mmehtas

I am a loyal customer of Tire Rack. As a matter of fact, I do not think I have purchased a tire from anyone else in the last 20+ years.

I purchased 2 sets of snow tires in October, 2008 - one set with rims for my s550 and a set of Bridgestone Blizzak LM 25 18inch tires only for my wife's E350. Both sets were purchased with the help of Luke.

In April of this year, while changing back to summer tires, the mechanic noticed that one of the tires had an issue and had a manufacturing defect. I spoke to Stacey at Tire Rack who asked me to send in a digital picture. Shortly after that I was asked to send the tire back, and Stacey said they would refund the price of the tire to my credit card. I was happy, although in retrospect I should have just asked for a replacement tire. Unfortunately, I did not; my thinking was that winter was 8 months away and I could always get it later.

Now, it's later. When I called to order the tire, I discovered that the tire was discontinued a while back, and I would now need to buy 4 new tires as one cannot mix and match snow tires on a 4matic car. I pointed out that they should have told me this when I had the one defective tire and the right thing to do would have been to take all 4 tires back if one was defective. After talking with a supervisor, I was offered a 25% discount for 4 new tires. I initially placed the order for the 4 new tires, but canceled a couple hours later as I did not feel that Tire Rack was fair to me when the original defective tire was dealt with. I have since dealt with my tire purchase locally.

Am I expecting too much from Tire Rack? My feeling is that if the tires must be replaced together (since they are discontinued), then if I am sold a defective tire, Tire Rack needed to do right by me.

Luke, is there someone at the corporate level that I can at least express my dissatisfaction with? Could you provide me some contact info? Thanks.

threeMBs

IMHO, you have no one to blame, but yourself. What other tire selling company will refund for a defective winter tire AFTER it was on a car for a season?

I'm also a loyal TR customer over the last 20 or so years - tens of thousands $$ spent (I have many cars at a time, with multiple wheels/tires sets at the same time for each) - IMO no one in the US comes close in pricing and customer support.

There is no reason to vent here for your own mistake - instead of refund, you should have asked for a replacement. I do not know you personally, so do not want to offend you, but the first impression I got while reading your post was old fashion American greed. Its in all of us - I'm not singling you out.

mmehtas

I appreciate your reply, but don't agree with it.

I don't have an issue with Tire Rack refundng for the defective tire. The tire had less than 4000 miles on it (my car is driven a total of 8,000 miles per year), and any tire place should refund a tire that has a manufacturing defect. I have an issue that they did not tell me the tire had been discontinued and that when I needed to replace it, I would have to buy 4 new tires. There was no way for me to know that Bridgestone had discontinued the tire. Had they told me this at the time, I could have at least made a case for taking all 4 tires back (even on a prorated basis) and taking my case up with Bridgestone. It's a lot harder to do this once you've accepted a refund and 8 months have elapsed. I feel let down that the person at Tire Rack knew this, but chose to keep it quiet and close the case with the simple refund of one tire - knowing all the time that I was going to have to replace all 4.


The post was not put here to vent - hopefully it alerts other people who may find themselves in a similar situation. I think I had a stronger argument with Tire Rack had I asked for a replacement tire at that time and was then told they could not sell me one.

Or, perhaps my expectations are too high because I have come to expect a lot more from Tire Rack then the typical internet shop.

threeMBs

Agree.

mmehtas

Which is precisely why the Tire Rack rep withheld the information that this particular tire was discontinued. Hence my beef.

Given a choice to take a replacement now VS take one later, it was a logical choice not to tie up space in my garage for 8 months.

Enough said. Tire Rack's customer service orientation in this particular case was average - not great like I am used to.

Luke@tirerack

We would not intentionally mislead you or withhold information. When we were originally contacted about the defective tire we did not know that the tire in question would be discontinued by the time next winter rolled around. As you said it was 8 months between finding the defective tire and the following winter.

mmehtas

Luke, this is why I am surprised and feel let down. I would have expected Tire Rack to tell me the tire was discontinued.

I first contacted Tire Rack (Stacey Bevington) on 4/1/2010. When I called last week to order the repalcement tire (it's a Bridgestone Blizzak 245/40/R18 LM-25V), I was told it had been discontinue before 4/1.

When I pointed out that I should have been told this back in April, and should have had all 4 tires replaced is when I was offered a 25% discount for new tires. Perhaps Tire Rack was just being generous and trying to keep a customer happy, but the conversation led me to believe that Tire Rack admitted that the tire was discontinued at the time I called about the defective tire, and the discount was being offered to appease me somewhat.

Can you tell me if this information was wrong? When were these tires discontinued?

If they were discontinued before 4/1/2010 (as I was told by Tire Rack last week), then I am sure you will agree that refunding one tire was unfair to me. If it was discontinued after 4/1/2010, then I have no reason to be upset, and in fact it was extremely generous of Tire Rack to offer me a 25% discount.

I will wait for your response.

EDIT: I just called Bridgestone directly and have the official date that these tires were discontinued: July, 2009. So, when I called on April 1, 2010, Tire Rack certainly knew that these tires had been discontinued for over 10 months.

Luke, can you give me the Consumer Affairs office contact info for Tire Rack? Now I definitely feel that I was not treated per the usual high standards of TIre Rack and want to voice my discontent with someone appropriate. Thanks.

Luke@tirerack

The time line looks like this ...

original purchase date was October of 2008

the last of those Blizzak LM25's were shipped to us in May of 2009 and they all were purchased before the end of June of 2009. At that time it was known the tire was being discontinued by the manufacturer.

your problem tire was addressed in April of 2010

December of 2010 you attempted to purchase 1 tire to complete the set but, it was no longer available.

So, when you called in April the tire was long gone but, since winter was over, you didn't need the tire right away and we issued credit for the tire nobody went looking to see if it was still available. So, yes that was an oversight on our behalf. If you want to move forward with what we discussed just let me know.

It was nice taking with you again

mmehtas

Luke - it was really nice of you to dig up my number and call me,

I feel much better having had the conversation with you. Stacey was doing her job and did not actually check to see if the tire was still available - I did not need the tire then and was happy to get a refund. Just unfortunate, but I am happy that there was no intent of misleading me.

My faith in Tire Rack has been restored!

I am still trying to find a left over tire (or a used one) to avoid having to buy 4 (although it is very nice of Tire Rack to offer me the 25% off). I will get back to you if I am unsuccessful.

Thanks again for your follow-up.

threeMBs

mmehtas,

I am happy that your faith in TTR was restored. After dealing with TTR for all these years, I was sure (without knowing above details) that it had to be something along those lines.

NickZag

Did you have a warranty from tirerack for the tires when you bought them in 10/08?