johnnytyler24

Hi, I have been lurking on Audiworld for 3 months. I am expecting an Audi Q5 Prestige/S-Line/ADS that should be comming in the middle of December. In anticipation of buying this car, I privatelyy sold my Corolla. To my surprise, I sold the car in less than one week, and thus was driving a 2005 Lexus 330 that my parents had stored for my brother. I live in Madison WI and our first snow storm occured yesterday and the car's all seasons were not up to the job. So I decided to purchase some Blizzak DM-V1's today from Discount Tire. I had a very unpleasant experience, placed a review on Yahoo, and wanted to get some feedback:

"BUYER BEWARE!!! CONCERN OF BAIT AND SWITCH. I called on 12/4/09 8:00 am for Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V1, and they said they had these in stock in my car size and need to put a deposit to hold the tires, I thus placed a $100 deposit for the tires and said I would be there at noon to drop of my car. I get there at noon, told the tires were there and I paid for the rest of the tires and installation. I was at home for the rest of the day, except to pick up my son and do some banking after 4:00 pm, and went back to the store at 5:00 pm to pick up my car. It was snowing and I had my 2 year son with me. I was really excited to see the new tires on the car, so I check out the car before going into the store. To my dismay, I find that the car has Hancock Duellers on all 4 tires. I went into the store and patiently waited in line to speak to the sales agent who I saw at noon. When I finally get to see him, I ask why are there Hancock tires on my car when I purchased Blizaak DM-V1 instead. He looks at me and said "Oh you know what we didn't have the Blizzak DM-V1's in stock and I forgot to call you that we were going to put the Hancock's on instead".

Now I was pissed, I said that I purchased the Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V1s and the hancocks were not what I bought. He then states that he will talk to his manager. After a few minutes he comes back and says "We only had two of the Blizzak's available and the other two were put on a different car, and he tried calling me to tell me about the mix-up". He then shrugs his shoulders and says that "well the Hancocks are on there now". As if I should just accept the fact that it was already installed. I told him that is not what I had bought and I was told in the morning that they were available and I placed a deposit to hold these tires. I asked him what can be done. He shrugs his shoulders again and says "Well we can take of the Hancocks".

I was livid, I was home all day, except just prior to me going to the store to do some bank work. I have caller ID and checked, no calls came in from that store. I knew that he was lying because he changed his story and that I had not received any phone calls. I told him, in not too kind words, that I want to speak to the manager. The manager comes out, and then tries to tell me that the Hancock tires are an equal tire to the Blizzaks, and that he did not have them available. I was pissed. I said that I was told that the blizzaks were available, in the morning, paid a deposit, than paid for the tires in full prior to installation. When I came back the tires on the car are not the ones I bought. In my view these tires are inferior to the tires I bought and they are cheaper.

He then request for me to go outside with my 2 year old son in the cold and snow to "look at the tires". I agreed, and after a few minutes of looking at the tires he states that he will order the tires and have it on Tuesday, Dec 8, 09. I finally accept because it is cold and I was plain sick of this experience.

I think that this is disrespectful and unethical. People don't generally have a knowledge of what tires they are buying, and if they don't look closely they will drive off thinking that they are driving off with the tires they bought. Now this could all be a misunderstanding, but the fact that they did not get my permission to put these Hancock tires on the car is wrong. People come into the store ask for there keys and drive off, they already paid so the store doesn't care because they got there money.

I will update this post and revise when I hear more from the store on Tuesday."

Harris R

No doubt, you should get the tires that you ordered. I've done a lot of business with Discount Tires over the years and have found them to be very reputable. I'd go up the chain of command, i.e. district manager with them and I'd bet that they will make it right. Just too bad you have deal with the b.s.

kleinbus

Grew up at Arctic Circle leves and used only real winter tires, mostly Nokian Hakkapeliitta - Michelin X-Ice - Bridestone Blizzak winter tires (studded and unstudded).

Few times tried to be cheap and used Hankook's and few other "bing-bong" brands. Well cheap is cheap as it is hard rubber and almost as slippery as summer tires so I do not buy those any more and I stick with those 3 brands I know are good.

So get the tires you paid or get your org tires and money back and go to another shop...

johnnytyler24

Thanks Guys, after I had some time to cool off, I went back to the store and they assured me that they would replace the Hancook's on Tuesday with the Blizzak DM-V1's. So we will see what happens then.

Reggie

First I have been a long term customer of DT (as well as Tire Rack) and you experience is not normal. It is not acceptable what happened to you and you should write a letter to the CEO of DT (do a google search). I can not imagine any of the DT in this area doing that .

johnnytyler24

An update to the original post. After returning on Tuesday they changed the tires to the blizzack DM-V1's and apoligized for the mix-up, so I'm ultimately satisfied with the experience and will go again if needed. Thanks again for the moral support.

kleinbus

Good to hear it worked out.

VMRWheels

Glad everything was straighteneed out. Sorry to hear about the inconvenience though. Probably just one stray employee who didn't want to fess up to human error and tried taking the easy way out.

tubi

I bet the average DT customer couldn't even tell the difference.