Can't trust Discount Tire for simplest of tasks

GraniteCrystal

New member
It saddens me to write this, but after a company (maybe it's just one location?) repeatedly fails to perform the most simple of tasks in such a way as to put myself and my family in danger, I feel compelled to change who I do business with.

As those who follow my build thread will remember, the last time I took my Jeep to Discount Tire to have them rotate the tires, they didn't properly tighten the spare tire. There are three bolts on the spare tire and two of them I could actually unscrew with my fingers. Scary stuff when you consider a 37" tire bouncing off the back of the Jeep at 70mph going down the freeway. I called up DT after the incident and told them my findings and reminded them that there job is not one to take lightly and this stuff matters. They agreed they'd bring it up in their next staff meeting.

Yesterday I took my Jeep in again. Same location. Asked them to balance and rotate tires, asked them to ensure that all lug nuts would be properly torqed to 95 ft-lbs. They assured me they would. I came back and picked it up later that day. Drove it home two miles and went straight to the torque wrench. Put it on one of the lugs of the passenger front tire. 95 ft-lbs. Click. 100 ft-lbs. Click. And on up until I was at 115 ft-lbs and it still wasn't turning it at all. I did a few with similar results. They had all been over torqued. I loosened them all, then re-torqued them to the proper 95 ft-lbs.

Today I drove it a bit farther to church. On the highway, the TPMS light comes on. I thought that odd, so when we came out of church, I checked the pressure on driver front tire. 37 psi. Holy crap! So DT took it upon themselves to fill up my 37" Coopers to 37 psi. But wait...not all of them. Nope, the passenger side rear they put at 21 psi. Just for fun I guess. I ended up spending 10 mins in the parking lots airing 3 of them down from 37 psi and one them up till all were back to 26psi. Even the spare was over-aired. Glad I have ARB dual compressor.

Lesson learned: I'll never go back to DT. Torque and tire pressure are super simple tasks that have big ramifications. It's important to get these right and there is no excuse for not doing so. I'll be doing my own rotations from now on and trying to go somewhere else to get them balanced.
 

fiend

Caught the Bug
Recently got two new tires for my mazda at the local Firestone. I told them no fewer than four times that the two new ones (rear) must match the two older (but still with lots of life) ones. What happened? They put on mismatching tires. I picked it up in the dark and didn’t notice. I see it the next day, call them, and the guy on the phone basically admits that he knew they were the wrong ones when they put them on. Either he didn’t raise it with his colleague or manager or they figured I wouldn’t notice. On top of that, they charged me for TPMS service when I don’t even have sensors. Also over-torqued the lug nuts, of course. Unbelievable. Will never go back.
 
Last edited:

wjtstudios

Hooked
I’m sorry to hear you guys are having such issues. I can say that it might be a location issue. The guys here in Michigan that I have used for years have been very responsive to my requests. I’ve gotten to know a couple of the guys there and they know my Jeep. Everything is torqued to 95, and I still double check because I’m super ADD about my rig. But it’s always right. They know not to touch the psi. Only reason I wanted to chime in is that I hope it’s a location thing. I’ve only had good experiences with DT.


Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app
 

BaddestCross

Active Member
Finding a good anything is hard. No one has touched my Jeep but me except for welding on my C gussets... Had ORE do that even though it's a 2+ hour drive for me.

Freaking me out trying to find a shop closer to me to do gears. I have one mechanic in town that works in my other cars and I expect to have to take them back at least once to correct something but I like the guy so I put up with it and at least he takes care of any issues without a fight.

As far as tire shops, I use a couple mom-and-pop shops that actually listen to me when I say that I only want 28psi in my tires. The big chain stores I've dealt with out of necessity in the past have told me that they have to follow the factory specs on the plate. Probably because they don't want to get sued for "improper inflation" or something.

That said, I've only seen one shop actually use a torque wrench on my tires in my life of buying tires and it actually floored me when they did it.

Glad nothing catastrophic happened to you or your family. I'd be looking for a new shop too.

--
Build Thread - Adventures of Fiona - https://wayalife.com/showthread.php?t=47407
 

WJCO

Meme King
We went in for a balance recently. They stripped one of our studs, but told us about it right away and gave us a voucher for another shop to have it taken care of for free. I ended up repairing it to save time.

Other than that, we've had good experiences there. Sorry to hear you didn't.
 

JKbrick

Active Member
I too hate to say it but I have switched away from Discount tire. While they did correct the problem eventually, I have found happiness somewhere else, until they mess up.


Sent from my iPad using WAYALIFE mobile app
 

BaddestCross

Active Member
Only thing I can say is that each shop is run by and has different people working there. The same brand shop may be 💯 better than the last one across town.

I haven't seen anything to make me think that DT, as a whole, is anything but a good company but unfortunately an individual employee can ruin the rep of a good company in seconds.

--
Build Thread - Adventures of Fiona - https://wayalife.com/showthread.php?t=47407
 

Edwrds

Caught the Bug
We went in for a balance recently. They stripped one of our studs, but told us about it right away and gave us a voucher for another shop to have it taken care of for free. I ended up repairing it to save time.

Other than that, we've had good experiences there. Sorry to hear you didn't.

They did that to my buddies car then told him it was his fault who ever rotated his tires messed it up. Funny part they where the ones that did it and they didn’t fix it!


Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app
 

Edwrds

Caught the Bug
Wait till you buy new wheels and they scratch the shit out of them then you question them on it and the manager in front of everyone in the whole store acts like a lunatic tells you they’re going to get scratched anyway. I checked him real quick also had my wheels replaced for free. Now I’m treated like crap every time I go in there.


Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app
 

notnalc68

That dude from Mississippi
Only thing I can say is that each shop is run by and has different people working there. The same brand shop may be [emoji817] better than the last one across town.

I haven't seen anything to make me think that DT, as a whole, is anything but a good company but unfortunately an individual employee can ruin the rep of a good company in seconds.

--
Build Thread - Adventures of Fiona - https://wayalife.com/showthread.php?t=47407

True. You can find threads on here, where certain Discount Tire branches even balance bead locks, and others won’t.


Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app
 

notnalc68

That dude from Mississippi
Wait till you buy new wheels and they scratch the shit out of them then you question them on it and the manager in front of everyone in the whole store acts like a lunatic tells you they’re going to get scratched anyway. I checked him real quick also had my wheels replaced for free. Now I’m treated like crap every time I go in there.


Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app

That happened to me at the local Firestone. They did offer to fix it, but I told them I’d scuff them anyway, and they knocked a good bit off the price.


Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app
 

NevadaZielmeister

Caught the Bug
It sounds like they aired up the 4 tires on the ground and then conducted a 5 tire rotation and forgot to air up the spare. Because yeh, 37psi is what it reads on the side of the tire. So 40 psi for 40's, 42 psi for 42's, rinse, lather, repeat.
 

QuicksilverJK

Caught the Bug
Ultimately it is good practice to verify that your wheels are torqued and pressure is correct. I don't trust anybody but myself to work on my vehicles, and even then I sometimes go back for a second look [emoji849]


Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app
 

sipafz

Caught the Bug
Wait till you buy new wheels and they scratch the shit out of them then you question them on it and the manager in front of everyone in the whole store acts like a lunatic tells you they’re going to get scratched anyway. I checked him real quick also had my wheels replaced for free. Now I’m treated like crap every time I go in there.


Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app

I gotta ask, why do you still go there? Glutton for punishment? [emoji848]
 

sipafz

Caught the Bug
It saddens me to write this....

I really dislike anybody messing with my cars, house or basically anything of value. Unfortunately there are times when it can’t be avoided. You just have to accept the fact that the world is filled with idiots and constant vigilance is mandatory. Keep the expectations low and be pleasantly surprised when something is done right. Might sound like a shitty outlook, but I think it helps me keep my sanity.
 
Last edited:

NevadaZielmeister

Caught the Bug
Ultimately it is good practice to verify that your wheels are torqued and pressure is correct. I don't trust anybody but myself to work on my vehicles, and even then I sometimes go back for a second look [emoji849]

Wait, what? Even MY WORK?!?? I'm hurt.... where is my safe place? :crazyeyes:
 
Top Bottom