kind of surprised that the manager denied that any damage to the wheel happened during the dismount, considering he had three employees with pry bars going to town on your wheel. Best of luck with your claim, OP. If you need any assistance, let me know!

Just in case you are curious, or Discount Tire/America's Tire asks, the VB3 is a front mount wheel.

Damn dude...please learn how to park. That thing is curbed to hell

Either way, that's why I avoid tire shops (even good ones) as best I can by plugged flats, etc. myself.

[geost]

No, it was not "curbed to hell" and I'm pretty damn good at parking thanks.

lol @ "clean rash". Over 30% of that one wheel alone in your before picture is curbed up. I would throw up if I ever did that to a rim. That looks way worse than the couple of ~1/2" marks they ended up adding. It would probably cost more to fix the damage you did over what they did anyway...whole lot'a curb feeling going on there. Sad face

[sd_luis]

Im not judging, but it looks like you have stretchies. Am I be wrong, but if you do that's a problem you will always have, you have to go to a tire shop that specializes on those. I went to a local tire shop to replace a tire, and when I left air was leaking really bad so i went back and they destroy the beads, at first they tried to blame it on the stretchies and I told them thag they should have telle they dont service those. So the manager gave me the money of the tires worth and I went to a specialized place. Hopefully you get response from BBB they are somewhat helpful its a 50/50 lol

[geost]

Originally Posted by FCobra94

lol @ "clean rash". Over 30% of that one wheel alone in your before picture is curbed up. I would throw up if I ever did that to a rim. That looks way worse than the couple of ~1/2" marks they ended up adding. It would probably cost more to fix the damage you did over what they did anyway...whole lot'a curb feeling going on there. Sad face

Listen, I don't know what your problem is coming in here trying to stir things up. What's it to you anyway and is it even necessary?

First, you haven't seen the wheel in person and I guarantee you the "clean rash" that was there prior to this didn't look as bad as in the pics. Believe it or not it blended in a little due to the color of the wheel. Looking at it 5 feet away and you wouldn't be able to tell until you're eye balling the wheel.

Second, yes I wanted to "throw up" when the "clean rash" happened initially. I take good care of my vehicles and while it sucked oh well. Would I have it repaired? No way. I'd get a new one instead.

Third, all those other scrapes on top of the "clean rash" were NOT there. All that was damage added by the shop aside from the "couple of ~1/2" marks" which made it look worse than the "clean rash" and guess what...? Yep, I wanted to "throw up" again and then some. Sad face indeed.

Seriously man? There will always be one. You're right. I need to learn how to park and take care of my wheels. You can have the last word.

[geost]

Originally Posted by sd_luis

Im not judging, but it looks like you have stretchies. Am I be wrong, but if you do that's a problem you will always have, you have to go to a tire shop that specializes on those. I went to a local tire shop to replace a tire, and when I left air was leaking really bad so i went back and they destroy the beads, at first they tried to blame it on the stretchies and I told them thag they should have telle they dont service those. So the manager gave me the money of the tires worth and I went to a specialized place. Hopefully you get response from BBB they are somewhat helpful its a 50/50 lol

I have 265/30R19 on a 9.5 wheel. They fit very well not stretched although I did think of going to a 255 wheel before this happened because of the rub I had heh. I hope I get a response too. If not then it's a lesson learned.

Jorge, I'm not exactly sure what you're looking for here. You had a bad experience at 1 America's Tire Co store out of 1,000 and are now boycotting them altogether? I can guarantee you that most any other chain store would have treated your wheel (beat up or pristine) with just as much care as that place. None of this should come as any big surprise to anyone anymore. At least if you took it to a dealership, they more than likely would have taken better care of it; or at least taken care of you if they screwed up.

If you had posted before going to the tire shop, I'm sure someone would have pointed you towards Safety Seal, Stop & Go International, or even a cheap Slime plug kit as another option of taking care of the problem yourself; that's what these forums are here for. It certainly would have taken a lot less time than having to snap those pics and post them to Box lol We've all been there. It sucks...which is why, as I mentioned above, taking care of these kind of issues yourself can most times avoid the future headache of having someone monkey around with your expensive parts. As you said, lesson learned. Now you just gotta suck it up and find a good place to refinish the wheel and make it look new again. Blessing and a curse.

[geost]

Haha, thanks. I'll admit the picture made me laugh. Three edits in, fourth coming soon? Haha.

Yes I'm going to get it fixed..well, a new one rather and keep this as a spare. I already hit a pot hole and it was a hard hit. Thankfully nothing happened...yet.