TireRack - Lessons Learned

NYSpeed Automotive
1

Back in November I ordered a wheels and tire package from TireRack. Mounted them up and on my first highway drive one tire went flat. I reinflated it and limped home. Called TireRack and on their recommendation went to a local shop for a dunk test and remount. That didn’t fix it. Had it remounted a second time, that didn’t fix it. I called TireRack again, they suspected a manufacturing defect in the tire and shipped out a replacement. I couldn’t drive my car and fill the tire every few miles so I had to take my mother’s beater van on a road trip. Ugh.

A week later a new tire arrived, made and appointment and had it mounted and that didn’t fix it. Called TireRack again and they said anyone who could authorize replacing a wheel was gone for the weekend but they would leave a note and they would call me back on Monday. No one called so I called them again the following Wednesday and they said a note was added to my file that I should get it dunk tested again. I explained we did this three times now so they conferred with the tech group again and they said it’s probably the valve and they sent out another valve kit.

Just in case Dunn Tire didn’t know what they were doing, I went to the Towne BMW and the valve kit didn’t fix the problem either. I called TireRack again from the shop and they said they would send another wheel to try. At this point, I insisted on a full assembly because I have already been to the shop 4 times. She agreed and a week later I had a non-leaking wheel and tire! Hooray!

Then I called again, because I wanted the reimbursement for the shop fees they promised. I sent in the receipts but they said they couldn’t refund my money until they got the tires back. When UPS showed up, they only had a pickup order for just the original wheel/tire combo so I had to call TireRack again to arrange the pickup of the other tire. After everything was shipped back I had to follow up again to get my refund. Then instead of getting refunded the amount I spent, TireRack only credited me $25 of the fees. (The visits to Dunn Tire cost $29.34 each so I have no idea where they decided $25 made sense. Towne couldn’t fix it so they didn’t charge me anything.)

I had to call yet again and I was fairly convinced the rep couldn’t get anything right, I asked if I could speak to a supervisor. He said she was on the phone but the rep said she would call me back when she got off the phone. She didn’t.

Then I went on twitter and pointed this out that I have called 12 times and sent 9 emails about a single order and it wasn’t resolved. Almost immediately I get an email asking for details and then I got a call back from the supervisor. She promised the refund for the services would be corrected and offered a $100 gift card to make things right. Kinda shitty considering how much time I wasted and how much I had to chase them. I wasn’t thrilled but I got her to at least give it to me as a credit because now I have brand new snows and almost new summers.

Lessons Learned:

  1. When you get anything defective, insist on sending the whole thing back. Don’t waste weeks repeatedly waiting for shipments and getting the tire remounted.
  2. If you ignored #1, when you have a working setup, don’t do the honest thing and send the tires back. A pair of good Blizzaks is worth more than anything they will give you plus shop fees.
  3. If customer service doesn’t follow up on your problem, immediately go on social media and shame them into doing it.
2

^^ Those lessons can apply to several things now-a-days…

Glad your issue is resolved.

3

Way to stay on it and walk away on top. In a situation like this I see it as being worth the time, but often on lesser things it isn’t. As @Onyx_Z32 pointed out… it’s far to common, which is a shame.

4

I have used tirerack since before Al Gore invented the Internet. They are almost always awesome but I did have some peeling paint one time and it was a PITA getting them replaced. (6 months later the other two peeled and I not even bother trying to get them replaced.) I actually happened to be driving by tirerack while my returned wheels were there so I stopped in and talked to a rep. It took A LOT of talking to get the two replaced. I told him I had spent about $20,000 there over the years.

5

Its funny, every time I called the new rep would have to read the order history and their reaction was always something along the lines of “holy s#it, that’s a long file”. Yeah, tell me about it.

It does seem like a lot of company’s customer service won’t fix problems until the are publicly shamed into making things right. At that point they have already lost repeat business and hurt their image. Oh well.