In the month of January I contacted Dolson Avenue Auto & Tire company, 125 Dolson Avenue, Middletown, New York 10940, to get a quote on a set of tires, Yokohama Avid, size 205 60 16. Chris, the manager, quoted me a complete price for four tires, installed, etc. At $315, which I accepted, and instructed him to get the tires into his shop, and I'd be
in to have them installed.
When I got to their garage, about 2 to 3 weeks later, (delayed for business reasons), Chris told me that he could not sell me the Yokohama's for that price. I asked him what price could he offer, and he came back with $91 per tire, installed. This was substantially above his previously quoted price but I was there, and decided to accept that price, but because the price was higher, I had him install only two tires at that time. He installed the two tires, I paid and left. About a week later, I came back and had him install a third tire.
I noticed that the car was not handling as well as I expected a premium tire would do, so I checked for under inflation. This was when I discovered that he had not installed Yokohama Avid tires, but without telling me, had put Bridgestone Fuzion tires on the car. That tire retails for $65, and, I believe, has a 40,000 mile warranty. The Yokohama Avid is an 80,000 mile warranty tire. I drive about 25,000 to 30,000 miles annually, so a 40,000 mile tire would need replacing in about 14 to 15 months. The Yokohama would get me at least two years or more, and was a prime requirement in selecting that tire.
I called Chris when I discovered the Fuzions on my car. He said that they had not made a mistake and that he had told me that the price he quoted me of $91 per tire was for Fuzion. This is not true.
The word Fuzion was never mentioned in our conversation, either on the phone or in person with Chris. I had purchased a set of Fuzion at Firestone Auto Center, in Middletown, NY, about 14 months ago, and they performed so badly on my car that I brought them back and had Firestone replace them with a Firestone Champion tire. Firestone has a record of this, since the matter went through The Tire Rack, where I had purchased my tires, all the way up to Firestone/Bridgestone headquarters before they agreed to exchange the tires, at no cost to me.
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