Discount Tire Dont acknowledge defective tires, blame the car, rims, enything but the tires Auburn Hills Michigan

Having been in the tire business for many years I have encountered you particular problem. I am having a few problem with the way your problem was handled. First off I once worked for DTC and have since opened my own independent tire center. Discount tire could care less (financially) weather that change your tires once or a hundred times. They get full credit back on any "defective" tires. A tire thats truly OUT OF ROUND is can be classified as defective. Any tire purchased from DTC would have been rebalanced free of charge (company policy) if a "defect" was found they would surely replace it free of any charge.

You have no vibration when the car went in for tires, right. You have a vibration when it came out, right. Why on earth would you replace rims unless they were the problem? At this point the tires still have not been ruled out. Every time you had them rebalanced, you said they were "out". It would seem everyone had a defective balancer that tried to fix them, Right.

Here is the problem weather or not you agree. The problem is the wheel. Let me say it again, the problem is the WHEEL. Its not bent or has too much run out. Its TOO SMALL. Your saying W T F too small. When the tire is mounted to the wheel, its the air pressure that keeps the tire from moving on the wheel. Once the assembly is balanced and you start driving on it. the forces of accelerating and stopping cause the tire to turn on the rim thus being out of balance. I have seen this in many cases mostly with particular makes of wheels and even with certain tire/wheel combinations.

What should have happened, after changing tires didn't fix the problem, was to road force balance the assembly, mark the tire and wheel orientation and drive a few miles. I have seen tires turn 180 degrees in only 1/2 mile. That can cause a pretty severe vibration. For what ever reason the "CHEAP" tires have a"bead package/shape" that is complementary to the shape or your BMW wheel, and presto no vibration. The combination doesn't rotate.

I have nearly 20 years in the tire business and have seen the exact problem before and have corrected it without a dozen rebalances and tire changes.

This is to the guy who decided it was more important to learn how to use the internet before he learned english. I am going to go out on a limb here and assume that if you lack the capacity to understand how to work spell check you probably lack the capacity to comprehend anything the salesperson was trying to tell you. By the way, when we say we will beat anyone's price then we will beat anyone's price. Clearly you had a better price, but chose not to give us the opportunity to compete nor did you afford us the opportunity to rectify your vibration issue. That, paired with your lack of experience with our company, absolutely disqualify's you from offering a valid opinion. I might also add that many tire dealers, Walmart being the most notable, will not work on your vehicle if you do not purchase the the right tire for the car. For instance, cars are given a alphanumerical rating, such as 93H, that allow you to match up the alphanumerical rating given to every tire. These are known as the load index rating (93) and the speed rating (H). By having the wrong load index rating your tires cannot carry the weight of the vehicle apropriately and will wear quicker and put you in a situation where you risk a blowout. The speed rating affects your handling and stability, particularly at higher speeds. Of course, it is also a rating that lets you know just what speed the tire can handle. By not matching these numbers up apropriately you risk putting others and yourself in jeopardy and you make a mighty bold statement by saying that automotive engineers and tire manufacturers have absolutely no clue what they are doing. Clearly such a rating system to keep people safe is arbitrary. Let us all just do what we think is best because we all know more than those guys who went to school for engineering and spend there lives working on keeping you safe.

Dear loyal customer,

Im am sorry to report that you have thrown needless amounts of money away to a company that is all but discount. I went you purchase a pair of tires for my vehicle which cost me $270. When i left i also had the vibrating problem at which point i decided that i would take care of it when i would go to purchase the other 2 tires. A month later i went to buy the other tires when they quted me $290. I told them that was ridiculus and that there was no justification for the cost. $560 for 4 14" tires that were the cheapest they have in stock. I asked the sales man how they can call themselves discount tires. He said the reason for the price is that they have to be H rated tires. I just laughed at his face and left. I went to a privetely owned used car tire shop and got a better grade set of tires for $120 and no vibration.

Dear loyal customer,

Im am sorry to report that you have thrown needless amounts of money away to a company that is all but discount. I went you purchase a pair of tires for my vehicle which cost me $270. When i left i also had the vibrating problem at which point i decided that i would take care of it when i would go to purchase the other 2 tires. A month later i went to buy the other tires when they quted me $290. I told them that was ridiculus and that there was no justification for the cost. $560 for 4 14" tires that were the cheapest they have in stock. I asked the sales man how they can call themselves discount tires. He said the reason for the price is that they have to be H rated tires. I just laughed at his face and left. I went to a privetely owned used car tire shop and got a better grade set of tires for $120 and no vibration.

Dear loyal customer,

Im am sorry to report that you have thrown needless amounts of money away to a company that is all but discount. I went you purchase a pair of tires for my vehicle which cost me $270. When i left i also had the vibrating problem at which point i decided that i would take care of it when i would go to purchase the other 2 tires. A month later i went to buy the other tires when they quted me $290. I told them that was ridiculus and that there was no justification for the cost. $560 for 4 14" tires that were the cheapest they have in stock. I asked the sales man how they can call themselves discount tires. He said the reason for the price is that they have to be H rated tires. I just laughed at his face and left. I went to a privetely owned used car tire shop and got a better grade set of tires for $120 and no vibration.

Dear loyal customer,

Im am sorry to report that you have thrown needless amounts of money away to a company that is all but discount. I went you purchase a pair of tires for my vehicle which cost me $270. When i left i also had the vibrating problem at which point i decided that i would take care of it when i would go to purchase the other 2 tires. A month later i went to buy the other tires when they quted me $290. I told them that was ridiculus and that there was no justification for the cost. $560 for 4 14" tires that were the cheapest they have in stock. I asked the sales man how they can call themselves discount tires. He said the reason for the price is that they have to be H rated tires. I just laughed at his face and left. I went to a privetely owned used car tire shop and got a better grade set of tires for $120 and no vibration.

You drive a BMW so you have cash. Your car is obviously more important to you than good manners, kindness, patience and understanding. What more do you want? A couple of sets of free tires that did not have to be given you is a pretty good start. These people are awesome, I've been doing business there since the 80's. Based on the roads today, I don't know how you could even detect a vibration. Your class of implying the "f" bomb in your comments shows you are the pansy, spineless piece of crap who make customers look bad. Thankfully there are more decent, wonderful customers that far out number you. If you'd put half of your negative energy into the solution instead of continually looking for a problem, you might find the world to be a happier place. Otherwise, take your ritsy car and move some please else. I challenge you to find a company that has the patience it does when chronic complainers such as you, walk through the door. Get a life pal, there is more to it than a formed piece of steel you ride in.

I too am a proud employee for Discount Tire Co. It is one of the few companies I have ever worked for that truly stands behind it's commitment to integrity. While I have no doubt that it is possible that you were given the runaround and given false information it has been my experience that it was, at the very least, not done intentionally. I cannot tell you how many times I have gladly written free work to be done when a customer is dissatisfied no matter how many times they come back with an issue (on the few occassions when several visits appear necessary). I have also seen my superiors eager to give away a couple of free tires, even upgraded ones, if it means maintaining the loyalty of those people who keep us in buisness. Now, with all that said you mentioned three things that right off the bat got my attention. One, you said you drive a BMW. You are very correct when you say that BMW's are engineered to perform exemplary in conditions when great performance is necessary. However, this engineering also makes any BMW very touchy. A slightly off balance tire or something wrong mechanically will be very noticeable to any driver, not just one who is used to the feel of their BMW. This brings me to my second point. You said you had an older model BMW. I cannot tell you the number of times I have had people come in and say outright, "It is an older car and I want the cheapest thing you have!". This is not to say this is what you did, but, point number three, you said we upgraded your tires. My guess is you may not have put the best tire on the car in the first place which would definately have led to your discomfort in the and even upgrading your tire may not have put you into the apropriate tire for such a perfectly engineered machine such as the BMW you own. Not only considering economy or make and model of tire did you ever consider the apropriate load index rating and speed rating for the vehicle? The wrong speed rating alone would cause a significant difference in performance on the immaculately conceived BMW. What PSI did you keep the air at? Did you go by vehicle specifications or did you read the sidewall of the tire? What kind of driving do you do and what kind of tire did you go with? Touring, performance, what? You see, there is a lot more to this than you realize - or, clearly, than you think you realize. I cannot comment on the winter tires you purchased and why they did so well for you, but I would urge you to consider just a few of the things I have mentioned before you purchase tires for you vehicle again, from whoever you decide to do so.

sure the tires were replaced at my cost (125.00), rebalanced many times, roadforce balanced at my cost (70.00)... adding up to in excess of 1000.00 for a set of tires??? I have an old BMW not some honda civic. These BMWS are made for the autobahn and dont shake and vibrate unless the suspension is bad which was completely replaced. The tires weren't round and were defective BOTH times. 5 oz of weight on one 3.5 on another etc etc. According to the hunter road force balancer site if a tire is more than 1/2 oz off the tire is defective "period"

Your rebuttal is a lame attempt of trying to fix the shady operations if the company of Discount tire. I will broadcast my unhappy results for the rest of my life. K-mart fixed a set of cheap snow tires and only hung weights on the back of the rims and it was perfect. Either teach your people about tires or close down. I am not the only one to have got ripped off at your stores... NEVER AGAIN!!!

I have been an employee of Discount Tire Co. for almost 5 years.

In that time, we do occasionally recieve vibration complaints from customers. There are many reasons this could happen, many being simple to fix...air pressure, out of balance, etc.

There are occasionally those times when a simple fix does not work.

At that time we are trained to follow the most logical steps to fix the problem...starting with a simple fix and continuing until the problem is solved. There are occasions when we end up replacing the tires for the customer with either the same thing at no extra charge, or we work out a deal to upgrade to a better tire.

From what I see you have spent quite a bit of time and money at Discount Tire to solve the vibration problem, but you have yet to leave happy. Our goal is that every customer leaves happy...

I encourage you to contact either another store, or the corporate office, and let them do their best to make your purchase worth it. I am at a loss to understand how you can blame the vibration on a tire problem after all four have been replaced with something new. Usually replacing all 4 will eliminate tires as the culprit.

Nonetheless we want you to leave happy, and we want to earn the right to call you our customers with our trusted expertise. We go through extensive training to give you the most accurate advice we can.

I personally would again, invite you to contact our corporate office and talk to the regional vice president, who would be happy to do what it takes to earn your business again.

Discount Tire is in the people business...we just sell tires on the side :-p