I've bought a few sets of tires at Tire Barn in the past, and they've always treated me right. I took the wife's Buick in for a new set of Michelins today, and...lets just say I left wondering if they'll be getting my business in the future.
I'm sitting in the lobby, waiting for them to finish on my car and chatting with the manager, when the kid working on my vehicle pokes his head in and tells the manager there's something they need him to take a look at. Sure enough, the manager comes back a couple minutes later with one of my lug nut in his hand (I know, I know, insert joke here). He tells me that this lug nut is stripped out and won't go back on the lug bolt. I ask him if he has any on hand, and of course he says no. Not surprising, as even the O'Reilly next door had trouble coming up with one, as it is threaded on both the inside and outside for the plastic wheel cover caps to screw onto.
Anyway, I bought one at O'Reilly and took it back to them. At this point, the manager has taken over the job and tries threading the new nut onto the same lug bolt, while I've decided to hang around the bay door and watch. He can only get it started by hand, when it sticks again. He tells me that the threads on the bolt are damaged as well, so he grabs a re-threading tool to clean it up. However, since the kid had said they had all gone on rough, the manager proceeded to re-thread all five bolts.
At this point I've decided that the kid had cross-threaded the nut to begin with, trying to just spin it on and crank it down in one action with the impact gun. This is based on the fact that a) I had rotated these tires by hand with a tire tool just a year ago, and b) the lug nut was only stripped over the first 3/8 inch or so. This doesn't bother me so much - a new lug nut and cleaning up the bolt, and I'm good. People make mistakes, right? And this one wasn't really a big deal. However, the manager continues running the lug nuts in and out on the bolts, not satisfied with how they were going on. He actually pulled the tire back off and continued running the nuts all the way into the rotor, commenting that metal shavings that were making for a poor thread mating.
Now I'm getting the distinct feeling that I'm being set up for the old "pad the mechanic bill" con. Then comes the kicker. After hammering the lug nuts into the rotor with the impact gun, he says, "Look, metal shavings are even coming off the outside of the lug nut." 0_o
I told him point blank, "That's because you're grinding them against the rotor! Put the tire back on, where the rim has the properly beveled sink, and that won't happen." I told him it seemed to me they were fine at this point, so he put the tire back on and wrapped it up.
Finally, I get back to the front counter to settle up, where he proceeds to tell me about his 16-year-old daughter, who he was able to recently "straighten out" by threatening to call the police on her for teenage disobedience and disrespect....let's just say I couldn't get out of there quickly enough.
I'm sitting in the lobby, waiting for them to finish on my car and chatting with the manager, when the kid working on my vehicle pokes his head in and tells the manager there's something they need him to take a look at. Sure enough, the manager comes back a couple minutes later with one of my lug nut in his hand (I know, I know, insert joke here). He tells me that this lug nut is stripped out and won't go back on the lug bolt. I ask him if he has any on hand, and of course he says no. Not surprising, as even the O'Reilly next door had trouble coming up with one, as it is threaded on both the inside and outside for the plastic wheel cover caps to screw onto.
Anyway, I bought one at O'Reilly and took it back to them. At this point, the manager has taken over the job and tries threading the new nut onto the same lug bolt, while I've decided to hang around the bay door and watch. He can only get it started by hand, when it sticks again. He tells me that the threads on the bolt are damaged as well, so he grabs a re-threading tool to clean it up. However, since the kid had said they had all gone on rough, the manager proceeded to re-thread all five bolts.
At this point I've decided that the kid had cross-threaded the nut to begin with, trying to just spin it on and crank it down in one action with the impact gun. This is based on the fact that a) I had rotated these tires by hand with a tire tool just a year ago, and b) the lug nut was only stripped over the first 3/8 inch or so. This doesn't bother me so much - a new lug nut and cleaning up the bolt, and I'm good. People make mistakes, right? And this one wasn't really a big deal. However, the manager continues running the lug nuts in and out on the bolts, not satisfied with how they were going on. He actually pulled the tire back off and continued running the nuts all the way into the rotor, commenting that metal shavings that were making for a poor thread mating.
Now I'm getting the distinct feeling that I'm being set up for the old "pad the mechanic bill" con. Then comes the kicker. After hammering the lug nuts into the rotor with the impact gun, he says, "Look, metal shavings are even coming off the outside of the lug nut." 0_o
I told him point blank, "That's because you're grinding them against the rotor! Put the tire back on, where the rim has the properly beveled sink, and that won't happen." I told him it seemed to me they were fine at this point, so he put the tire back on and wrapped it up.
Finally, I get back to the front counter to settle up, where he proceeds to tell me about his 16-year-old daughter, who he was able to recently "straighten out" by threatening to call the police on her for teenage disobedience and disrespect....let's just say I couldn't get out of there quickly enough.
