I’m always willing to bitch about bad service so when I get good service I try to share too. About 2 years ago they opened a new Discount Tire shop right on my commute to work. They had a sign out on the side of the road that said “Free tire repair.” I passed it daily and sure enough about a month later I wound up with a nail in my tire. I brought it in to them and sure enough, they repaired my tired and charged me nothing. “Hmm,” I thought to myself, when I need tires next I will come here. Fast forward 6 months and I find myself in need of tires. I go to Tire Discount and get a good deal on four new tires. (Good marketing idea, that free tire repair!)
I get emails from them every 5,000 miles to bring my car in for a free tire rotation. I get tire pressure check reminders too.
This past weekend my tire pressure warning light came on and sure enough, I had another nail puncture (lots of construction around here…) I made an online appointment, brought my car in at 8 this morning, and was on my way by 8:30, again with no charge. No attempted up sell. Just great customer service.
The same company is known in California as America’s Tire, and I have the same praise for them. They do all kinds of simple tire services for free, with no hassle at all, and ever since I discovered that I buy all my tires there.
Discount Tire here in Colorado and I have been doing business with them for, around, 20 years. I have never had a problem with the product or the company, and, as stated above, they will do basic stuff for free.
Now, if they would just come back with that '4 tires for $100, all sizes" special, I’d be very happy.
Agreed with all of the above. I’ve bought my last two sets of tires from them, and will likely buy my next set from them. They always seem to be very focused on good customer service.
OK, here I go and burst some bubbles. My friend at work praised the Heck out of the service and customer support that he got at Discount Tire, so I gave them a try. I usually use Big O.
My wife’s Buick had a slow leak in the left front tire. It took three days to loose 10lbs of pressure. I took it off & put the full sized spare on. Early the next morning,I took the tire into Discount for their free repair. They could not get to it until that afternoon, yet there were no other customers in the lobby, OK? After work that day, I picked it up. The next day after work I went to put it on her car & it was flat! It had lost 32 lbs of pressure in 24 hours! They had managed to make it worse!!
The next morning I express my displeasure & dropped it off, since they were very busy, again no visible customers. I pick it up that night. The next afternoon, I went to install it & again it is flat. Rinse & repeat two more times. The last time I insisted that they dip it into their water tank that they use to find leaks, sure enough it is leaking! They again halfheartedly apologized. While I watched, they did fix it this time. As proof, they dipped it again & no more bubbles!
So after four attempts to repair my tire, and after making the leak worse, they finally got it right. My wife was without a full sized spare for over a week. Only after I insisted that they check their repair in front of me did they see the problem. I have no idea as to what they did the first four times, I insisted on watching the fifth time. Did my supervision make them more careful? Or was the fifth time the charm? IDK. Piss poor service.
They did not gain a customer, in fact, I doubt that I will ever use them again! Emergencies excepted, & if I do use them then, I will watch the work being done.
This is a total pain in the butt and I don’t blame you for being unhappy about the situation, but I think it’s safe to say that’s not typical at Discount Tire. There are bad ones out there, I’m sure, but all in all I’ve been impressed.
Once I got some new tires at my local DT and when I got home, I checked the pressure. I forget the specifics, but I definitely remember that at least one of the tires was REALLY low on pressure. I filled it up, but when I got an email asking me about my experience, I passed the story along.
The next day, I got a call from the manager of the store apologizing for the problem. I told him it wasn’t a big deal for me, but some people trust them 100% to get tire pressures correct, and he agreed. Then he sent me a $50 Visa gift card in the mail.
This story sums up my belief that everyone makes mistakes, it’s how the mistake is HANDLED that makes all the difference – the way they handled this will make me go back to that store in the future. In your case, they should have apologized the first time they screwed up and then gone the extra mile to make it right.
America’s Tire Store cross-threaded one of my lug bolts. There could not have been any torque-limiting on their impact wrench since it took several hundred foot-pounds to unscrew.
But they did own up to the error and fixed it even though I only discovered the problem months later, though in a suboptimal way (they just cleaned up the threads with a tap and die). I’d have preferred a rotor replacement but the threads basically looked ok so I can’t complain too much.
I got my tires done a second time with no problems, except that the torquing still wasn’t great. No complaints but not quite 5-star service, either.
We love DT! Have used them for 15 years or so. I even bought some special order tires for a sports car once and got a really good deal. I just wish they did alignments as well as balance & rotate.
IMO the best customer service in America. We have 4 cars, an RV and a trailerable boat, so at any given time we have 24 tires on the ground (and 6 spares). I won’t go anywhere else, period.
After replacing the tires on the pickup, I decided I didn’t like them a week later. All replaced, no questions asked.
After yanking all the tires off the trailer, they discovered an inventory error and were short one of the new tires. Upgraded to more expensive set (of four) at their cost rather than make me wait.
After putting new tires on daughter’s car, we discovered a cracked wheel cover. Replaced at their expense, no questions asked.
I could go on, but you get the point. In 1990, I returned to the Firestone store with a blown tire on my truck (I’d bought the extended warranty on them). They argued and fought and refused to replace it, claiming it showed evidence of extended use while flat (as if I would drive x-country on a flat tire. :rolleyes: ) I told the manager I’d never buy from their stores again, and it’s been 25 years now.
We’ve been using them for years, too. Great service and their prices seem reasonable.
I bought a new (used) car in September and the tires needed replacing. I wavered between getting all-seasons or snow tires (lots of snow here) and finally decided on snows on a Friday night at about 5:30 pm, after I heard 12"-16" of snow was predicted for the following Monday. I needed to drive 200 miles to arrive at a job site by 8 am Monday morning, so I needed snow tires before then.
I called DT and they had the tires I wanted in stock, but they said that all their weekend appointments were booked solid. They told me that if I could get there before 6:00 pm closing time that evening (20 minute drive), I could get them put on, (or I could come on Saturday but I’d have to wait for an opening between appointments, and that could be hours). I made it to DT shortly before 6 and was out the door by 7 pm with my new snow tires on my car. I was very happy.
PS- Snow tires are great. I had all seasons on my old car and the difference with snow tires is astounding. If I only had to commute to the office every day, all seasons would be fine, but I need to drive a lot out-state and interstate in all kinds of weather. Snow tires are worth it!