Wrong brand tyre damaged alloy not their fault

Olives_dad

At half past 4 on a Friday evening my wife phoned me to tell me that we had a puncture as it was a Friday night I told her to go to our local kwik fit and have them look at it, around 5pm she phoned me saying we needed a new tyre (no surprise there going on kwik fits previous reputation) so she told me they could fit a Bridgestone thinking hat was what was currently on the car for £260.50 which I told her just to go ahead so that it got fixed right away, on returning home around half past 5 I noticed that we now had 3 continental and 1 Bridgestone and also now one scratched diamond cut AMG Mercedes alloy so I phoned the centre spoke to the centre manager who told me my wife had asked if the tyres would match (the reason she asked this is because we had just handed an ml back to Mercedes contract hire and because there was different brands on the car they charged us for a new tyre) and he had said yes because they are the same size now lets be honest I think everybody would agree that she meant same kind so speaking to him about this he said that's not the case I advised him I would be down first thing Saturday morning to show him the damaged alloy, on arriving on Saturday morning he told me that the damage to the wheel was not his centres fault now my car has 2000 miles on it and I am pedantic regarding these wheels as this is what I work as, ( alloy wheel refurbishment) he then told me the regional manager Daniel would be in and he would speak to me regarding it,
Long story cut short I now have a different tyre than the others a damaged alloy that was not my fault and no admission of any wrong doing on their behalf absolutely disgusted by kwik fits attitude their manner and how condescending they are and that's to somebody that has been in the motor trade for over 20 years, so imagine how some timid people would be going in to their centres, so wrong.

Chopper_Read

Well lucky for you that you can repair the wheel. Your wife agreed to the Bridgestone tyre so I can't see how it's the garages fault. She could of looked or asked what was previously fitted.

andygb

The damaged alloy was not caused by you, but was it caused by the garage during fitting? If it was caused by your wife kerbing it, then you have no comeback.
I had flashy alloys on my last BMW, and even with correct size tyres they looked pretty shabby of a few months of wifey's parking technique.
I am guessing that your AMG wheels have a very straight flange, and the only way around that is to put a tyre with a protective/rubber strip around, and even then it will not stop all kerbing damage.

colino

As above, make sure its not kerbing (that no-one will admit to!) before going any further.
If it is slack-jawed tyre fitting, escalate a complaint to their HQ. The very least you will settle for is the alloy being refurbed and a matching tyre put in its place. (£260.50? FacePalm).

photome

Why is it the wrong brand tyre? If its the same size and rating it shouldnt be an issue.

Did your wife ask for the same brand and type of tyre?

The damage is another issue and could of been caused by KF but if they deny it, how do you prove it?

Lets hope they admit it and sort the wheel

phill99

You can't prove kwikfit damaged your wheel.

colino

There's a big difference between kerbing and the damage done by using a tyre-fitting machine wrongly or just using bars on soft alloys. Easy to tell, and if that is what you paid for 1 tyre, I'd be jumping up and down until they proved otherwise.

JQ.

The tyre is down to you. Why did your wife not check what tyres were already on the car? My wife has just been through the exact same situation and had to go to 3 different tyre places to get a matching tyre at 5pm on a Friday with 2 kids in the car.

Fair enough if they've damaged the alloy, but if I worked in wheel refurbishment I'd rather repair it myself for free than trust them to repair it to a decent standard.

TradePro

JQ. wrote: »

if I worked in wheel refurbishment I'd rather repair it myself for free than trust them to repair it to a decent standard.

I may be wrong, but it's more than possible that the OP cannot repair diamond cut wheels, they are very different to standard 'painted and lacquered' alloys.

daveyjp

There is no need to have matching brand of tyre, as long as size and ratings are the same. The only issue with Mercedes is they do sometimes have their own specification of tyre which are shown by an 'M' as part of the tyre size.

General concensus is the 'M' makes no difference, but on a lease car its potentially a nice little earner as they can argue the tyre is not to specification. If the new tyre isn't M spec and the others are you may have a valid claim against kwikfit.

System

daveyjp wrote: »

If the new tyre isn't M spec and the others are you may have a valid claim against kwikfit.

I doubt that very much unless an M spec tyre was specifically asked for at the time and not fitted. Would OPs wife be aware of that and specifically asked for one? Are most Merc drivers aware of that?