don’t know exactly… are the tires identical to ones I would get a different dealer… that kind of doubt.
actually, read the post below by winarth…
The usual problem is selling unneeded repairs or services. The employees are under heavy pressure to make the sales, or at least it was that way some years ago when a friend of mine worked there. He quit because he would not follow the orders to sell what was not justified.
I used to buy a lot of applicances from the S-place, but I will no longer do so. Lots of reasons. Bad service that takes a long time to get on site, and things going wrong that should not. Never again.
If there is any question regarding plys or the UTQG rating it can be verified by comparing what’s molded on the tire sidewall of the tires purchased against the ratings listed on the Tirerack site.
Bill, instead of playing guessing games, why not drive to a tire store that sells Michelins and physically compare the tires?
I don’t think anyone is selling 2-ply treads (sidewalls are a different matter), but Goodyear and probably most tire manufacturers offer different models through chain stores. They’re not necessarily worse, but could be a lower-end product.
/Mr Lynn
I don’t think so. They were labled as 2 ply. My friend didn’t notice this until much later. He knew someone that worked for the company and he admitted they did business differently with the big box stores. I won’t mention the company name but you would be stunned.
In 1988, we bought a new Chevrolet Nova, a Chevrolet Toyota. My daughter was using it to drive 70 miles a day to the University. I told her to take care of oil changes. Every time she had Sears (I am not at all ashamed to say the name) they charged her several dollars for chassis lube. After several years, I discovered there was no chassis lube on that car. She complained next time, and they gave her a coupon for a free oil change, big deal.
This was in Iowa, not California. In my opinion, Sears is rampant with customer fraud, period, end of debate.
Also,their tools aren’t as good any more, unless they are solid steel.
I will no longer have sears appliances in my home. I used to have a Sears dishwasher. When the timer broke, I had to order it, pay shipping, for total cost of $100, and wait a week to get it. When my Maytag washer timer went bad, the local Maytag dealer had the timer in stock for less then $50. I entered a plan to rid myself of all Sears items in my home but existing hand tools.
All gone. dishwasher; microwave; all gone.
After all of this and it is still not stated what the problem was with the tires that were purchased.
Square in shape, left the air out, forgot the valve stems, welded the wheels onto the hubs, what?
no problem just worried. Perhaps a touch of paranoia?
will do that or something similar. thanks
Any place is perfectly fine chain or whatever for tires installed only if price is appropriate, you know the word ‘NO’ to any extras and likely have time to burn if waiting. I would only be wary if you have really nice rims on your vehicle as some gorilla’s don’t take the care not to scratch them. Don’t even let them align the car.
I too bought from a chain (Firestone). Their prices for Bridgestone RE960’s where $15/tire cheaper than anywhere else including mail order after install. It was a painful experience though. They suggested about $600 of work had my car sitting in their shop for over an hour before installing tires. The funny thing was I had just performed the 30k service at Subaru dealer for $300 a couple weeks prior so there was not even a chance they were telling any truth.
I am sticking to decent tire shops(independent) personally from this point forward. I still price shop but amongst amongst a few. I never get excess work recommended at the two I typically use. My experience installing four tires was all of 20 minutes at an indy shop.
As I remember, Sears was sued by a state attorney general some years back and Sears had to admit to rather devious practices in the auto service part of the business. Sears then bought out Western Auto chain and ran the repair business through this subsidiary. Sears then killed off Western Auto and are back to running the auto service business through its retail outlets. I haven’t heard any reports of shady practices since the lawsuit some years back.
As to other goods sold through Sears with the Sears label, these products are probably about the same qualitity as those sold other places. I used to do business with a lawnmower repair shop that had a big sign that read “We do not service Sears products”. When I asked the proprietor about the sign, he replied, “Sears products are as good as any other, but it is hard to work with them to get replacement parts. This caused me so many problems, that I decided not to service Sears mowers. A customer doesn’t want to wait three weeks in the mowing season while I wait for a part to fix his mower”.
I did have a bad experience in a Sears auto service center many years ago when I was a graduate student. I was new in the community and took my 1965 Rambler to Sears for a wheel alignment. It drove worse when I got it back than when I took it in. They also wrote “Student” across the invoice–I suppose they saw my parking decal on the windshield. At any rate, they refused to make the job right. The service station where I traded recommended an alignment shop who said that Sears had set wheels to tow out instead of tow in. I don’t think Sears would mess up mounting a set of tires, but I would rather have my trusted independent tire dealer do my work even if Sears could beat the price by a few dollars.
Personally I’ve ALWAYS been able to do better then Sears tire prices…even when they had a sale. However their battery sale prices are very hard to beat. The Sears I’ve checked charge $20/tire for mounting and balancing. That brings the price up $100. Every other tire place around has FREE mounting and balancing. When you have to go there for a rotation it takes them at least 2 hours. No thanks.
NTB use to be completely owned by Sears. I think they now just own 40% interest. I’ve YET to find the national chain store that offers good service.
I’ve bought many sets of Michelins from Sears. Also a set of Goodyear Aquatreads (mistake), and a set of Coopers. Also buy batteries from Sears. My main complaint is that they ALWAYS overtorque the lug nuts. I always make sure my torque wrench is in the trunk when I have to allow a mechanic to remove wheels. I always tell them to hand tighten the lug nuts to 80 ft lbs, and when I’ve paid my bill, I always take my torque wrench and check the torque on all the lug nuts. Sometimes they are ok, but more often they are torqued to 120 ft lbs. This causes warped rotors. The mechanics don’t care. They only care about preventing a wheel from falling off (and avoiding a lawsuit). They don’t care about damaging the customer’s rotors, hubs, bearings, etc.
As you know, Bill, it’s not whether they are following you, it’s whether they are catching up! ;^)
Actually what they care about is doing as many cars as they can during their 8 hour shift. The more cars they do the more they get paid. Hand tightening lug nuts takes a LOT more time.
As long as nobody in the supply chain (including the retailer) doesn’t misrepresent the tires and they meet fed specs, it’s perfectly legal.
I’ve always thought that large retailers like Sears and WalMart probably selected from the lower end of the model range from the manufacturer in order to offer lower prices, but there’s nothing wrong with that IMHO.
Bill, to put your mind at ease, go to the manufacturer’s website and find the tires you think you purchased from the S company. Note the extended tire identification number, including the suffices that denote all characteristics of the tire. (NOTE: the identification number stamped on the side of the tires is not the complete number). Then, go back to your S company retailer and get the extended tire identification number of the tires you purchased and compare the numbers. If they are the same, you are good, if not, you can compare the differences by the details provided on the manufacturer’s web site.
Another exception: I love my Craftsman tools.
I like the HAND tools. I have a bunch of them myself. Their power tools these days are junk.