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I special ordered tires from Sam's Club and was called late today and told I could have them put on as long as I showed up before 6:30. I made the special trip and when I arrived at the counter at 6:00 - the attendant told me they were "booked up" to the end of the night and that I would have to come back in the morning. Incredible inconvenience if you ask me - my free time is pratically nil working two jobs. The assistant store manager was totally useless (clearly not a take charge individual - no guts no glory) mumbling some weak, wimp a__ programmed, repeated and swiftly fading excuse of "our policy is first come - first serve" as I marched out of the store breathing fire. Well, Mr. Assistant store manager, I was first, first in ordering and first in paying for 4 expensive tires! Had I known what a useless bunch of hacks they had on board to "get the job done" and the poor store policy for getting the d___ things put on I would have definitely not purchased my tires there. Lesson learned - if you want good dependable service - go to a reputable tire dealer - the assurance of knowing you will be treated right without aggravation is worth every extra dollar you may have to pay.
I went to Sams Club as a member, and ordered a set of 4 Michelin tires that don't stock for my 2003 Toyota Camry on April 10, 2009, and paid for upfront. On April 14, 2009, I received a call at 4:10pm that the tire set was in, was told they were not busy, and I could go in and have the set installed in about 45 minutes. I went in, paid the installation fees, and the car was driven into the bay area, while I stood behind the glass window outside the service area to watch the process. One tech on the east side of the car took two wheels to install, and another on the west side took the other two. The one on the east side -closer to my window post- looked nervous and in a hurry -even though I was told they close at 7:00pm- and when he installed the tire in the rim, and took it to the balance spinner, he stroke the alloy wheel rim 6-8 times with an all metal hammer where he put a balance weight. He, then, left the wheel spinning, while he fitted the second tire on its rim. Upon fitting, the second tire, he returned to the spinning balance bay, and again stroke the alloy wheel rim another 5-6 times -without any further spinning! I knew right away that a balance weight doesn't need about 15 hammer strikes to set in, and upon installation I took the car to the corner of the parking lot for inspection. I expected the weight to look really smashed, but it look pristine - no scratch. However, next to the balance weight, the alloy wheel was hammered flat!, and a piece had broken off! I returned to the store within 7 minutes, but the technician who had broken my alloy wheel had vanished! I told Sandy, the cashier who handled the transaction about the damage, and she came outside to inspect the car with the technician who had installed the West side tires. They said that "the broken piece came off when their technician pulled off the old weight!" But their nervousness, and the disappearance of the culprit technician right away -2 hours before closing time- showed that they knew about the damage done to my car, and they had the excuses ready. "We have nothing to do with that, " Sandy said. She then, brought a camera, and took a picture of the battered wheel for the back of the flat hammered spot that made the damage almost invisible to the camera - except the broken chip section. Then they told me that "we have cameras everywhere, " we will find out what happened. A few days later, I received a message from David Horton, of Claims Management, Inc. (CMI) who told me he represented an insurer fro Sams Club, and lauded the good services to its customers. But from a letter I received from CMI, it doesn't look to me like an independent insurance carrier; it looks like a Walmart branch that disposes legitimate customers complaints, and those supposed investigators probably get bonuses when they whitewash Walmarts liability and pay nothing. That is what I extrapolate from my own experience. To add insult to injury, David called me two days later, and told me that he watched the tire installation video, and look at the damage picture, and there was nothing improper and no damage! Sure, when the customer cannot see their video, and when Sams staff take pictures of the damage from the back to conceal it, that is COVER UP! I told David to come and inspect the damage in my car, and he wanted pictures. It is hard to get a full picture on the inside side of the rim, which is partially obscured by the sidewall curve. Honest insurance investigators evaluate damages in person - not from 700 miles away - in Arkansas. And that is the epitome of ARROGANCE of a behemoth company that can do damage to anybody, and nobody can touch them - even legally. That dawned on me because I watched some time back an NBC documentary in which a woman judge is Texas said she had issued several Court Orders to Walmart, but Walmart had ignored ALL OF THEM! The Epilogue of this sordid Sams Club damage and denial to my automobile, and the inability even of the courts to make that behemoth beast comply or take responsibility for its actions, shall serve as a warning to all those who try to save a few bucks: You may save a few bucks, but you may also get much more damage to your car, and you will have no recourse - even with a lawyer. State courts, and state attorney generals are no match for Walmart. Only the U.S. Justice Department can tackle Walmart, but they have no jurisdiction on local consumer complaints. The moral of the story on this [redacted]. The bigness of Walmart and Sams Club affords them the Power of Arrogance, the Power to defy State Courts, and the Power to Damage Your Car, and then ignore any legitimate complaint with impunity! Their bottom line is profit, and covering their damages will reduce it. Deal with them at your own risk! But please read 30 more reports of ripp of at "Rippoff Reprts." Nikos, River Grove, Illinois
Took my car into the tire center at Sam's on my lunch hour and told the attendant that I needed my front passenger side tire replaced with a new one. All seemed to go well...I paid, gave them my number and I went back to work. Thirty min later I get a call from another attendant in the service dept telling me that it isn't there policy to only sell one tire and that the attendant screwed up and shouldn't have done that. Then he tells me that I have to buy a second tire! What! No where in the store is it posted that policy says they can't sell only 1 tire.
I told the gentleman that this wasn't my problem and that the sale was done and i'm not going to have him force me to buy another. He wouldn't help me and neither would a manager. I asked that they not touch my car and I wanted a refund back to my card. To add more inconvenience to my wasted lunch hour and day, I had to go back up to give them my card again or they couldn't credit me back.
Bottom line...these people are doing everything they can to cheat you! I will never take my car to Sam's again when I know that Discount will let me purchase 1 tire! They didn't seem to care at all.
You have to be careful when getting replacement tires for your car. They have to be exactly the same, at least front and back, and that order is important depending on the types of tires. Otherwise you can find yourself on a highway spinning out of control going into oncoming traffic. Ideally get the tire fixed or get two tires of the exact same type. Most ideal is getting 4 new tires.
I wonder if it poses some kind of safety concern but if so why would Discount not have an issue selling a single tire. Discount is in the tire business. Sams Club is in the consumer wholesale business.
I've come across the problem of unwritten "policies" at WalMart Automotive so I'm not surprised. I was a patron at one store and the manager wasn't afraid to work within the outer limits of the rules he had in order to put a smile on the customer's face. I had gotten in the habit of buying Mobile 1 Extended oil inside the store and then paying for the $18 oil change. I went to a different location one time and the guy said they wouldn't do that, I would have to pay for the premium oil change in order to do that as a matter of policy. I asked for a copy of that policy and the next day he produced an email from the district manager that they are not allowed to do the $18 oil change with customer's oil. I could do their premium oil change which is synthetic but it's not Mobil 1 Extended. I went back to my normal WalMart location on the next oil change and the manager said those guys were twisting around the words of that memo to their own liking and missed the entire point of the policy. If I was buying the oil inside the WalMart store, it's not "customer's oil." He pointed out that I WAS paying more money doing it my way, and so in the spirit of the new policy, started charging me for the premium oil change and using Mobil1 Extended from the shelf in the store, thereby saving me $5. At that point, who was I to complain?
The sign doesn't say we close or stop servicing at 6:30pm. IT SAY 7:00PM AS CLEAR AS DAY ON THEIR SIGN.
This is what I would expect from Walmart, not Sams Club. That's why I pay a membership fee!