Tyre fitting problems, advice needed please.

I_am_spartacus

Hi Guys,

After a bit of help and advice, two parts to my thread 1st applies to all car owners, and 2nd current or past tyre fitters.

Background

I had two new tyres fitted yesterday afternoon, brought via “Blackcircles.com” with fitting at my local branch of a UK wide tyre fitting company (no names no pack drill)  I have used these fitters before and had no problems.

This time loads of problems! When I booked my car in, I said car fitted with TPMS valves and could they take care with the alloy wheels during fitting (as I always do). After about 40mins was told tyres fitted no problems.

Normally I would check the condition of the alloys before leaving the site, but because of heavy rain on this occasion I did not.

I have just done a close inspection of the tyres / alloys and found the following faults:-

1) All wheel nuts overtighten (using my own X style wheel brace and long piece of pipe for leverage I have undone/refitted the wheel nuts.)

2) One alloy wheel (pic below) tyre removal lever taken a chunk out of edge of alloy and scuff damaged face of alloy.

3) The other alloy wheel (Pic below) the fitter obviously did not use the locking wheel nut correctly and it has slipped during nut removal.

4) Both new tyre at wrong pressure (again I have resolved this)

I know my car is not worth £50-60 grand, but she is my pride and joy and I take good care of her.

So what do I do now out of these options (or do you have any other options?)

1) Take car back to fitting garage, and speak to manager.

2) Email head office of fitting company.

3) or/and email Blackcircles about the problems.

This section for any tyre fitters out there!

What’s happened here Guys?,

I’ve done manual jobs in the past, and to do a proper job you can take personal pride in takes not longer than in does to do a “bodge job”

Surely alloy wheels have been around long enough for the equipment to have evolved where to change a tyre causes no damage?

Thanking you all that have read through my “rant”, and thanking you in advance for any replies.

tacpot12

I'd take it back to the fitting garage and ask to speak to the manager.

My view on the issues are: 
1. Overtightening: Shouldn't be done, but has it damaged your wheel hubs or the nuts? 
2. & 3. Damage: Shouldn't happen, but can you prove they caused the damage? Only photos with timestamps would seem to provide this. It's too easy for them to say "We didn't do it."
4. Incorrect inflation: Shouldn't happen, but has it damaged the tire? 

I don't see they are going to give you any sort of refund, and while they might take onboard the feedback that their staff are not taking enough care, it's not going to do you any good. It might lead to them improving their training and QA, and it might save someone's life, but not yours.

Well done for checking on the nut torques and pressures, and not trusting them.

daveyjp

I used Black Circles once, fitted at a local garage and the attitude and quality of work reflected the £6 (£3 a tyre) the were paid by BC for doing the job.

The last time I needed tyres I used BC for a quote and I noticed my regular fitter was on their list.  They quoted me less than BC as they made money on the tyre as well as the fitting.