Mr. Tire review: Incompetence / lying about goods and services

Throughout my recent experience with Mr. Tire #693 in Chambersburg PA. I was lied to multiple times either because of flat out incompetence, bad ethics, or both. I have had a horrible time dealing with this branch and thought maybe it was just that one store but now having called corporate I am starting to think it might be the whole company is unethical. At this point I just want my $947.92. $823.96 for the price of the tires and $123.96 for the labor that should never have been done to my car but I doubt I will ever see it.

I called Mr. Tire #693 in Chambersburg PA on 11/07/2023 to get my alignment checked because my right front tire was wearing out faster than the other and my car inspection taken care of. After setting up my appointment I asked the associate on the phone if there was anything different about these tires because it's an EV. They responded "No, they just take tires like any other car."

11/09/2023 - I took my car to the Mr. Tire for the service appointment and, they told me that they couldn't pass me for inspection because my tires were too worn down and that they would have to install new tires to align my car anyhow so I ought as well replace all four. I said ok and he showed my some tires and prices on his computer screen and said which ones he recommended. I chose one of those and he said, "That is a good tire. We put those on Teslas a lot and people really like them." Nobody told me about EV rated tires, sound dampening, or that these tires had none of that. They just replaced the tires.

It didn't take me long to find out that when I got on the highway and going fast that my car was obnoxious sounding. It sounded like a cross between wind going through a tunnel and a waterfall. I went online and did some research and found out about EV rated tires, the fact that they have foam in and are sound dampening etc..

11/12/2023 Mr. Tire phone call - I called Mr. Tire, and talked to an associate, and told them the whole story about how their associate recommended tires for my car, failed to let me know about EV tires and now my car sounds awful when I drive it down the highway and that I needed these tires replaced with EV tires. He said that he would need to talk to his manager and put me on a long hold.

When he got back to me he said the manager would swap my tires out for EV tires but I would have to pay for the cost difference of the tires, wouldn't get refunded for the labor, and would have to pay for the labor for the new tire job. I said I was ok paying the difference in the tires but should be refunded the labor for the first job because I should have been told about not getting EV tires and what that entailed to begin with. The associate said "We can't refund you for the labor those tires work perfectly fine they just make a little road noise." I said "Let me take you for a ride down 81S. There is nobody that would be fine with that." He said that he would have to talk to his manager again and that he would call me back.

I finally get a call a few hours later. It was the same guy I talked to earlier. He said that he talked to his manager and was willing to replace the tires for the difference in the price of the tires and forfeit the labor costs. He then said "The bad news is the only EV rated tire in our system in your size is the Michelin Primacy MXM. It is the tire that comes on the car from Tesla. It costs $465 a tire." I asked him how many miles they were rated for because that is an awful lot for a tire and you guys just replaced my tires and it was the exact same tire saying that they were in bad shape and I only had 35k miles on them. He said, "They are rated for 20k miles. They don't wear well because of the added weight of the EV cars and because they were designed to provide a quiet ride and not for durability." This sounded really suspicious to me and ended up being a bold faced lie. I told him that I needed some time to do a little research and would get back to them.

After looking online I found all kinds of brands selling EV rated tires and all way less than $465 a tire and they all seemed to be rated around 50k miles. In fact the Michelin website brought the same tire up that came equipped on my car, the tire was rated for 50k miles not 20k miles and linked me right to tirerack.com who sold the tire for $305 a tire.

After looking at a few of the EV tires I picked one that I liked but was willing to go with that Michelin at a bit higher price if Mr.Tire would have worked with me on the price since they were charging $160 over what I could get the same tire for on tirerack.com.

11/13/2023 Calling Mr. Tire again - I talked to a guy who claimed to be the manager. He started the conversation off letting me know that they had my order in and the tires were coming. I said "Hold on. I told the guy I talked to yesterday that I didn't know what I was going to do yet and that I was going to call back and let you guys know." He then says, "Oops that's right there is no order for you right now I'm sorry for the confusion."

I then let him know what happened with the previous phone call and that that guy said the only EV rated tire they had was the one that came with my car, cost $465 a tire, and was only rated for 20k miles. I asked him if that was correct because I found that tire exact tire on the Michelin website that says the tire is rated at 50k miles, and that site links to two online retailers that also say the tire is rated for 50k miles and both those retailers sell the tire for $305 a tire.

He said flatly about the mileage,"The tires are rated for 50k miles." as if that resolved the entire issue about the other guy lying to me about the mileage of that tire. He then said that the tires are $465 a tire and that he was trying to do me a favor by not charging me for the labor on the job. I seriously had to break down the math for him. I said, "If you are charging me $160 more a tire than tirerack.com for the same tire that is a total of $640 for four tires. Tirerack.com also says the installation costs around $100. If you remove the cost of the installation at $100 since you are trying to do me this big favor you are still charging me $540 more than if I bought the tires on tirerack.com and paid to have you install them. Why would I do that?"

He then kept on waffling on about trying to do me a favor by refunding my tires and removing the labor cost if I would buy their tire at $465 and telling me that I would have to pay for the labor if I bought my tires from outside of Mr Tire. I asked him directly "Will you refund my tires if I buy them from tirerack.com?" He tries to dodge my question saying "We can't just refund you the money if we don't have the tires." I said "I understand that much I'm not stupid. I want to make sure when I order these tires nobody pulls any shennanigans and tries to tell me that I would only be refunded if I bought your tires." He finally says "Yes. As long as you return the tires within thirty days we will refund the tires." I hang up and ordered my replacement tires.

11/14/2023 Installation appointment phone call - I called to make my appointment after getting an e-mail from tirerack.com that the tires were delivered. The guy on the phone sets me up for 11/16/2023 the next Thursday.

11/16/2023 - I dropped my car off for my appointment at 11:00am. They got my mileage and tell me it is going to be about three hours or so. I let my car there, left with my ride and came back later around 2:40pm to see what was going on and they hadn't even begun the work! I walked in to talk to the guy and asked him what was going on with my car. He just said "Sorry it should be the next one up." We will call you when it is done. 4:00pm rolled around and nobody called me me still so I called them and the guy on the phone said "I just tried to call you and couldn't get you but your tires are done."

When I get there to get my car and get all this settled I ended up dealing with a guy who told me he was the manager and another guy behind the counter. The guy behind the counter told me it would be $107 dollars for the labor today. I said "I'm getting refunded for the previous tires and that is way more than $107 why would I be paying you anything?" The other guy introduced himself as the manager and that he would be handling my refund. He then said "I was getting refunded $823.96, for the price of the tires and that was all I was getting refunded and that I had to pay the labor for those tires." I flat out told him that I didn't think that was right because I would have never gotten those tires if it wasn't them recommended that I get those tires for my car in the first place and those tires weren't rated for EV use. He said that he couldn't see why he should refund me for the labor because those tires were fine for that car they just produce a little road noise. I then told him that I wanted to file a complaint. He then points to a little sticker on the door with a corporate phone number on it and tells me to call corporate about it. I asked him for his full name. He would only give me his first name. I then asked him for his title here he told me he was the manager.

The guy behind the desk asks me again for $107 for the labor. I start getting the sinking feeling that I am not getting any of my money back. I said "If I am getting refunded eight hundred something why wouldn't you just take it out of that?" The guy replied, "Because it has to be done in two transactions." not mentioning that I wasn't actually getting the refund that day. I paid him the $107 and then they print me out a little sheet that looks like a screenshot of of the webform they filled out that says Refund Request Form at the top. I said "Hey! This isn't a recipt for a refund. You told me I was getting a refund!" The manager said, "We filled the form out for you to get a refund." I asked him "When am I going to get my money?" he responded "It usually takes about a week." I asked, "Who am I supposed to call when I don't get anything?" He said "You can call corporate." I said that I wanted to file a complaint about my whole experience and how I was treated in all this. He said "You can call corporate for that too."

11/27/2023 Call to Corporate Headquarters - I called corporate headquarters to complain about my refund, not getting reimbursed for the labor, and about how I was lied to multiple times and treated. I get a representative on the phone and she listens to me for about 1 min then hangs up on me. I call back and get another representative. I said I wanted to talk to a manager and that I was just hung up on. She told me that was her and that she didn't hang up on me and that they just received the request for the refund.

I tried to start to explain about how they recommended me tires that weren't rated for EVs. She cut me off and said that really I shouldn't be getting back anything because it says in a Mr. Tire contract that all sales are final. I told her that it was your people that recommended that I get those tires in the first place. She said "First off I'm not a you people and I will not be talked to like that!" I stopped her right there and said "You know full well I am referring to your people as Mr. Tire and their associates and they did recommend those tires to me and nobody told me anything about EV rated tires, sound dampening foam or anything else." She then responds with "I am done here you are not talking to me like that. You signed a contract that says all sales were final. You can read it on the back of your receipts from Mr. Tire." I then request to speak with her manager. She refused me saying that her manager was not available to talk to me, told me to have a fantastic day and then hung up."

I then look on the back of all my Mr. Tire receipts and will be damned if I see anything written anywhere that equates to an "all sales are final" clause. I did then however notice a 30-Day Price Guarantee that states if I buy a tire there and find a lower price somewhere else that Mr. Tire would refund me the difference in the cost.

This is infuriating as it just adds another layer to the deception and all the lies. According to that contract if I would have merely took the manager up on the offer to replace my tires at $465 and then sited that I found the tires cheaper at another retailer tirerack.com in this case they would have had to pay me the difference of $160 a tire. The manager purposely withheld that information from me knowing full well that I indeed did find a retailer that was selling that exact tire for $160 a tire.