Just do a quick google search for Tire Kingdom complaints and you'll find hundreds of complaints against this company. Mine is just one in a long line of customers who were royally ripped off.
Sept 20 - Truck runs hot and breaks down under bridge at St Andrews Rd. GPS shows TK as the nearest mechanic. I call them and they insure me that they are a full service facility. I have the tow truck carry my turck there and the nightmare begins. I have a 96 Isuzu Rodeo. I am from Georgia so I am basically stranded in Columbia, SC.
The Diagnosis is that it is the water pump. The written estimate is 911.00 bucks. Yeah I know. It was a bit pricey but I was stranded and said "Go ahead and fix it". I told them I would give them until Monday to fix it and they said they would "easily" have it done by then.
Called a ride from GA and went home. (3 plus hours 1 way) Got a call Friday. The guy was very apologetic but said the timing belt and hardware would have to be replaced as well. The price jumped to $1552.00. Wow! The truck was already in pieces (conviently) so I said "Just fix it".
Called a couple times Sat. And Mon about 8am to make sure it was done and they said it was all ready to go and they had already test drove it.
Got there around noon Monday and paid the guy "before" I test drove it. (Stupid) Got in and headed home. It ran a bit rough wasn't sure why. With in 30 miles from the TK it broke down on the interstate. Had the tow truck take it back to TK. Told the guy the timing was not set. He said the timing is "perfect" and it needed new sparkplugs. I told them I wasn't giving them any more money. They said we'll put them in "no charge".
The moron working on the truck snapped a sparkplug wire during his "free" install. (55 buck for new wires)
New plugs in, no change... They began to list new parts it needed after each test drive. I kept insisting it was the timing. About 6pm Monday (they close at 8pm) I forced them to by a timing light (they didn't have one) and check the timing. It was off Duh. About 7pm they decided they would have to tear down the engine to set the timing. (2 hour job) We said "fix it, we'll pick it up tomorrow" and went to a hotel.
Tuesday, timing (by there standards) is set perfect. Truck still runs like crap. At this point, I bring the District Mgr into the mix. Told him the story and ask how they were gonna make this right. They already had my money so he didn't want to give me anything. He finally said he would give me $200.00 and my overnight expenses. That came to $403.00. We had to buy everything because we had not planned on a hotel stay Monday night.
I took the 403.00 credit and headed back to Georgia. The truck ran horrible but survived the trip. We avoided the interstates because the truck would barely go above 50 mph.
Next took the truck to the local Isuzu dealer. Guess what? The timing was off!!! Isuzu said it would take 800 bucks to fix it. Called the TK D.M. And he would only agree to pay 500 of the 800 due.
Friday the the timing is set and the truck runs 95% better. Took it home and said i would replace the sparkplugs myself. We assumed running the truck with bad timing had fragged the new plugs. (not the case)
3 of the 6 plug wires were not even hooked to the sparkplugs! It was a miracle this truck even ran.
Summary
Installed new plugs and actually connected the plug wires. The truck purrs like a kitten and I am just happy to have it back.
Had a lot of expenses I never got back. Missed a week of work (truck is my work vehicle) so I'm out about $2000.00.
Beware the TireKingdom my friends. Other company partners include;
Ntb
Big o tires
Merchants Tire and Auto
Use at your own risk...
Ernie XXXXXX
Maysville, Georgia
U.S.A.
0 comments