quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
snip

I'm beginning to thing that the best solution might be to order tires from TireRack.com, drop-shipped to an independent service shop for mounting.

psst.... I just bought 4 tires today from www.walmart.com cheaper than I could find anywhere. Free shipping to local store. I will probably go ahead and have them mounted and balanced there with road warranty. Hard to find somewhere without a walmart. I can rotate them myself.

I can't say I've ever had a problem with discount tire, but they just built a Big O tire within walking distance of my house that seems to be pretty good (I've bought one set of tires and had a couple oil changes so far) so I guess Big o has my business for now because I can drop my car off and walk home take a nap on my couch instead of waiting in the waiting room.

Talk to your local Walmart's tech or some customers before letting them near your vehicle. I knew the guys at ours and still wouldn't let them work on mine. Stripped drain plugs, scratched rims, out of balance or incorrectly installed tires, etc were all complaints I heard from customers. Just FYI.
Also, our local store will not sell you tires if you don't let them mount them for u. Like $12-20 a corner.

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Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by Steve 22X:
Executive reply or not, at least the financial portion got straightened out so that is good news.

This is true, and I am glad about that.

However, what I am seeing here on this thread, example being one member who had a 9:00 am appointment and the work did not get started until 11:45, along with many negative comments for the same type of thing on other websites, I am guessing that we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg.

Discount Tire seems to have a widespread problem with this aspect of customer service and nothing is going to get fixed without a mandate from the top. Even then, the problem might persist, but it's worth a try.

I'm beginning to thing that the best solution might be to order tires from TireRack.com, drop-shipped to an independent service shop for mounting.

As I mentioned in a previous post, It's even worse than making an appointment at the doctors office.

As far as Tire Rack, find out what the return policy is if you get a defective tire (it does happen).

Well, I'm getting ready to buy my 7th set of tires from them (for the wife's car this time), and with few exceptions, have always found my store here in South Orlando to be very helpful and to run close to on time for appointments. They broke a wheel stud on my truck some time ago, and since I fixed it myself, they credited my account the $75 fee they'd have paid the shop they'd have sent me to for the repair. I was very pleased with that outcome.

Their road hazard warranty pays huge dividends if you have a nail go through the sidewall of a reasonably new tire, and Discount can't repair it. Had that happen to my wife's car, and Discount installed a brand new $225 Michelin tire in its place, no questions asked. All I paid for was the new road hazard certificate on the new tire (~$25). And I'm one of those customers who has Discount rotate and balance the tires on all three of my cars every 5k miles, so I see them regularly. So far so good.

I've been buying tires from them since the 80's and never had any problems. The shop near me has always been great. The corp headquarters is just up the road from me, so that may have something to do with it...

UPDATE: I wrote a letter about this experience, sent it to Bruce Halle in Scottsdale AZ, who is the founder of Discount Tire and the current Top Dog / Big Kahuna of the corporation.

Evidently, as Isaac Newton observed, gravity prevails and poop rolls downhill. I was contacted by the southeast regional manager of Discount Tire, who said that he was embarrassed by the occurrence and would like the opportunity to discuss it with me.

He lives in Apopka, and is expected to visit me at my hangar at the Orlando-Apopka airport tomorrow (well, I guess it's today, I woke up at 1:00 am with leg cramps). I'm expecting him around 11:30 am. We'll see what happens. I'll keep y'all informed.

I have used Discount Tire off and on since the 80's. I have only had one bad experience and I called the district manager and it was quickly resolved.i have a tire rack an hour from me and a Costco down the road. My go to is tire rack and then Costco.

We have a new place (about a year) around here called Tires by Design. I have not bought tires there, but took my truck in for a screw in a tire and to have my tires purged and refilled with nitrogen (local Chevy dealer can't do it despite selling cars with it!).
Charged me $10 for the purge and refill and fixed the tire for free.
That's where I'll be buying rubber when I need it.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
UPDATE: I wrote a letter about this experience, sent it to Bruce Halle in Scottsdale AZ, who is the founder of Discount Tire and the current Top Dog / Big Kahuna of the corporation.

Evidently, as Isaac Newton observed, gravity prevails and poop rolls downhill. I was contacted by the southeast regional manager of Discount Tire, who said that he was embarrassed by the occurrence and would like the opportunity to discuss it with me.

He lives in Apopka, and is expected to visit me at my hangar at the Orlando-Apopka airport tomorrow (well, I guess it's today, I woke up at 1:00 am with leg cramps). I'm expecting him around 11:30 am. We'll see what happens. I'll keep y'all informed.

Well?

quote:

Originally posted by OKCGene:
Well?

The regional manager came by and met with me.

He was very gracious, apologetic for what happened. He told me that the store manager with whom I had dealt felt the same way and wanted to apologize to me in person if / when I was in the store again.

He said that the timing was extremely unfortunate; the store was understaffed that day and appointments were over-committed. He said that if it were five days later this probably would not have happened; they rolled out new software for their website, including a better appointment management system.

He said that he had looked up the record of my purchases over a period of almost thirty years, tires for both family vehicles and the trucks and vans that we have owned for our business, and he did not want to lose us as customers. He said that he recognized my face as years ago, before he was promoted to regional manager, he had been manager of that particular store and he remembered me. His face looked familiar to me, also.

He offered some really heavy-duty incentives to retain us as customers. I told him that I really thought his offer was too much, really over the top, and unnecessary, in that as long as steps were being taken to assure that appointments were really appointments and would be treated as such, I was satisfied. He would not accept this and insisted that I take him up on his generous offer, so I will do that. I don't think it would be appropriate to disclose the details, but barring major aggravation, Discount Tires has our business for life.

I am really glad that (a) I wrote the letter to Bruce Halle, the founder and current top guy in the company, and (b) the language I used in the letter was polite, factual, but did express my aggravation and frustration. It turns out that upper management was aware of the appointment problem in general, and was in the process of taking corrective action: the new software on the website, and instructions to store managers.

It appears that Mr. Halle, the "big guy," insists that his company was built on customer satisfaction and wants to keep it that way. He stays very much in touch with day-to-day operations and constantly looks for improvements. The guy who met with me is leaving tomorrow for Scottsdale, company HQ, for a management meeting that will include this type of thing.

They were also prepared to reimburse me for the credit that had been applied to my cancelled credit card (the one that was cancelled due to fraudulent purchases unrelated to Discount Tires), but I told him that was not necessary, as Capital One had managed to connect the refund credit to the new replacement card that had been issued to me, so I was not out any money, just the time and aggravation, which was more than compensated by the offer he had made to retain us as customers.

Very pleased that they did not "tap dance" to minimize the incident, but instead took full responsibility and really stepped up to the plate on this. That is a testimonial to good leadership, good management, good company philosophy.

quote:

(b) the language I used in the letter was polite, factual, but did express my aggravation and frustration.

Glad to see things worked out fine.

A bit of unsolicited advice. Spelling is also important in a complaint letter. So next time please remember that "asshole" is spelled with two "s" and "motherfucker" with a "ck".

No need to thank me.

quote:

Originally posted by jehzsa:
A bit of unsolicited advice. Spelling is also important in a complaint letter. So next time please remember that "asshole" is spelled with two "s" and "motherfucker" with a "ck".

No need to thank me.

I'll keep that in mind. I assume that this is legal advice from a member of the Florida Bar?

I would thank you, but you said not to.

I guess you haven't heard that one.

"A rookie in a big law firm gets an assignment from a senior partner regarding a demand letter. Quite excited to please, he sets out with fury to impress the boss and presents him with his draft.

"I like your draft but cannot help but think that you should tone it down a bit. Nice try but get me another one more subdued", says the senior partner. Off the rookie goes and soon enough has another draft.

"That's much better but I still think that you can tone it down some more", the senior partner comments. Again the rookie goes to correct the draft and soon has it ready.

"This is way much better, you've outdone yourself. But spelling is important, be mindful that "motherfucker" is spelled with "ck" and "asshole" with a double s", the senior partner remarks.



ETA: First heard by me at a Judicial Conference soiree.

quote:

Originally posted by jehzsa:
I guess you haven't heard that one.

Nope. Never heard that one.

I'll send it to my step-son. He's a prosecuting attorney in the DA's office.

It sounds a lot funnier after a couple of drinks.

This is about the same response I got at my local DT, except from the store manager. He has really gone out of his way for me, doing the work on my car, himself. He has really made up for my past experience there.

Whenever I purchase something from an entity with the word "discount" in it - I adjust my customer service expectations accordingly.

I've purchased all my tires at Discount Tire for years and years. They've always done right by me.

A follow-up. Below, is a copy of the letter I sent today, to the Big Kahuna / Top Dog / Founder of Discount Tire.

I believe that a compliment or a thank-you for good service is as important as whining about crappy service, maybe more so.

Here's what I sent to Mr. Halle:

quote:

August 31, 2017

Mr. Bruce Halle
Discount Tire
20225 North Scottsdale Road
Scottsdale AZ 85255-6456

Dear Mr. Halle:

I wrote to you on August 8, 2017, to inform you of a problem with your store in Apopka, FL: specifically, the problem of the store not treating an appointment as a commitment for service at the agreed upon time.

To follow up, this has been addressed and the matter has been resolved. I was contacted by Mr. <Regional AVP>, your Florida Region AVP. He met with me and discussed the incident. He was courteous and professional.

Mr. <Regional AVP> asked me what could be done to make things right. I replied that something needs to be done to make sure that an appointment is treated as such. Mr. <Regional AVP> informed me that your company was aware of the problem; evidently I was not the only customer, by a long shot, who had experienced this problem. My experience occurred while Discount Tire was in the process of addressing the problem and a revision to the website, including an improvement to the appointment area, was being rolled out the same week.

Mr. <Regional AVP> offered compensation that was far beyond what I deemed appropriate. Much too generous. I told him that, but he would not accept “no” for an answer from me.

I visited the same store yesterday with a tire problem on a different vehicle. Mr. <Store Manager> handled the matter in a very professional, courteous, and friendly manner, which I really appreciated. Again, he (<Store Manager>) went above and beyond what I considered necessary.

It is gratifying to see that Discount Tire, under your leadership, is serious about customer satisfaction.

Your very positive response to an incident of less than stellar service has insured that we (my family and my business) will continue to be your customers, and we will certainly spread the word about your dedication to customer service.

Thank you,

<V-Tail's Signature>