What just happened? Discount Tire?

[Blitz16v]

Dropped Truck off this morning for a patch job had a nail, just left tire shop I have a brand new OEM tire on there I didn't pay a dime. Truck has 22k on it, just wondering not bitching?..

[emmettlodge]

Take it back! Take it back!!! The tire's full of drugs! Don't become an unwitting drug mule like my uncle Hector!

[ABATurbo]

Maybe one of their employees messed up the patch job?

[DustinM]

Maybe one of their employees messed up the patch job?

This. They're only going to replace something for free when they make a mistake. They probably ground down into threads on the inside.

[Pool Runner]

Dropped Truck off this morning for a patch job had a nail, just left tire shop I have a brand new OEM tire on there I didn't pay a dime. Truck has 22k on it, just wondering not bitching?..

If this were a Subaru I would be pissed I didn't get four

[thegoodson]

This. They're only going to replace something for free when they make a mistake. They probably ground down into threads on the inside.

This, is incorrect. The repair is done for free. If the tire isn't safely repairable, many times the tire can be replaced at a discount, or sometimes free, if its OEM. This is especially true if its a Michelin or GoodYear product. One of the perks of dealing with a company where customer satisfaction is truly paramount.

OP, I bet they thanked you with a smile when you left, as it should be.

[stockstatus]

odds are they didnt mess up anything we help people out all the time, maybe you made a good impression on your salesman (the guy in red) and when he discovered your tire was unrepairable and you had not purchased our certificate program he decided to give you an "unexpected experience" sounds lame bit its what the company has been about for over 50 years its the best advertising there is almost always resultimg in WOM.

[DustinM]

This, is incorrect. The repair is done for free. If the tire isn't safely repairable, many times the tire can be replaced at a discount, or sometimes free, if its OEM. This is especially true if its a Michelin or GoodYear product. One of the perks of dealing with a company where customer satisfaction is truly paramount.

OP, I bet they thanked you with a smile when you left, as it should be.

I've worked in the industry, and have NEVER heard of a free repair, much less a free tire that wasn't bought through the shop and covered under a road hazard.

Giving away tires due to damage seems to be counter productive to making money.

[nm+]

I've worked in the industry, and have NEVER heard of a free repair, much less a free tire that wasn't bought through the shop and covered under a road hazard.

Free tire repair is done by both Discount/Americas ad Les Schwab even if you bought the tire elsewhere.

I've had extremely good luck with Discount.
I ordered 4xDunlop Z1 Star Specs and a month later came back and they had ordered Z101s. As I had an autocross the next day and they were out of Star Specs (the whole country was, around nats), they:
A: Put RT605s on the car for the autocross (I informed him they'd be unsellable afterwards, he said that was fie)
B: Ordered Re-01Rs
C: When RE-01Rs arrived they sold them to me for the Dunlop price (about $70/tire difference).

Discount Tire on University in St. Paul, MN.

If you bought the tires there, it is possible. Also, some tires (Hankooks) now come with road hazard warranties standard, so it could have been replaced because of that.

[BUJonathan]

Twice I've had nails in the OEM tires, and both times Discount Tire *patched* the tire for free. Both times the manager on duty said, "I know you didn't buy the tires here, but I hope when it comes time to replace them you'll bring your car back here."

A completely new free tire though? That seems odd...

[8v_gti777]

New Golf R.

[Blitz16v]

I tell you what, the service they gave me no questions asked, whatever happened won me over. I will more than likely be going back within a few weeks to upgrade my wheels. Something I didn't know is they will buy your stock wheels/tires and put towards credit towards your new setup..

[stockstatus]

I can promise you counter productive is the farthest thing from discoint tire, we do free rotations repairs road hazard warranty and tire inspections for any and evryone that comes through the doors we even shine the tires before the customer departs. But we are still the number one tire company. the profit comes through volume not markups, and the low prices smiling faces and free services give dtc a high return rate not to mention there are over 800 stores nationwide.

[Chipped B6]

This, is incorrect. The repair is done for free. If the tire isn't safely repairable, many times the tire can be replaced at a discount, or sometimes free, if its OEM. This is especially true if its a Michelin or GoodYear product. One of the perks of dealing with a company where customer satisfaction is truly paramount.

OP, I bet they thanked you with a smile when you left, as it should be.

On one of my old tires, I took it America's tire, after telling me I needed to replace it, they gave me a loaner tire that was the same fitment til I came back and bought one to replace it with! great service!

[Blitz16v]

Twice I've had nails in the OEM tires, and both times Discount Tire *patched* the tire for free. Both times the manager on duty said, "I know you didn't buy the tires here, but I hope when it comes time to replace them you'll bring your car back here."

A completely new free tire though? That seems odd...

These are the tires that came on the truck when I got the truck from the dealership, I didn't get any tire warranty fluff either....

[2003VeeDuBgolf]

Edit to stay topic related:

To answer why you got a free tire - most tire stores have their new guys fix flat tires, its the easiest job to not F*ck up, although every new guy does it several times.

It does not take much to grind down the rubber to much till you see steel threads, hence your brand new tire.

If you had a non repairable flat, like a hole in the sidewall, they would have told you and would have sold you a new tire.

You only have 22k, but I will say if you have more than 3/32nds of thread depth difference between your new and old tires it's possible it can "screw" things up, especially if you have AWD. For example, I had a guy come in with a new Lancer EVO, it had 7k on it, guys alignment was off, 1 tire was screwed, had to replace all.

Perfect timing for this post.

I worked for Les Schwab for almost 4 years until Les past away, ever since that point the company went to the crapper. (the old company lawyer bought the company from the family...)

The company went from being about the employees and the customer to being about the bottom dollar for those in the top ranks. Employee benefits were no longer top priority.

All that aside I wish I had a Les Schwab here in Texas.

I had to pay for my first tire rotation in my life, $20 and 45min later I could not help but share my dissatisfaction and embarrassment to the manager who shared with me that he had been with the company for 16 years.

My reasoning being that I was the only car in the shop when I arrived, I watched 6 employees and the manager stand around in the tire bays while it took one employee 45min to rotate my tires this used to take me no more than 5min when I was an employee at Les Schwab and had an actual sense of urgency.

Hopefully I'll win the lottery one of these days so I can open my own chain of tire stores and go back to the old days of Les Schwab when going to a tire company was enjoyable.

rant end.

Wanted to add this -

"I know you didn't buy the tires here, but I hope when it comes time to replace them you'll bring your car back here."

When I was at Les Schwab I was trained to say this for every flat I had come in, one exception, if the customer wants to be an ass, I had no problem shocking them (they figured it was "free flat repairs at Les Schwab") by charging them for the flat repair.

[thegoodson]

Lol. You're better off investing that lottery money elsewhere. Never been to a Discount tire? There's a reason one man in Ann Arbor, Michigan has had so much success. It had very little with tires, just simple customer service.

[2003VeeDuBgolf]

Lol. You're better off investing that lottery money elsewhere. Never been to a Discount tire? There's a reason one man in Ann Arbor, Michigan has had so much success. It had very little with tires, just simple customer service.

lol, I will never go to a Discount Tire, they were the closest competition to our Schwab store in Kirkland, WA. (couple blocks down)

Our store was doing a million a month in sales, Discount was at 100k if they were lucky.

Being in that industry I saw how great that company was and could have been before Les died.

Are the top guys making an insane amount of money now because of the changes they made to the company, of course.

But the employees and the customers now suffer, sometimes service is more important than the money in the end.

Just my opinion. I was on the fast track to management, Les's death changed everything.

[B3passatBMX]

Take it back and demand a new Golf R.

[Blitz16v]

Take it back and demand a new Golf R.

**** a Golf R I will just run it over...

[clintg60-16v]

lol, I will never go to a Discount Tire, they were the closest competition to our Schwab store in Kirkland, WA. (couple blocks down)

Our store was doing a million a month in sales, Discount was at 100k if they were lucky.

Higher sales volume does not necessarily translate to a better customer experience.

I've heard many a horror story about Schwab going back over a decade; I've yet to hear one about Discount. And since Discount's had a large local presence around me for a long time, that says a lot.

[2003VeeDuBgolf]

Higher sales volume does not necessarily translate to a better customer experience.

I've heard many a horror story about Schwab going back over a decade; I've yet to hear one about Discount. And since Discount's had a large local presence around me for a long time, that says a lot.

Hard to talk about Les Schwab when you live in Indiana, come to the Northwest and experience Les Schwab, it is nothing like what it used to be, but compared to an experience at Discount, I am sure you will question why you ever considered Discount to be a decent tire company .

But I am not biased or anything, ill let other people comment, see where this goes, lol.

[derekjl]

Dropped Truck off this morning for a patch job had a nail, just left tire shop I have a brand new OEM tire on there I didn't pay a dime. Truck has 22k on it, just wondering not bitching?..

I would just call and say "hey thanks for the new tire, great customer service, etc...". What are they going to do, ask you to come back and have them take it off?

[nm+]

Hard to talk about Les Schwab when you live in Indiana, come to the Northwest and experience Les Schwab, it is nothing like what it used to be, but compared to an experience at Discount, I am sure you will question why you ever considered Discount to be a decent tire company .

But I am not biased or anything, ill let other people comment, see where this goes, lol.

I live in California. Grew up in CA. Use America's/Discount.

[Jordan 191]

Discount Tire on University in St. Paul, MN.

These guys repaired a puncture for free in the OEM tires on my wife's xB because I am a customer. I tell everyone with tire needs to go there.

[Grey Mouser]

These guys repaired a puncture for free in the OEM tires on my wife's xB because I am a customer. I tell everyone with tire needs to go there.

They'll actually sell you a tire warranty on your OEM tires if you do it in the first month of ownership. I learned this after the fact when we had a tire replaced when our CX-7 didn't even have 1,000 miles on it yet and it was unrepairable. That was $200 down the drain when a warranty on all 4 tires would have cost me less.

Just crap luck, though.

[PowerDubs]

Shops around here charge so damn much for tire mount & balance that I said screw it and bought my own machines for my garage.


- Josh

[SWFalken]

My brother in law has worked for America's Tire here in California for almost ten years now. That is just how that company does business. It is privately owned by some cat in Texas and his first priority is taking care of customers, taking care of employees is a close second.

[2003VeeDuBgolf]

My brother in law has worked for America's Tire here in California for almost ten years now. That is just how that company does business. It is privately owned by some cat in Texas and his first priority is taking care of customers, taking care of employees is a close second.

This is great to hear, the more I research and look at customer reviews, most tire stores have adopted the ways I learned several years ago, just really depends on the manager, although corporate policy still plays a big role.

[SpookyReverb]

I have always liked Les Schwab. I have known several people who haved worked there, and they had nothing but good things to say. That said, I haven't been lately, and didn't know it changed when Les died.

If you really want a poor experience, roll on down to your local Firestone.

[Rice Rice Baby]

Discount Tire scratched my wheels and they denied it. They claimed their machine does not touch the wheel whatsoever. What about operator error? I dropped them off without a scratch . Those FU$%#$!

[Grey Mouser]

Discount Tire scratched my wheels and they denied it. They claimed their machine does not touch the wheel whatsoever. What about operator error? I dropped them off without a scratch . Those FU$%#$!

The machine has to touch the wheel to jimmy the tire off.. what a load.

[bronson75]

My mom (actually, both my parents, until my dad died) have always used Discount Tire. She takes her truck there spring and fall to get her snow tires swapped out on her Tacoma, never any charge. A couple weeks ago, she took her truck in with a slow leak, and she took in one of my race tires (BBS RMs, with metal valve stems, I hit a cone autocrossing and snapped off a stem). They fixed both tires, both required dismount/mount/balance, for a total of $9.00. Every time I call to get quotes on tires, they sell very well (free road hazard warranties on all tires, lifetime rotation, etc, etc). Problem is, the closest one to me is about 45 minutes away, and not very convenient to get to for repairs and the like.
Next time I need tires, I will definitely get them at Discount. I've heard nothing but good things.

[Burnette]

I was driving around with my daughter on a Saturday two months ago, my low tire pressure indicator light up. It was raining, a quick check around the car revealed the culprit, a nail was in the passenger side front. I could see little bubbles coming out around the nail. It was after one o'clock, I was close to the dealership (wouldn't want to buy tires there, but I was in a pinch, raining out with baby girl), pulled into the lot and they were closed (on a Saturday? yes, they were) Using my smart phone, Discount Tire pops up. I chance it and drive to the shop on Hanes Mall Blvd in Winston Salem, NC. They look at it, take it to an open bay and patch it while we wait in the showroom.
Car pulls up outside the door, they bring me the keys and say I'm ready to go. I ask how much, they say nothing. They tell me that it's their policy, to patch for free. I get the manager's name and the tech and send an email to Discount Tire thanking them for this service and mention the guys by name. Told them that they are an asset to the community, helping people in need for free.
I don't like patches and my tires needed replacing, so two weeks later I bought new tires from them.

[2003VeeDuBgolf]

I was driving around with my daughter on a Saturday two months ago, my low tire pressure indicator light up. It was raining, a quick check around the car revealed the culprit, a nail was in the passenger side front. I could see little bubbles coming out around the nail. It was after one o'clock, I was close to the dealership (wouldn't want to buy tires there, but I was in a pinch, raining out with baby girl), pulled into the lot and they were closed (on a Saturday? yes, they were) Using my smart phone, Discount Tire pops up. I chance it and drive to the shop on Hanes Mall Blvd in Winston Salem, NC. They look at it, take it to an open bay and patch it while we wait in the showroom.
Car pulls up outside the door, they bring me the keys and say I'm ready to go. I ask how much, they say nothing. They tell me that it's their policy, to patch for free. I get the manager's name and the tech and send an email to Discount Tire thanking them for this service and mention the guys by name. Told them that they are an asset to the community, helping people in need for free.
I don't like patches and my tires needed replacing, so two weeks later I bought new tires from them.

This story reminds me why I miss working for a tire store, weird i know

People helping people, doesn't get better than that.

.... and you say it happened at a Discount Tyre