Wal-mart
Auto Center Employees Lacked Experience and Skipped Basic Tire Checks

In a sence this is a consumer complaints. First let me inform you that I am an auto service technician and am A.S.E. Certified with over 25 years experience. I am certified in all fields automotive except for transmission. I was at Wal-Mart about 4 months ago I had to have 2 tires for my car a 91 Toyota Tercel (by the way I am also a certified Toyota tech).

I was running around town after work and had a blow outand needed tires for the front of the car. As the time was after all the local tire shops was closed for the night the only choice I had was Wal-Mart. I entered the service depatment and requested 2 goodyear tires. The wait was far to long because the employees they had was more interested in standing and talking than PROPERLY attending to customer vehicles (this is what happens when you hire minimum wage untrained uncaring people) (don't they realise your safty in your car is in the care of their hands).

When they took the tires and wheels from my car the disassembly was normal enough but after they mounted the first tire on the wheel they installed the assembly on the balancer started it rotating and the tech turned away to mount the other tire on the remaining wheel. The employee never watch the wheel to see if it was running true (strait) or look to see if the wheel was bent warped ao if there may have been a tire problem at this time before installing it back on my car (was the same prosses and inatention to the other tire.

I brought all this to the attention of the service manager he told me the employee in question had 20 years experience! What a crock this was not a 20 year tech her was making rookie mistakes. I ask the service manager if the employees there was certified, all I could get out of him is "our employees are Wal-Mart certified" not a single person including the manager (who had no auto repair experience) had what I would concider an acceptible certification.

In the automotive fields the only industry recignised certifications are ASE (the most recignised of them all plus you need two years verifiable experience to get ASE certified) IMACA (you will find this one at most major tire centers like firestone for instance) and all the auto makers (chevrolet, toyota, Cadillac, etc, etc) Please do not trust Wal-Mart with your car care needs find a technician that has the needed experience to properly service your car (even for your oil changes).

I have had a couple of other bad experiences with ole Wally world and have contacted their offices all I got from them was "we would like to send you a $25 dollar Wal-Mart card for the inconvenience" I told them no thanks I did not want a gift card what I want is properly experienced personel in the automotive dept., but this will not happen because Wal-Mart is not willing to pay for the proper personel and there rep is so bad that most auto techs would never work there.

Most shops would not hire a former Wal-Mart employee to work on cars at their shop because they don't want it to be found out they have a former Wal-Mart employee working for them, because they would likly loose customers.

Company: Wal-mart
Country: USA
State: Arkansas
City: Hot Springs
Address: Central Ave

  <     >