Last year I bought four new tires at Sears for a 2003 Toyota Sienna. One by one, the valve stems cracked and leaked air. So one by one, I mounted the spare tire and had the valve stems replaced for free. Yesterday, I had to replace a defective valve stem for the fifth time. After some heated discussion, I convinced the manager to replace all four valve stems. Most shocking was that the most recent valve stem to fail was the most recently installed valve stem. So in all likelihood, all four replacements were defective and would have also failed.
The ironic part is that I got a letter in the mail last week from Discount Tires, saying the trailer tires I bought four years ago had defective valve stems and that I should bring them in and get them changed for free. I don’t even own that trailer anymore.
So why didn’t I get a letter from Sears for the tires I bought last year? Why did they replace my defective valve stems with more defective valve stems? Yes, they replaced them for free, but four of the replacements were also presumably defective. In the process, I had to deal with five flat tires. Shouldn’t they compensate me for the inconvenience? After replacing four defective valve stems, shouldn’t they have gotten a clue?
What do you think?
Sears personnel have the sensitivity of a rhinoceros. Most in appliances and automotive are on commisssion, and they only react when you complain. I have no quarrel with their tires, but would only buy there in an emergency situation.
Having said that, bith my wife and I have Sears credit cards which we use buying brand name merchandise and clothes.
http://blogs.consumerreports.org/safety/2008/06/tire-valve-stem.html
You should read this first before you go bashing a service center.
Tester
I have stopped buying anything at Sears. For awhile I got appliances there. However, I have learned that on warranty you can ONLY go to them, and you are lucky to get service within 10 days. With any other brand, I could go to my local service person, use a brand warranty, and get service in two days, maybe the same day if it were an emergency.
In my town, they don’t have an auto center at the store, but all their newspaper inserts advertise auto parts.
I’m using Tire Rack for tires, and having them installed by some locals who do a good job.
OK, Tester, I read it. What is your point? It doesn’t change a thing I wrote.
Thanks for the very useful and timely information. I was not previously aware of this problem.
Ah, our friends in China again, making crap and selling to us suckers. We continue to take this garbage and pay good money for it. Complain to the retailer that you are tired of buying dangerous no-quality junk from China. If enough people complained or took the crap back and demanded their money back, maybe we’d see some quality improvement. I do my best to avoid chinese junk, but it’s almost impossible. If I can do without, I will. But if I have to buy something and it breaks, I’m the biggest pain in the ass to the retailer that sold it to me.