Like art, it is the artist what make a painting.
It is the car tech and his lack of training and love for the art not the store or chain fault. It is the one that watch over the worker and training is at fault.
You’ll get that any where you go, goons that is in it for the money for the cust. or the love the feild of work.
What about Wally World are they any better that next chain in the market???
What The under cover op was “shady” all a around and the result was made to lean very heavy on the under cover op. side, not the store that they was visting.
Wally World install quality varies. The one benefit and downfall of them is they only offer tire installation. So they don’t sell you services however you must understand if your vehicle is bad aligned or suspension components are not correct they give you no real benefit shortly down the road when your tires are ruined. And they will not cover tires damaged due to poorly maintained. A real decent tire shop will offers an alignment check for little money and charges a bit more if needing adjustment. Its a very prudent move when buying new tires.
So a real shop will point out problems in self interest of more work however benefit of customer and longevity of vehicle. A really good shop will show problems and then mention its better to keep your eye on an item vs replacing a expensive component if possible. The best shops use a mix of OEM parts, aftermarket and used part in my experience. I had and loved a VW however the mechanic was good and had at least VW 10 carcasses to pull parts from. Usually I find the specialized small shop best. Eg I owned a VW and went to a specialist for that audi/VW. Currently I use dealer however if Chase mastercard/Subaru stop their benefit of earning $500/year towards maintenance or purchase at dealer I will go the small Subaru specialist in town.
All I know is…I bought tires for my s-10 truck and had them align my front end as well. The morons at a local discount tire place couldn’t align their way out of a paper bag! My truck at this point had 320,000 miles on it and I just replaced the tierod ends, idler arm, etc. They got it lined up better than ever. Sears had me on the road with a great set of tires at a reasonable price and when I punctured 1, their road hazard fixed it free. I had also gotten tires for my wifes Elantra…same story on road hazard. So far, I have had nothing but good service from Sears. They techs were competant and got the job done right. They even hand torqued my lugs w/o being asked.
Unfortuneatley with any auto store you are at the mercy of commission payed salesmen. So, ask yourself what kind of store would have more hungry, commission payed salesmen/mechanics. Yep, Sears. But with any business, of coarse they’ll try to sell you their product. Your only defense, which is true for any situation, is to educate yourself and watch what is being done to your property. Especially in the auto repair business you will find workers who have a wide variety of motivations and destractions - sorta like it never being a good idea to buy a car that was produced on a Monday when the workers were hung over. Anyway, there are many references out there (found at the Public library) that will tell you what all that small print is on the side of your tires (Where you find the inflation numbers).Believe it or not everything on that tire (Except for the brand name)has a purpose and will be a code for something. I can’t remember what they are but the codes will tell you what speeds the tire is recommended for, what wheather they best perform in, how long the tread life will be, and even how much weight is best put in the car with the type of tires considered. All-in-all, you can’t really go wrong with Michellin. The next time you see a police car, look at the tires. They’ll be Michellin. They used to use Goodyear until things got expensive. I have about 50,000 on tires that were estimated at 35000 (Bought at Sams Club). But I rotate the tires and check the inflation at least twice a month. Any shop that knows what they are doing will use a torque wrench to tighten your lug nuts. IT would be extremely hard for a shop to overtighten so much they warp rotors or whatever, BUT, overtightening will cause undue stress on the integrity of the lug stud and cause them to eventually break off. A firestone store once told me that my lug nuts had gone bad because they were cracked due to normal use and it wasn’t there fault. Well, it was their fault because they overtightened the lug nuts previously which led to premature failure. And, don’t fall for them letting you see them using a torque wrench on your lug nuts. Have them actually show you in a shop referrence what the lug specs are. If they can’t show you they guessed. Your referrence is your owner’s manual.
There is no reason why a good alignment techician couldn’t be hanging out at Sears. I think that the manager of each individual Sears store has a great deal to do with how the store operates. I don’t do much price shopping–if I have received good service from a merchant at a fair price, I go back.
My son had a job as a sales associate in the hardware department at a Sears store in a smaller community. He was finishing his seminary work, and with a family, took the position when Sears was hiring for the Christmas holidays. He did well in the sales and they kept him on after the Christmas season was over. One problem was that most of his income was on commission, and that Sears limited his hours so that he couldn’t have benefits. He had a lot of good customers that were contractors and tradesmen. He thought selling to these people was too easy. These people would know exactly what they wanted and all he would have to do is make the sale. My son much prefered the challenge of finding the right item for women who were shopping for tools for their husbands. I liked it when my son worked for Sears because I got some great tools for Christmas.
The tires aren’t the problem, although sometimes Sears gets their own line of tire from the manufacturers which are different from the brands with the same name. However the problems I’ve encountered are that the mechanics and supervisors are idiots. I cannot tell you the number of stupid mistakes ranging from losing my keys to driving my car into a workbench! Not a happy customer! I’ll never use them again.
although sometimes Sears gets their own line of tire from the manufacturers which are different from the brands with the same name
Actually MOST of the big tire chains do that. This includes Sams club, BJ’s, Costco, Tire Warehouse, PepBoys. But what I found was that most of the tires are just a Name, not a different tire.
"although sometimes Sears gets their own line of tire from the manufacturers which are different from the brands with the same name"
of course, sears doesn’t MAKE tires. they are a sales outlet. they don’t make fridges, vacuums, or stoves either. in addition to selling the brand names, they have their own tire “brands” which in all likely hood are made at firestone, michelin, or continental.
boy, i wish i actually KNEW who was making all these brand tires! while it certainly seems plain that the sears brands may be different than the brand names, i would like to see proof that the michelin tire is different (cheaper quality) at sears, than at a regular tire store.
i would bet money that all tires sold as michelin with the same model # are identical, regardless of where they were bought.
of course, sears doesn’t MAKE tires.
Re-read the posts…That’s NOT what I’m saying. Michelin will make a specific tire sold ONLY at Sears. You can NOT buy that tire from any other store. Michelin also makes a specific tire sold only at BJ’s, Sam’s Club and Costco. You can NOT buy that tire at Sears or any other place that sells Michelin tires.
The lawsuit brought about in California, was Sears was selling consumers services NOT needed. The mechanics work on commission and they were telling consumers that parts on their car were failing, yet the part was perfectly good. Ball-joints, shocks, wheel bearings and mufflers were at the top of the list. Sears was found guilty and had to pay MILLIONS in settlements.
HOWEVER from what I’ve observed since the lawsuit, they have NOT changed their practices. And most of the big chains do the same thing.
I only buy tires from Sears as they are priced right. However, I have my own mechanic do the labor. Cash and carry only!!!