Ok guys I go thru ALOT of tires so I thought I would share with you just how a typical tire warranty or adjustments are handled using DISCOUNT tire procedures as an example. I post this HERE because no doubt we go thru more tires than most.
First off the LONGEST Tire Road Hazard warranty I am aware of is a 2 year one that is provided by
www.tirerack.com for FREE. DISCOUNT tire bought TIRERACK recently but they DO honor their warranty. The KEY here tho is you must provide them a receipt from TIRERACK for them to honor it.
Typically road hazard coverage covers the tire if you damage it in the shoulder of the tire or the sidewall which is deemed as an unrepairable tire. Typically they will replace the tire BUT they will charge you to mount and balance the new replacement tire and they will also want to put a "tire" certificate on to the new tire (you CAN opt out on the certificate). So basically you can expect to spend 100 dollars for your "FREE" replacement .
Now, road hazard WILL NOT cover a tire that is showing less than 2/32" of tread in ANY part of the tire. So if you are getting low on tread on the inside edges of the tire and you should happen to pick up a nail in the sidewall or shoulder, then THAT is NOT COVERED under this warranty.
Adjustments for the FACTORY provided treadwear warranty (using MICHELIN guidelines) are done in the following manner. Discount Tire has a scanner that will scan the entire width of your tire and it gives then tread depth settings (these are saved and I guess sent to Michelin) across the entire width of the tire. Their guidelines state that the treadwear has to be relatively even across the surface of the tire or no more than 2/32" variance.
So if you have 3/32" on the INSIDE of the tire and 6/32" in the MIDDLE then the treadwear warranty guidelines deem that THAT tire is NOT covered.
In ANY case a tire starting to show chords will NOT be covered.
This all came up again YESTERDAY when I had a tire adjusted due to tire wear . Since I was down to about HALF the original tread depth AND I rotate the tires front to back (square setup) then the COST of the replacement MS 4S was $265.00 instead of $440.00. Since I bought this tire from TIRE RACK originally I had to show invoice from them. Since there WAS NOT any mileage noted at time of purchase from TIRE RACK (there never is) they had to estimate the miles to come up an adjustment calculation.
Having said all this BS, Discount Tire managers CAN make exceptions to these guidelines but they RARELY do because who wants to jeopardize a relatively high paying GIG??? I have found however that there is MORE flexibility on their end if you are a higher volume customer.