Halfords damaged my wheels during tyre change - Advice

xiaolonguk

Guys

Im after some advice, i have recently took my car into Halfords to have all four tyres change. Upon inspection today, ive noticed that when they have changed the tyres either the machine they use, or the tyre engineer doing the work has managed to strip the powder-coat from the top edge of the rim. You can literally see that the powder coat has been dragged around the circumference for about 3 inches. My guess is this is where the tyre bead has been broken to remove the tyre

There is visible damage to all four wheels in differing severities, im going to call the store tomorrow but was wondering where I stand ?

I believe they are going to say this is curbing damage, however the wheels are in perfect condition, curbing usually chews the wheel up, this isnt the case.

Ive done a quick google, and as the wheels are powder coated its circa 100£ per wheel to have them repaired.

Thoughts ?

Nasqueron

Did you inspect the car after it was in for the service and flag up before you left the store or was it days/weeks after? If the latter you haven't got much of a chance as they'll just say you did it yourself. Can you prove they did it?

xiaolonguk

I didnt collect the car, i was working away from home, so my brother did. I have only seen it today. Its hard to prove that its them, but you can see the damage is new, as soon as I saw it, I called the store, but it was out of workshop hours. You can see that the damage is covered in tyre soap, so that implies it was during the same event.

AndyMc.....

xiaolonguk wrote: »

I didnt collect the car, i was working away from home, so my brother did. I have only seen it today. Its hard to prove that its them, but you can see the damage is new, as soon as I saw it, I called the store, but it was out of workshop hours. You can see that the damage is covered in tyre soap, so that implies it was during the same event.

Another way of looking at it is the damage was already there before Halfords worked on the car.

missile

Good luck :beer::beer::beer:

forgotmyname

£100 per wheel?? Do they need repairs other than the powdercoat?

Local place to me charge about £40 to strip and powdercoat. There is another place that gets lots of comments on the forums who are even cheaper but they can be patchy with the quality of their work.

xiaolonguk

That was the first quote i got. The wheels are matt black which seems to bump the price. Also the rim size seems to change it to.

The wheels need zero repair that would be caused by curbing etc... They are in perfect order. Like I say you can see on each tyre where they have broken the bead seal. You couldn't damage the powder coat like it's happened driving the car. How do I post a photo. It'll make more sense :rotfl:

DoaM

xiaolonguk wrote: »

How do I post a photo.

Upload it to a photo hosting site and then post a (broken) link to it here. e.g.

www . website . com/pathtoimage.blah

System

£40 a wheel the last time I paid for powder coating.

AdrianC

Photo definitely needed.

If the powder coating has failed that badly on something as predictable as a tyre change, then the question is whether it was done properly in the first place.

droopsnoot

I would say you've little chance of getting anywhere unless you, and the Halfords fitter, went around the vehicle both before and after the tyres were fitted, agreed there were no defects before the work was done, and that there are now. There's no way they're just going to hand over £400 to get your wheels fully restored unless you can prove that they caused the damage. A few quid for a goodwill gesture, maybe. For future reference, if your wheels are perfect, make a big deal of pointing it out before they even touch them.


A good tyre fitting company will insist on walking around the car with you before they start work - if you have the kind of wheels that warrant it, or are particularly susceptible to damage - just to make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen.