Land of Oz

Business as usual

I just bought some tires for my Beetle. I like Goodyear and Northwest Automotive was having a sale on them. I checked around online and the price was pretty good in comparison with others. The last time I had tire dealings with Northwest it was the one on State St. They had the pressures all screwed up after they installed the tires. (I'm very anal about tire pressures)

I thought I try the one on Tittabawassee this time. I stopped there Thursday after work and let them go to town. I told them to check the spare while they were fiddling around and the salesman assured me they would. The finish pretty quickly. I mentioned about the tire pressure problem and the salesman said the pressure is located on the door. I said, I know but no one seems to want to check. As soon as I said that he ran outside to check the tires (sure enough they were about 7 lbs off). I went home after that.

Saturday I finally had time to check things out. The spare was low, the tire pressures were off and they forgot to reinstall my valve stem extenders. I went back to the tire store to complain. When I complained about the spare the salesman said I never mentioned it (basically calling me a liar). The valve extensions were gone, but they said I could to CarCare parts and get new ones. Naturally when I got there, they didn't have the correct size. It seems like 1/2" extensions are fairly rare. I'm stuck with 3/4" (and yes, the 1/4" makes a difference) until I can find some that fit. I'll drag my compressor out tomorrow and top off the spare and get the correct pressures in all my tires.

I know that putting on tires isn't the most prestigious job in the world. I'm also guessing the tech isn't getting paid too much. And in today's world the business is going to cut corners as much as possible. But why over something as simple as tire pressures. Tire and auto manufacturers both put a lot of effort into making the correct pressures available. All energy saving suggestions mention correct tire pressures. So why can't automotive techs get it right. I paid $400 - you should get it right.