Les Schwab Tire Store FREE TIRE ROTATION RIPOFF/SCAM Sacramento California

On 4/10/2014, at approximately 11:30 am, I entered the parking lot of the Les Schwab Tire Store on Northgate Blvd., in Sacramento, CA. A young man came running out of the store to my car to ask what services I needed.  I explained that I wanted a tire rotation, and inquired about the cost.  He said it was free.

I waited for about an hour, and sure enough, they rotated the tires on my 2000 Lexus RX300.  I thought it was a very nice thing that they were providing this service for free, considering I didn't buy the tires from Les Schwab.  I thought it was good until I got up to about 55 mph.  At 55, up to about 75 mph, the whole car shakes and the steering wheel vibrates back and forth.  Not good.

I was not in a position to take it back and wait for them to diagnose and fix the problem.  I stopped at a small shop about 20 miles away and had the front tires balanced.  That cost me $20.  It still didn't fix the problem, so I went back to the Les Schwab store that did the work earlier in the day.

Upon speaking with one of the employees in the store, he informed me that the tires were out of balance.  I informed him that I had the front tires balanced, yet the problem still persists.  He offered a solution: He said he'd take the tires off the car and if they were out of balance, he'd charge me to balance them.  So I asked him how much it would be to balance them.  He said $13 per tire.  Outrageous.  Two of them were just balanced not 3 hours before that, using a spin balancer.  I know nothing is wrong with them, and it is hard to believe that the rear tires would cause the steering wheel to vibrate in my hands, but I guess there is an outside chance that it is possible.

This seems to me like a scam.  They offer to rotate the tires for free, (and do who knows what to them while they're off) then when you bring the car back because it's vibrating, they want $50+ to balance the tires.  Seems like a setup.

I'll never go to Les Schwab again.  This kind of business practice is questionable at best, and consumer fraud at worst.  I wouldn't recommend Les Schwab to anyone.