Mr. Tire

Terrible Service, Unprofessional, Damage Rims and Tire Rod during basic maintenance

I know this is long but what Mr. Tire’s Manager and Senior Tech did was terrible service.

COSTS:

I am out $495, ($345 if you assume the alignment was value added work)

$40 for a tire mount balance with two damaged rims, another $150 for an alignment, another $80 for the lose of selling a scratched chipped rim + shipping, another $25 for touchup paint, plus a future $200 for a premature repair of a damage tie rod. (And this doesn't even include buying a second rim due to the damage on the first one from them).

I am not even going back to the store to complain at this point. I learned they are not going to help and have lost my business and I hope they do not earn anyone else's either.

I was more than helpful considering what, they did, what I put up with and how on their end they still made nearly $200 after they damaged my truck.

I'd recommend you go to some place that doesn’t make mistakes and has insurance to fix them. Is it not typical to fix damaged parts. Next time I will ask them upfront if they damage any part of my vehicle what their process is for repairing and making it right. See if they have it in writing. If they are not upfront, then I won't do service with them.

I took a new alloy wheel (rim) to Mr. Tire at Polaris, Ohio to unmount a spare tire, taking the tire only off a spare steel wheel, mount and balance the tire to the new rim. Prior to going I removed the rubber non-TPMS valve steam with a rubber valve steam puller and replaced it with an aftermarket TPMS metal valve steam.

This is a 5th full size wheel for a winter set that I had stored in my garage. I do 5 tire rotations to maximize the life of the tires and not let a perfectly good tire go to waste. The new rim was in perfect condition when I handed it to them. I just bought it. It was no installed on the car since it was for a winter set so they didn’t even put it on the car.

WHEEL DAMAGE 1: New Tech.

After they mounted and balanced I placed it in the covered truck bed and drove home. When I got home and I went to take it out of the truck bed. I noticed what they had done. They had scratched the rim in multiple places leaving blemishes, indents and chipped paint. This was a new rim and I was pretty frustrated at their lack of care. I have had many tires replaced from other companies over my life and never had these issues.

I called and the manager first said, “would you like me to buy you a new rim or would you like $300 of free maintenance.” I told him maintenance was not an option. I said, “that either a new wheel or have it restored (repainted).”

He called me back after checking and told me the rim alone is more than $400 if they buy OEM direct and his boss said they would have to file a insurance claim for any repairs or replacements over $400. That’s not common. I have had another experience where a technician damaged my dash after service and the dealership replaced all the parts and labor no questions asked.

The manager said for insurance, they need me to drive the tire and the other 4 matching winter tires in to have them inspect all of them and see the damage to file an insurance claim. After going back and forth asking why I would need to bring in the other 4 tires he said instead now I just need to take photos of all 5 tires, upload them and email them to him personally to submit to insurance. I asked are they going to fix it regardless of if their insurance covers it or not and he said he could not guarantee that.

I then asked if he could just buy one from a Toyota dealership online. I was seeing them for $200 - $350 depending on the site and the promo. He told me “No, we must buy direct from Toyota for insurance.” I was not pleased with this situation and their lack of help fixing their mistake.

I asked why waste my time on getting the other 4 tires out of storage. The one damaged is different. It for one looks (looked) brand new, it has a unique Autel aftermarket TPMS sensor while the others have Toyota OEM TPMS Sensors (you can check by visual or simply scanning them) and the spray along the bead on the top and bottom is still very visible on the tire they mounted. They said they wouldn’t do anything without seeing all 5 tires.

I was frustrated and after thinking it through I called the manager back and asked if I just buy a lightly used OEM “new” rim would they just replace it for me. I would sell the damaged one at a small loss and not deal with this frustration… I have never enjoyed insurance and I knew what they were going to do… they were just going to deny it… and just add more to my frustration.

He agreed, however, he didn’t offer a refund or anything for the crappy work they did. I figure he would have just as an obvious solution. I waited to see what would happen when I brought it in. He set an appointment up for me with his senior tech for the following Monday.

I ask if I can get a wheel alignment as well that Monday at 11am and they said it would take an hour. I even offered to pay… Clearly too nice to these people (I have been in their position though and was not trying to get a free hand out, I just wanted it fixed and not see their damage anymore).

Monday, I called at 9:45am before my appointment and found out the senior tech was going to step away in the middle of my appointment for an hour and I would have to wait. It would have gone from 1 hour to at least 2 or more. So, we moved it to later in the day when he was going to be back.

WHEEL DAMAGE 2: Store Manager

The manager took the “new” wheel and took the damaged wheel to unmount and mount the tire to the “new” wheel while the senior tech took the truck for an alignment. The manager then stops and comes out to tell me he doesn’t know how to get the rubber valve stem out of the new wheel without damaging it and refused to swap the TPMS sensor over because he was afraid of damaging the wheel. Laughable! Since I was able to do this on 6 new painted wheels without damaging them. He has done this for years and hasn’t figured it out. That is scary and now I know why he is not able to and not able to train his team on doing this without damaging tires.

I end up having him mount the tire bead on only one side, but leave the other bead not mounted so that I can go home and swap the TPMS sensor and rubber valve sensor. (I did this in a minute without any damage once I got home.)

What he also did was scuff up, scratch and again chip paint off the outside edge to the new rim. I didn’t see this before leaving because I was too busy looking at the front of the wheel where they damaged it the first time. I had to buy touchup paint and fix all his mistakes.

TIE ROD DAMAGE: Senior Tech

The senior tech (whatever that means… must be by years of service and not experience) one didn’t know how to find my model vehicle in the alignment software. He asked me if I had the model that has the suspension set to loose or tight. It is a Tacoma. High production run vehicle. They make and sell something like 500k a year. And this was a 3-year model Gen 3 that has been in production for the last 7 years so I was really confused why he was asking me and not knowing how to setup the machine for my vehicle. I thought he figured it out but when I got my alignment print off results it showed he used another model that has a slightly different suspension then mine to set the specs for my truck. I hope that’s not a problem.

He also must not know tricks on how to get a tie rod loose without damaging it, because he rounded off nearly all the square corners of the driver side tie rod and gouged the heck out of it leaving it looking damaged and probably shortening the life of it for sure. The passenger side he was able to adjust without damaging. My guess is next time I take it for an alignment it will be even more difficult to takeoff, and I will be told I have to replace the inner and outer tie rod. These are around $200 or more to replace so I will get to look forward to that future bill as well now.

This was a disaster. I paid for everything and what I got was damage to my vehicle. Someone should make this right.

Took my vehicle to mr tire for a 9 o'clock appt for oil change. Vehicle was not done until noon. When I went to pick vehicle up I had a few questions. The man told me I would have to wait for the manager and he was next door at mcdonalds getting breakfast. A few minutes later the manager comes back is is checking us out all while he is shoveling a breakfast sandwich in his mouth. We had to ask for a sticker in the car to tell us when the next oil change is due, in which she wrote 79, 000 miles and there is 152, 000 on the vehicle. When we got home I had a bad feeling about the service and the whole experience in general so I went u see the hood and crawled u see my vehicle to find out they never changed the oil filter! They emptied the old oil and replace new, but never changed filter and charged me for it! It was still dirty and had my finger [censored]ed t on it from me looking at it the day before.
Do not go to mr tire!