National tyre and autocentres - BEWARE!

sandman75

This is a bit long winded as copied it straight off my blogg
(edited for sweary bits)

Yesterday I had the pleasure of travelling from Newcastle to Leeds to meet up with a few friends.
Before setting out I noticed that I had a soft(not flat) front tyre. I went along to the local supermarket petrol station to try and get it sorted. So I inserted me cash (remember when air was free at the garage and the man who used to put the petrol in your car for you did this?) and tried to inflate the tyre. I then spent a leisurely 10 minutes trying to use the inflator air pump thingy to no avail. The tyre wouldn't inflate.

So off I went to the nearest local tyre place I could think of. In this case National Tyre and Autocentre
I pull up and get the usual bemused looks when people see my car. Speak to the guy in the service area who says he'll have a fitter check it. As I was in a bit of a rush it probably seemed longer than it actually was before the fitter showed up to try inflaiting the tyre.
To give him his due he did make an attempt at inflaiting the tyre he put the air line on and had a good go at it for oh all of 30 seconds before deciding that as the tyre wouldn't inflate I deffinatly needed a new tyre. My travelling partner questioned him as to if it could be a problem with the valve and I wondered if it could be a problem of the tyre not sealing to the alloy wheel due to possible corrosion(a problem I've had before).
None of these seemed to be worth considering for the fitter though. He was convinced a new tyre was the only way to go.
On the basis that I can get tyres a lot cheaper and I thought he was talking out his !!!! I decided to leave national and go to my usual tyre supply place who I cant recommend enough.

I pulled in straight away and he had the car up on the jack and the wheel off in less than 2 minutes and the wheel in a water bath to check for any obvious air loss. Unfortunately it wasn't as straight forward as that so he then checked the valve and found a small rubber O ring in the valve stem. The O ring had bunched up and got into the stem causing the tyre to slowly deflate.
The O ring was off my dice shaped dust cap and is there to give a seal on the cap and prevent the cap being screwed on too tightly. My tyre fitter said its pretty common that this happens and even more common that he gets people coming in for second opinions after using the major fast fit centres such as national , kwik fit , nationwide(now Halfords) etc. I think his exact words where "bunch of money grabbing POTATO'S the lot of 'um"
It seems I'm not the only one either as a lass I follow on twitter , tinytwinks is having similar issues. Now as I don't know the full details its not fair for me to give speculative info on whats happened to her but no doubt if you check her twitter feed you'll be able to see whats going on with her and her problems.

So whats happened now? Well I've mailed national through there website contact us pages to raise a complaint and the response time given is 48 hours according to the confirmation message I got back. Now its Sunday so Will give it 48 hours from 9am Monday and will update you with what happens.

s_b

the other side

i saw my tyre was about flat and seeing as my car stands out in a crowd because ive done things to it i realised doing 400 miles might cause issues with the babylon
i therefore took it into National Tyre and Autocentre and all i wanted was some free air but with it being a saturday and full of other people wanting free air i had to wait
eventually a very nice person came to see me and tried to give me free air but said it was impossible because there was something wrong
he then wanted to remove my wheel to give it a proper inspection
i then left annoyed that i didnt get free air or even a balloon

i then went to the place i normally get free air from and told the owner who was less busy what had happened at National Tyre and Autocentre and he took the wheel off (remember National Tyre and Autocentre werent allowed to do this by poster) inspected it found that it was legal and gained brownie points by finding a faulty valve core and sorted it

those my learned friends are both views


now i put to the members, that it is quite possible that this tyre by the owners own admission had trundled around on it trying to get free air, but what we dont know is for how many days/ months this tyre might have been underinflated.now consider it is quite highly likely that the internal sidewall of the tyre could be severely damaged and an inspection with the tyre off the rim is the only way to check this

i therefore put it to the members this thread could read as


National Tyre and Autocentre put some air in my tyre which subsequently blew out on the motorway killing 5 people and im being prosecuted,do i have any recompense against the National Tyre and Autocentre fitter or company?

SCO

s_b wrote: »

the other side

i saw my tyre was about flat and seeing as my car stands out in a crowd because ive done things to it i realised doing 400 miles might cause issues with the babylon
i therefore took it into National Tyre and Autocentre and all i wanted was some free air but with it being a saturday and full of other people wanting free air i had to wait
eventually a very nice person came to see me and tried to give me free air but said it was impossible because there was something wrong
he then wanted to remove my wheel to give it a proper inspection
i then left annoyed that i didnt get free air or even a balloon

i then went to the place i normally get free air from and told the owner who was less busy what had happened at National Tyre and Autocentre and he took the wheel off (remember National Tyre and Autocentre werent allowed to do this by poster) inspected it found that it was legal and gained brownie points by finding a faulty valve core and sorted it

those my learned friends are both views


now i put to the members, that it is quite possible that this tyre by the owners own admission had trundled around on it trying to get free air, but what we dont know is for how many days/ months this tyre might have been underinflated.now consider it is quite highly likely that the internal sidewall of the tyre could be severely damaged and an inspection with the tyre off the rim is the only way to check this

i therefore put it to the members this thread could read as


National Tyre and Autocentre put some air in my tyre which subsequently blew out on the motorway killing 5 people and im being prosecuted,do i have any recompense against the National Tyre and Autocentre fitter or company?

The national centre never offered to check the valve they just said he needed a new tyre. That is what the problem is.

I was told by a Kwick-fit branch i needed two track rod ends got them and went to my usual mechanic, guess what nothing wrong with the old ones.

It is common practice as far as i can see that the bigger centres do try and rip-off customers.

Nebo247

On the subject of National Tyres.....
I booked 4 new tyres on the National Tyres website, to be fitted the following day at the Bootle branch. Continental ECO contact 5's. I put my car details in the website and offered me these tyres for £545.

On the morning of the fitting the branch told me I had ordered the wrong tyres - having selected a "V" rating rather than a "Y" rating. Luckily they had the same tyres in a "Y" rating - for me only £220 pounds more.

My old tyres were practically bald and needed changing urgently - couldnt re-order with someone else (later wish I had). I paid the cash and drove off with 4 new tyres.

Later that day I noticed that they had fitted Continental Sport 2 tyres. NOT what I wanted! Rang to complain but no joy - wrote to them to explain that the tyres they actually gave me were only £550 on other tyre websites - they had overcharged me anyway.

Its a neat scam. At the 11th hour they tell you that you ordered the wrong tyres (their web based system recommended them in the first place) and they can offer you the same tyres for your car for a lot more money. Tyres you can buy cheaper elsewhere. You end up out of pocket and with tyres you didnt want.

they offered me £20 compensation - I refused to accept. They owe me £200 plus the compensation for the decepetion. Even when provided with evidence the same tyres are cheaper elsehwere they refuse to back down.

DO NOT BUY TYRES FROM NATIONAL!!!!

paddyrg

sandman75 wrote: »

...My tyre fitter said its pretty common that this happens and even more common that he gets people coming in for second opinions after using the major fast fit centres such as national , kwik fit , nationwide(now Halfords) etc. I think his exact words where "bunch of money grabbing POTATO'S the lot of 'um"

Yep, they're in business to make money. They do this by having lower-skilled labour (like the fitter you had) to make up for having branches everywhere and a bunch of stock on hand. They are for convenience, not art. They are the Maccy D's of tyres.

matty538

Nebo247 wrote: »

My old tyres were practically bald and needed changing urgently - couldnt re-order with someone else (later wish I had). I paid the cash and drove off with 4 new tyres.

May I suggest you dont let your tyres get this low then. Not only for your safety but the safety of every other road user that doesnt let tyres get as dangerously low as you did.

wary

When I first started using them several years ago, I found them quite good and upfront. However, I went there last year and was shocked when they quoted me (by the time they'd added on balancing, tracking etc) close on £1000 for 4 new tyres!!! When he saw I wasn't interested, he knocked it down to £800, which shows just what kind of mark-up they have. He even followed me out to my car, insisting that I wouldn't get quality tyres any cheaper.

I'm glad I didn't accept his bargain £800 quote as I went down the road to the another local tyre place and saved myself a few hundred quid.

They've certainly lost my custom going forward.