Re: Whew! pretty long dry spell here is ASA

[ABLE1 <somewhere@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 9/28/2020 11:59 AM, Bob La Londe wrote:
> P.S.  Here is a story about a local DT store.  When they are done they
> always ask me what tire pressure I want in my vehicle.  On my big crew
> cab 4x4 turbo diesel I have off road tires.  Well dual sport tires. When
> they ask I say 55 in the front and 45 in the rear.  With these tires
> this has consistently given me the best average tire wear.  When I need
> to haul a load I'll bump the pressure so they ride normally for the
> load.  One day I had to drive to Phoenix  to pick up a pallet of marble
> tile.  As soon as it was loaded I drove over to a gas station to bump
> the tire pressure before driving back.  Imagine my surprise when I found
> there was 70PSI in both rear tires.  Then I looked at the tire treads
> and could see that the center had started to wear faster because they
> had been over inflated.  I complained to the main corporate office
> (through Facebook), and the local manager contacted me offering me a
> complete set of new tires for my truck.  I actually refused the new
> tires.  I told him,  "I just want better quality service.  If you
> destroy a lug bolt by driving an acorn nut over it and busting it out or
> over inflate my tires again I'll let corporate know your store has a
> history of this. When I say what pressure I want in my tires I expect to
> get that pressure in my tires. In order to make sure I don't have
> another bad experience you will have to take a little extra care with
> every customer, because you don't know which one is me and you know I
> will complain about it."Â  I'm still running those tires, so I don't know
> how its going to go next time I need a set, but they didn't actually
> cheat me.  They just made a stupid and 100% avoidable mistake.  I guess
> its possible they over inflated the tires on purpose to wear them out
> faster, but I think its unlikely.  If that was their intent they
> wouldn't have asked me what pressure I ran.  I'm not above buying tires
> from Tire Rack, and having Yuma Tire mount and balance them for me if I
> have to.


Many many years ago I had a 1972 Subaru Station Wagon.  Bought it new
when I traded in my '67 VW Bug.  Hindsight I should have kept the bug
but had no place to store it.  Anyhow, it came to a point in time that
I needed new tires.  There was a Dept. Store Chain here that had a
Automotive Department.  The had a sale on the tires I needed but the
twist was the store closest to me didn't have stock but the one
20 miles away did.  I worked closer to the far one so I went there
to pick up the set of tires and then later that week went to the
local to get them installed.  The shop manager was not happy about
mounting the tires but when I got the store manager involved he was
instructed to get it done.  Since the sale was "free mounting" he was
less than happy.  When the car came off the rack he said that I owed
for them $10.60 for new valve stems.  WHAT!!!  I didn't ask for them.
TAKE THEM OUT AND PUT THE OLD BACK IN!!!  But they are in the trash can.
I said, get them out of the trash I want to see them!!  He told the
mechanic to dig them out, and he did, and they were wasted.  He handed
them to me and I gave him difficultly the $10.60.  So I went out to
get in my car.  When I did the floor board under my feet was raise up
about 2".  They used the frame upright braces on the lift to raise my
UniBody car that has no frame and of course the sheet metal buckled.
Went back in and had another DISCUSSION with the manager.  He came
out with a rubber mallet and pounded the humps back to the original
position.  One more time I got into my car to drive away.  When I got
to the street I increase speed to 25-30mph.  The slightest movement
on the steering wheel and I was all over the road, to the point of
dangerous.  Turned around and went back again and had another
D-I-S-C-U-S-S-I-O-N  with this STUPID SHOP MANAGER.  The only thing
I can figure was that is was trying to make a point with the free
mounting.  They had pumped all 4 tires to 50psi.  On the door specs
says 32psi max.  It was as if I was driving on ice.  At the time I
think I passed the above story on to at least 20 other people.  That
store chain is since out of business and I hope that I helped in someway
to make that happen since it was well deserved.

Les