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I wanted to get my tires mounted this morning to the summer wheels, so I decided to go to Wal-Mart (pepboys raised their prices a good deal).

Walmart would not mount a used tire to my rim. Perfect.

So I figured I'd bite the bullet and go to Pepboys.

Got there, and started talking to the guy. I was like "I don't know if you guys raised your prices, but last time I got my tires mounted here, it was only 40 bucks since you guys just had to mount the tires and not take anything off of the car."

He was like "$40? Ok, no problem. I'll see if we can get it less than that for you today."

Sweet. Good #1.

I had to run and take an exam, so I left my wheels and tires in their custody to finish until I returned.

I got back an hour later, and my tires were mounted and I was stoked. Then I looked at them.

They were on the right way (Potenza RE070's), but they used clamp on weights! I specifically asked for sticky weights, and I got clamp on. I was furious. I didn't want them to mar the rim surface even further, and I let the manager know. Did I mention that they balanced the wheels without removing the OLD sticky weights? So I had sticky weights from before, and they balanced the wheels with them still on. Bullshit. I'm here, talking forced induction to one of the counter people, with a set of lightweight-ish and WIDE 17's with some of the stickiest OEM tires on the market, and they don't think I'll notice. Hah.

They also had put 4 different valve stems on.

So I let them know, and the manager does what a GREAT manager SHOULD do when it comes to customer dissatisfaction on a labor issue.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I'll have them fix it right now, no charge."

I thought that was acceptable, and I went and picked up some brake fluid (what do you know? My fluid didn't arrive today either).

I walked over, and said "do I need a slip of paper to pay for the mounting?" The manager said, "nope, free of charge. I apologize for the mistake."

Imagine that! A manager that stands behind the services provided, and is willing to do what he can to make it right. At pep-boys no less! I thought it was a much blonder, much larger, and much less neo-esque Steve that I had met.

So that was my justice for the day.

I called Lachute Subaru about my coilover situation, and Mark is still MIA (or so I am told) and I am getting frustrated about that. I called AZP about my fluid and was assured that he'd "look into it."

Just my story for the day.

Hope tomorrow goes better for you, but it's nice to hear that some people still do stand behind their work. Good skills on calling 'em out, too. I'd never do something like that cause I'm kind of a pussy about it...

good to hear it Phil!

our local pep-boys closed down a year or two ago much to our chagrin, basically we're left with a few local places that do the job but are kinda expensive and rather slow

You went to Pep Boys? Do you have any idea what kind of idiots they let work there?

People did that crap all the time when I was there because they were too lazy to clean the surface for the weights. Make sure those stick ons stay on, too as they get some kind of crappy ones that don't stick well.

Steve

thats a good story considering it was a pot boys. i hate stupid kids working at auto parts/service places

there are very few places i can go to get relaible service anymore.

Goes to show that there are still some good people in this world. Sucks that you had to go through all that bs though but glad you got some nice sticky tires to play with.

Pep Boys. Good lord, I've been started.

My dad took his car to Pep Boys to get his brakes worked on a long time ago... he had a Ford... Escort... I think. It was a long time ago. So anyway, they finish the job and my siblings and I get into his car for the drive home. We get onto the highway and my dad notices something odd about the car. Brakes weren't working properly and the car wasn't responding properly, either. He immediately pulled off of the road and called for a tow.

If I remember right, the Universal Joint and the brakes were messed up to hell (maybe it was the wheels and brakes, I forget). The car was dangerous to drive, and it wasn't that way when he took it to them. Since then, we've avoided Pep Boys like the plague.

Bleh. Good thing you got somebody who stood behind the work, though.

Oh, I saw more than my fair share of annoyances.

One guy DROPPED a wheel and tire, intentionally, from a shoulder high car on a lift.

Another guy just raised the lift to full extension and didn't back it down onto the stops.

Another guy put wheels ON a car using an impact wrench, but no torque stick and no torque wrench.

I saw some bad shit there. But they are willing to mount used tires and I needed to take advantage of that.

Some shithead used an impact wrench to put the wheels on my car at some point in its life. Not while I owned it, I can tell you that much; I change my own wheels.

But I noticed that one of the wheels has a different lug nut on it. Really different. As in not even close to the same. And when I went to swap wheels last winter, I also noticed that the person who lost my original lug nut decided that since his replacement wouldn't go on, he'd just take an impact wrench to it. Therefore, one of my threads is completely different from all of the rest, and no lug nut but the shitty replacement will fit on it. I'm getting a set of new wheels and tires this summer... and it worries me like nothing else that they won't go on properly because of it.

Anybody know how to replace the lug? Do I really need to get a new axle?

God... stupid people piss me off. They should seriously have an exam that you have to pass before you can work on cars professionally. And it had better be a damn hard exam, too.

I absolutely despise big chains like NTB, Pep-Boy, Walmart, Jiffy Lube. Glad everything worked out though. Not to hijack your thread but I have a similar horror story. I had my Toyos installed Friday and NTB scratched all of my new WRX wheels near the valve stems. I complained to the manager and he offered me some store credit. I told him that I wouldn’t need store credit because I wouldn't be returning. In compensation he offered me $200. On the positive side I can now afford new brakes.

Car stuff is normally the kind of work that "if you want it done right then you got to do it yourself." But tires involve machines that very few people have.

Yes... indeed. Calibration... balancing... those can't be helped. That, and I have only basic tools, so I had a guy down at Cole's Muffler take a breaker bar to the bolt holding my old chrome tip on. God was it funny to watch the guy try different stuff before just destroying it. XD And they did it for free, to boot. I like them.

I've got a nice, gas impact wrench... but none of our house circuits can handle it without throwing the breaker. Too bad, really.

Blah... I need sleep.

I replaced all my front lug studs by just unbolting the ABS tone wheel, hammering the studs out, and pulling the new ones in with a stack of washers and a nut. AutoZone carries the studs for like 99 cents apiece or something.

They do have tests - ASE certs. Problem with places like Pep Boys where they claim ASE cert is that there may be one guy who has a cert there and that's what they use to claim it. They pay $8.50/hr to mount tires and $14 FLAT RATE to mechanics at Pep Boys. Anyone with experience and certs will be somewhere else. I always recommend the little guy who has his and has done the shit for years.

Steve

yeah. People working at auto parts stores make nearly no money. I make $8.50 an hour. Not that I do any kind of mechanical work except turn rotors, and test alternators/starters, but still. I don't trust anyone who makes less than $25/hr working on my car without watching them working on it. They seem to be a little more careful when you do that.