[Ray3768]

Since I intend to drive my new 2SS as a daily here in NJ I have to swap out the factory Goodyear F1's. The car needs to be able to safely operate when the temperature is below 32 deg. F. The car will never see blizzard conditions but it will see some day after the storm conditions like slushy roads.

I loved the Goodyear Eagle Sport AS tires on my old 2012 SS. Those tires are phenomenal all year around and they don't compromise dry performance. Unfortunately the Sport AS are not the correct speed rating for a 6th gen SS. So I decided on Goodyear Eagle Exhilarate, in the stock sizes.

Now for the disaster part. My intention was to have the new tires installed and bring the old tires home so I can sell them. The car had 150 miles on it when it arrived at the shop yesterday. The small, privately owned shop I've been using for >20 years is about 20 minutes from my home. I really didn't want to spend 2.5 hours bringing one original tire home at a time so I decided to try the tire shop that is ~ 8 minutes from my home. They are corporate chain and always busy so I figured they'd be alright. I figured wrong.

I called the shop last Saturday to order the new tires and and schedule an appointment for this Saturday. I was told it would take 1.5 hours to complete the work. So I decided I would wait while the work was being performed. Fast forward to yesterday morning, I asked the shop manager how long it would take she stated that they wouldn't be able to begin working on the the car for at least two hours. So much for 1.5 hours. I ended up leaving the car with them and went home to do some chores.

The car was dropped off at 11:00AM. I receive a call from them at 2:00PM. The manager tells me there is a problem. Great. The problem is they ordered the wrong size for the fronts. Of course they have already removed the factory front tires. It seems that they were training new techs and I guess they forgot to tell them to verify the replacement tire size prior to starting work. The manager stated that she couldn't get the correct front tires until Tuesday and asked me what I want to do. Pretty stupid question, the obvious answer is to put the original tires back on the front wheels and I'll bring the car back next Saturday for the new front tires.

So I get off the phone with her an proceed to have a panic attack over the thought of these idiots working on my new 150 mile car. Unable to take it anymore, my wife an I go to the shop to wait for the car. The rear wheels already had the new tires installed on them and they appeared to be in the process of reinstalling the original front tires on the front wheels. Eventually the fronts are mounted and they are putting all the wheels back on.

Next thing I know, the manager approaches me to say they have yet another problem. It seems the the newbie tire tech managed to install the original 275 rear tires on the front rims because he thought they should match the width of the rear tires. No wonder it was taking so long. They were killing themselves to fit the 275's in 8.5" wheels. You'd think that it would have occurred to the tech that maybe something was not right since it was so difficult to mount the rear tires on the front rims.

They finally get the car done at 4:30PM. At this point I'm pretty pissed and just wanted to get out of there. So I go home and begin to inspect the wheels. They had them covered in greasy tire installation lube so I wiped the wheels down only to discover some bad scratches in three of the wheels and minor scratches on the fourth wheel. No wonder they didn't clean the wheels off. They knew what they had done. I tried some mild polishing compound on the scratches but they are too deep so the wheels are pretty much ruined. Again, these wheels have 150 miles on them and were perfect prior to them working on the car.

I'm going to head back to the shop today and show the manager the scratched wheels. This should be fun. Repaired wheels are not acceptable. I'm going to give her my Chevy salesman's phone number. I want her to order four new wheels at the dealership. I suspect that I'll be told to F-off so this will probably turn into a battle with their corporate office. If they do order me new wheels, I will schedule an appointment at the dealer to have the new wheels installed. I intend to cancel my order for the new front tires and have the other tire shop order them and install them on the scratched wheels next week.

Not real happy right now. Anyone else here deal with a similar shitty situation? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

-Ray

[MT-SS1LE]

There are countless threads like your across the internet. Sounds like they had inexperienced techs and didn't use a touchless tire mounting machine. Most customers probably don't care about the condition of their wheels and they were counting on that. I would demand new wheels since they clearly damaged them. They have insurance to cover this very thing, they need to use it. I know I would be livid as you are. Hope they do right by you.

[Megahurtz]

Please please to everyone. Do not use chain tire shops. They don't give af about anything nice. A good dealer is way better than any chain tire shop. They have the correct tools. The best is to find a privately owned shop where all the race car guys go for their tires.

[Ray3768]

Megahurtz:

As I have sadly learned. I did show up there today and was assertive but gentle. I can be the biggest a-hole you have ever seen right down to cutting personal slights if necessary, but I maintained my cool. The F-word was thrown out there minimally, as in "If you F-ing didn't have a touchless tire machine and couldn't properly service my car, then why didn't you tell me you couldn't service the car? I would have understood and appreciated your honesty.". Anyway, their manager was off today and should be calling me on Monday (tomorrow) morning. If she avoids me, I'll be calling her by 10AM. I gave them my Chevy salesman's direct line and told them to call him to coordinate the purchase of the new wheels.

We'll see how this goes....they put the F-ing rear 275's on the 8.5" front wheels and had to break them down a second time to correct their stupidity!!! What even the F? Sorry, still a bit pissed...

-Ray

[goata8]

Man, I've been there before years back. It sucks, just make sure they know what they did, what you want done, and see if they make good on it (which now reading your last post seems like you have and have been more than reasonable if you ask me.)

A while back when I had my 2017 SS i wanted to get nitto dr's mounted on them. Big chain place right down the road...I call and ask hey will yall mount tires that arent purchased through you as long as their new with stickers and to my surprise the guy says yeah no problem as long as theyre brand new. Ordered them through summit...well anyways take the wheels and tires in the bed of my truck because I figured I'd make it easier on them, and they were appreciative but then the "manager" or someone of the sort gives me this long basically verbal disclaimer, long story short saying they might screw up the rims because theyre "low profile". Probably had some tech who wanted to just make a quick few bucks on an easy job figuring I was just some cheapskate with a pos car needing new tires answer my earlier phone call and this manager guy was like nah i better find a way to chase this dude out of here or at least partially cover my ass in the process. Either way I said thanks but no thanks and fortunately my gf's family's mechanic shop was like oh yeah we can do that no problem and don't worry about us scratching the wheels, and they did a perfect job.

I've also had them mounted on the down low through guys I've bought cars from at the dealership, but some can be iffy about the drag radials for obvious reasons. But just another instance it never hurts to have a good dealership around and maintain a good relationship with them.

[Ray3768]

Well Mavis Tire decided they'd only repair the wheels and not replace them. I guess they didn't like the $3,568 quote from my dealer to replace the wheels. There's no way those morons are touching my car again. No friggin' way. So it's off to see my lawyer.



-Ray

[Spaceme1117]

Love that they were using your brand new car to train new techs on.

Sorry man. This kind of shit pisses me off.

[WhiteMale]

Originally Posted by Ray3768

Well Mavis Tire decided they'd only repair the wheels and not replace them. I guess they didn't like the $3,568 quote from my dealer to replace the wheels. There's no way those morons are touching my car again. No friggin' way. So it's off to see my lawyer.



-Ray

So let's assume that there is a pro wheel guy, because they do exist, what's your problem? If you thought that they should replace four wheels for $3568...I'm not sure who the real A-Hole is in your little story. YOu got reason to be upset, but you're being ridiculous about it. A lawyer?

[ctrlz]

Originally Posted by WhiteMale

A lawyer?

I would probably wait and see how the repair turns out before wasting time with a lawyer.
These chains like Mavis and Pep Boys have convenient locations and hours, but there is a trade-off. Not that there isn't incompetence everywhere.

[Plasar]

Yes, asking for new wheels is unrealistic as they (probably?) did not break the wheels structurally - you just need them refinished to return them to factory looks.

[Ray3768]

WhiteMale:

You know what they say about opinions? I wonder how you would like it resolved if it happened to your ZL1 with 150 miles on it? You'd be cool with a repair? The offer was I take the car to them, the ones who f'd it up in the first place. They remove the wheels and remove the tires/sensors from the wheels. They send the wheels out to a third party for an unspecified amount of time. Then when they get the "repaired" wheels back, the same guys who ruined them in the first place, reinstall the sensors/tires...and probably scratch the crap out of them again. Never mind what they do with the car once the wheels are sent out. They are not clogging up a money making shop bay/lift with it. I'm sure they drop it rotors first on dollys and push it out into the parking lot. Yeah, no thanks. You seem to have a problem with me getting my lawyer involved. I'm all about personal responsibility. The shop is not manning up, they are not taking responsibility for their carelessness. I have professional liability insurance and errors/omissions insurance. If I f'up an MEP design, guess what? My insurance company cuts a check and makes the client whole. I get to pay a higher insurance premium. That simple.

-Ray

[MT-SS1LE]

Originally Posted by Ray3768

WhiteMale:

You know what they say about opinions? I wonder how you would like it resolved if it happened to your ZL1 with 150 miles on it? You'd be cool with a repair? The offer was I take the car to them, the ones who f'd it up in the first place. They remove the wheels and remove the tires/sensors from the wheels. They send the wheels out to a third party for an unspecified amount of time. Then when they get the "repaired" wheels back, the same guys who ruined them in the first place, reinstall the sensors/tires...and probably scratch the crap out of them again. Never mind what they do with the car once the wheels are sent out. They are not clogging up a money making shop bay/lift with it. I'm sure they drop it rotors first on dollys and push it out into the parking lot. Yeah, no thanks. You seem to have a problem with me getting my lawyer involved. I'm all about personal responsibility. The shop is not manning up, they are not taking responsibility for their carelessness. I have professional liability insurance and errors/omissions insurance. If I f'up an MEP design, guess what? My insurance company cuts a check and makes the client whole. I get to pay a higher insurance premium. That simple.

-Ray

Stick to your guns. Shit workmanship is the standard in this country now across all industries. Businesses will continue with subpar quality because too few hold them accountable. Now if you had brought in a car with 50K miles and trashed wheels, that would be a different story. No matter how good the wheel repair guy is, it will not be 100% oem new. Look closely enough and you will notice the repair. If you have ocd like me, that would drive me nuts.

[Ray3768]

MT-SS1LE,


My wife's Malibu Premier was backed into on the rear passenger side and they managed to hit the rear wheel, gouging it up pretty good. Of course the other driver's insurance company was not paying for a new wheel. The car was a few years old and my wife uses her wheels like curb feelers so they all have some curb rash. The wheel damaged in the accident was repaired. It looked better than the other three wheels from five feet away. When you look at it closely you can spot the repairs. It looks like they use filler, sand it down, then repaint it. I can spot where the filler is. They did match the paint perfectly. You are correct, I would be able to spot the repairs on my wheels and it would tweak my OCD every time I wash the car.


-Ray

[SwL_Wildcat]

It's a 2024 with 150 miles, it's a brand new car. The ONLY acceptable resolution is brand new wheels. If it was a 2022 or older with 5000+ miles I'd say repair might be acceptable, but not on this car.