#by whenyesterdaywemet

[prorevenge]

Don't lie to up-sell and scam me out of my rims.

I apologize for the length, but the story was convoluted, as all good stories are. Not so much revenge, but more getting treated fairly after being mistreated by a scummy store manager. I've changed a few details and rounded $$$ values.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I had a minor accident driving to visit family in Podunk Town, TX. Not Small Town, TX, but big enough to have most large chains, but not much else. Anyway, I hit a pothole about 5 miles from my destination, and noticed a significant wobble in the car. It was night time, so I just parked at my grandma's place and decided to inspect the damage the next day.

Next day, I get out and look under the car and see the rim is bent. I drive a less common Japanese make, and one of their less common models. For this particular model, there is a lot of value attached to the wheels. The car is the last of it's model type, and the wheels are particularly valuable/expensive, so I'm pretty frustrated. New OEM wheels will be $400 from the dealer, used rims will be $300 and questionable, and I'm unsure about the repairability of a bent rim at this point in the story. If I don't have a matching set of original rims, the car's value is significantly diminished. However, even if I wanted to, there was no way I could find a dealer for my make within 100 miles. I'd either have to get it repaired, or get a temporary replacement. Usually in situations like this, I'd call my mechanic buddy and get his opinion. However, he works a 10 day on, 4 day off schedule, and worked his butt off to get the shift with holiday weekend off, since he never sees his kids. I didn't want to interrupt his family time, so I figured I'd call on the last day of his break, as he was heading back to work.

So, I leave the car in the driveway for Thanksgiving, and spend time with family. First thing in the morning on Friday, I wake up and go to Chain Tire Store. I've had good luck with Chain Tire Store in the past, so I figure they will be honest with me and give me a fair diagnosis. I roll into the shop first thing, and the manager immediately comes to greet me, saying he really likes my car and wishes there was a dealer nearby so he could have one of his own. Classic salesman tactic, but whatever. I show him what's wrong, he pulls the car into the shop, and a mechanic pulls the wheel off.

After looking at the wheel, the manager comes out and tells me he's sorry, but the wheel is not safe to repair. He shows me the bend, which to my eye is very slight, but he assures me they put the wheel underwater, and bubbles came out from under the tire, indicating the tire wouldn't hold air pressure. I thought this was weird, because my tire pressure gauge didn't come on, and the tire had held up fine after hitting the pothole. Still, I trusted Chain Tire Store, so whatever, I'd just need to buy a new rim.

The manager asks if I'd like to get a replacement, and I say I'm not sure, I'll need to think about it. He offers to ring me up for an estimate while I wait. So, I go outside and consider my options: buy one mismatched wheel and replace it immediately when I get home, or buy a matching set and replace the damaged wheel when I eventually sell the car.

Store manager comes out and tells me the cheapest estimate he has to get me out of the shop safely is $550. This is insane, and I'm taken aback. I ask for the write-up of the estimate, and he complies. 4 x $100 wheels and $150 in labor. I told him the cheapest option was just one wheel and labor (~$140), and his response was that clearly I drove a nice car and I'd want a full set of matching rims. He said, look I know it looks a little expensive, but I'm a nice guy and I'll personally buy your old wheels from you for $50 a piece, bringing the net price down to $350 for a whole set of matching rims. This set off warning bells, so I told him I'd need to think it over some more. After a few minutes of thinking, I realized this guy is trying to scam me out of my rims and get sales commission on a huge sale. Truly in the spirit of Thanksgiving.

He also shows me that for Black Friday, they are having a special 20% mail-in rebate if I go with 6 month financing. Considering that the price of one new wheel for my car is $400, and I could get a full new set of matching wheels for $440 after the rebate, I figured I'd get the matching set and figure out how to get back on the original rims later. I didn't really care at this point, I just wanted to be done with the scummy store manager. So I told him I'd take the full set, and I'd be doing the financing for the 20% rebate. He offered to write me a check for $200 on the wheels, but I told him I'd prefer to keep the old ones. He was visibly disappointed, but he still made a big sale and would make a lot on commission.

So I drive many hours home, fill out the form for the rebate, and enjoy my weekend off. I send a pic of the bent wheel to my mechanic buddy, and say I'm upset that I'm not driving on the original rims. He immediately responds with why not? I tell him what happened at Chain Tire Store, and he calls me immediately. He says based on the pictures I sent, the wheel was fully repairable, and it should only cost $100-$150 to do. The store manager didnt just try a sales tactic to get me to make a big purchase, he lied to me.

So I go online to find a customer service number for the company. Immediately, on the front of their web page is their guarantee:

"30 DAY 100% SATISFACTION GUARANTEE. IF FOR ANY REASON YOU ARE NOT SATISFIED WITH YOUR PURCHASE, YOU ARE ENTITLED TO A REFUND AT ANY OF OUR NATIONWIDE LOCATIONS"

I'm not one to take advantage of a company's guarantee, but this is a special circumstance, so I decided it would be worth it to get refunded. I go and take my bent rim to a wheel repair specialty shop, and get it back later that day. Meanwhile, I call up the Chain Tire Store and speak with the manager who sold me the wheels.

I say I'm unhappy with my wheels, and would like to work out a return. I tell him I got a second opinion on the wheel, and it turns out it was repairable. I would like to use their guarantee and receive my money back because of his negligence or dishonesty, whichever he decided to pick. He picked negligence, and then told me since I was doing financing, a large rebate, and a non-local return he would only refund me $250 of the $550 purchase price (supposedly to cover shipping and re-install of old wheels), and that the initial labor on installation was non-refundable. My options were either to accept the offer he made, or hope corporate would understand and help me iron out the details. I told him to begin the process of getting the $250 while I found a local location to have the work done. I didn't tell him I'd be sending that estimate up to corporate.

I call up corporate Chain Tire Store the next day, after receiving an email saying I'd be receiving a check for $250, assuming I could bring the wheels to a local location. I explained the situation to the person on the phone, forwarded them the email from the manager for the $250 offer, and sent them photos of the bent and subsequently repaired wheel, along with the receipt for the repair and safety tests done by the repair shop. They immediately apologized for what had happened, and said the manager did not have authority to issue a check for the partial value of a refund. They read me a policy which stated that "all refunds must be for the full purchase value", meaning the manager was not allowed to make a partial refund at all. He either had to completely deny the refund, or refund the full $550 in full. Agreeing to a partial refund had violated company policy. He was also required to issue the refund through the same means of payment, instead of writing a check, meaning I was completely off the hook for the whole $550 purchase. So on the phone, they set me up with a complimentary appointment to swap out the wheels, refunded the $550 in full, and confirmed that the manager who sold me the wheels would be reprimanded.

And for the cherry on top, I received confirmation that I will still be getting the 20% rebate in the mail later next week. It just about covers the cost of repair to my wheel.

TL;DR: After hitting a pothole, a tire store manager lied to me to up-sell me and scam me out of valuable rims. He agreed to a partial refund, which is against company policy, and I end up getting a full refund, plus 20% rebate on a $550 purchase.

(source) (story by whenyesterdaywemet)

[eurekakinginc]

"[OC] Estimating Euler's Number using the Monte Carlo method"- Caption by whenyesterdaywemet - Detail: https://ift.tt/2Z2cKZC. Filed Under: 1,000 ways to visualize Data. Curated by: www.eurekaking.com