I bought a certified used vehicle from Olathe Toyota with an added on wraparound warranty in October. With the interest and sales tax, it set me back about $17,000.
I have the Tires for Life program at Olathe Toyota. All I have to do is take care of all my maintenance there. I also knew that tires could only be replaced at the Olathe Toyota and no reimbursement for tires would be made elsewhere.
Indeed, I got all of my maintenance there, including the 60,000 mile maintenance in which my tires were rotated and balanced on August 06 at 59,208 miles. I thought the expensive $551.58 60,000 mile maintenance that took 6 hours to perform would mean my car would be in good condition for some time.By August I spent over $1020.00 on maintenance alone at Olathe Toyota.
Unfortunately, I noticed that one of my tires was losing air (one week later at the most) and took it in to Tyrell's auto service on August 17 at 59,928 miles. After inspecting the tire, they discovered that I had a cracked rim which was causing the right front tire to lose air. Also, the technician and I noticed that my left front tire was separating.
I called Debbie at the Olathe Toyota service department and complained about this. She said she couldn't imagine that the technicians wouldn't have noticed the cracked rim while doing the 60,000 mile maintenance. She assumed it happened afterwards. I told her about the separated tire and she said since it had been 700 miles, the tire must have separated since then. I told her that the tread was quite low and it couldn't have lost that much tread in 700 miles. She said that the rim wasn't covered and would cost $349.00 to replace. She said she would give me $35.00 back for the tire mounting/rotating and fees and I could come in and get my free tire (s) for replacement. I told her I would make an appointment as soon as I could replace the cracked rim.
I bought a salvaged rim at Caruthers in Pittsburg, Kansas for $160.00 and had it installed by a technician at Tyrell's on Friday August 20. I asked the technician if it was a good rim and he said it would be easy to see if something were wrong with it.
After putting the new rim on and with the separating tire safely in the trunk while I used a spare, I called Debbie at Olathe Toyota to make an appointment. I explained that she needed to be sure that the tires would be in stock since I have to drive 2.5 miles to get there. She said Monday at 1 PM would be fine.
On Monday, August 23 I arrived at my appointment between 1230 and 1245. The technician told me that they had no tires. I explained how far I drove and that I made the appointment with Debbie for that day at 1PM with the assurance that the tires would be there for me. He told me the only thing he could do would be to loan me a car and have me come back the next day. I asked them if there was something else he could do, because I would have to make another 5 hour trip. Even though I know I could only get the tires there, after they made such a big mistake I thought they would purchase some for me or somehow work it out so I could get the tires at a Toyota dealer 30 miles away from me. He said no. I told him to forget it, that I would just pay for them elsewhere.
I got a follow up card over the weekend with a number to call the service manager, Larry McClellan, if I was dissatisfied. I called Larry McClellan, the service manager and explained all of the above. He said that they don't give loaner cars, so they had already gone above and beyond the call of customer satisfaction. He told me that I was offered the loaner car and that I said I wouldn't come back, and that this was noted in my file. Does that mean that I'm on a black list?
Would any of this have happened if they had looked at my cars tires and measured the tread correctly? I shouldn't even of had to go back the first time if they had paid attention. Also, I don't think my cracked rim just suddenly happened after the 60,000 mile maintenance; 700 mile wear or no.
To top it off, after I made another trip for the tires, they weren't there as guaranteed after I made a five mile round trip. I don't think this is good customer service. They should have either had the tires there as agreed, paid me to replace them, or arrange for me to get them somewhere else. I guess I'm blackballed there now because I demanded satisfaction.
Later, I sent an email with this information to [email protected]. They then contacted Olathe Toyota. The general manager and service manager told me they couldnt even refund the money I had to spend on three tires they neglected to replace twice (even though it would have been cheaper than if they put on their usual tires).
Warren
Pittsburg, Kansas
U.S.A.
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