I went to a Wal-Mart store for tire service, as one of my tires had a blowout in the wall the size of a baseball. I often monitor the condition of my tires. While at the Wal-mart auto shop, I took a closer inspection also to the inside walls of my tires, and discovered a crack wearing in the walls of 2 other tires. This could have been from the intense summer heat in the parking lot, as my tires had plenty of tread remaining.
I've always gotten good wear of tires in the 30 plus years I've been driving. I spoke with the woman who was writing the invoice, and the supervisor, who was supposed to ensure my exact specifications were completed as requested. I asked got specific clarity that they replace the cracked tires, along with the blowout, with new tires... And the new tires placed on the rear for safety.
I also ask that they take the good rear tire and use it as a spare. After paying for the job and then going to my car, I inspected to ensure they'd done the job as I'd specified, which we had gone over very clearly. No they had not. The good tire from the rear was missing altogether. They had put a new tire on the front. The only spare tire I had in the trunk was the blown out tire with the hole in it's wall the size of a baseball.
I was horrified. I was scheduled to go to Charleston SC for a followup appointment with orthopedics as I had a cast from having broken my wrist. I spoke with the staff and learned that they had taken the good tire from the rear and put in into a pile of tires inside the shop, nearly ripping me off of a perfectly good tire. I work hard to earn a living to make sure I have at least the necessities in life.
To have a monster billionaire company like Wal-Mart literally try to rip me off was, to say the least, aggravating. Rather than even offer me a sincere apology and immediately initiate correction of the problem, the staff (except for the woman greeter, who had a half-way decent demeanor) acted like they were 'half-witted about what even a half-way prudent person would have done.
I certainly let the supervisor know how I felt about the matter and their putting my safety in jeopardy; and that I had a life to attend to, rather than having spend double time there for such negligence.inside I felt very annoyed but kept my cool, considering the circumstances. The supervisor whom I'd given the specific instructions to actually got a bit of an attitude, as though he was trying to turn it around on me somehow.
Of course there was no way he could since he simply didn't ensure the job was done as we had very clearly agreed. I could have gotten stuck in a 60-mile stretch on US Highway 17 between Georgetown and Charleston, where there is nothing but woodsland. That could have cost me quite a bit since I would have had no replacement spare tire. If I'd had a flat tire, I'd had opened my trunk to find nothing but a blown out tire for a spare.
In this case I asked to see the General Manager of the store. This situation was bad enough I felt it necessary to insist on speaking with the General Manager of the store. They finally got the job corrected. I don't think it even dawned on them to even verbalize an apology. They must be trained to never apologize to any customers, like it would be admitting guilt or something.
I was certainly not interested in any type of civil action for their careless, or cheating 'mishap.' All I cared about was, when it comes to the tires on the vehicle I drive, I have to ensure they my care is as safe as possible. On top of this, I learned very shortly afterwards that the individual who did the job, had disconnected something in my electrical system, which ended up costing me a trip to my mechanic.
Since my car is a Mercedes, repairs are considerably expensive. That's pretty sad. They tried ripping me off of my tires, and in the process incompetently didn't reconnect something they disconnected. I was not about to take my car back to Wal-Mart, and put it in their hands.
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