Last week I took my car to get an oil change and tire
rotation at the Renton, WA location of Wal-Mart. On the way home, we noticed that the car started to wobble. We checked the lug nuts and 3 of the 4 wheels on my car had loose lugnuts!!! We took the car back to Wal-Mart (after tightening) and I took the retard (Jeremy) from the tire center around the parking lot.
The front end of the car was all over the lot! All he had to say was, "Yep. There's something wrong." We made him put the tires back the way they were before the rotation and to check the balance. He was VERY unwilling (it was near closing time.) He was only willing to check 1 tire. We had to yell at him to get him to check the other tires (I was standing right there in the bay with my car!)
The balance checked out fine and we had the tires put back on. We drove home and had no problems until 24 hours later and 40 miles on the freeway at 60mph. My Fiancee was driving home from work, in Seattle, when she heard a clang and felt some wobble in the front again. She had me drive the car I felt nothing. We went out to dinner and on the way home, I heard a clang and the car shook and wobbled like the tires were falling off! I checked the lugnuts again and they were loose! We removed the wheel to see what was wrong and we saw that the lugnuts were cross-threaded and stripped on the front-passenger tire. The posts also looked damaged.
My Fiancee called Wal-Mart back and they were VERY quick to say
that they would fix it. I had to miss work the next day because I had no car to get there. We fixed the car enough to take it to the tire dealer across the street. After 2 days, they called and said that the car was fixed. They said that all it needed was new
lugnuts. The new lugnuts are longer than the posts! We also had to coax the tire dealer to fix the alignment and to take the car out on the freeway. The car still doesn't feel right.
Today we called Wal-Mart back to reimburse us for the
damage to the car. They gave us the run-around and are trying to
get us to sign a "Liability Waiver" so we can't hold them leagally responsible if anything else is wrong. I should have known this would was a crock of crap when Wal-Mart wouldn't give us a written statement promising that they would pay for the car's damages. We are now seeking legal advice and are considering a lawsuit.
Sincerely,
Matthew Parish
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