[Kerr]

Decided to use a company local to my hometown for new tyres.

Clarified before they started they could fit new tyres safely to my 19 inch rims as I know they can be difficult.

Watched the young guy jack up the car to find leaving the car in gear doesn't lock the front wheels on a BMW meaning he couldn't slacken the bolts.

Watched in horror at the struggle to remove the previous tyres with levers slipping and bloody knuckles.

They did one front first and had the other rear tyre off. I looked at the front and there was a huge level mark through to the bare aluminium. Inspected the rear on the tyre removal machine and it had 3 sizeable marks.

Furious doesn't cover it as my wheels are one of my favourite parts of the car.

The guy said that he knew painters who could tidy it up but don't work Saturdays. I refused this anyways as the wheels were perfect beforehand and blending in isn't a fair repair.

He said to get a quote and send him it so I phoned the wheel specialist there and then and allowed him to speak to the guy.He wouldn't give me the cash up front and won't pay the company directly either. I've to get it done and he will give me the money.

I suggested leaving the tyres on and I would pay minus the damage costs to which he refused and put the old ones back on. I thought that was a fair offer to help cover his loses but he didn't want to.

So I'm back to square one and have a bill to pay to have my wheels refurbished again then hopefully have no difficulty in recovering my money.

Sick and tired of trusting people to work on my car when 99% of them always fail to do a satisfactory job.

I won't mention the company name and allow them the opportunity to recfify the damage first.

[Kerr]

Some of the damage at the top of the wheels. More at the bottom too.

[Hotcoupe]

Originally Posted by Kerr

He wouldn't give me the cash up front and won't pay the company directly either. I've to get it done and he will give me the money.

You want that agreement in writing before you shell out any folding stuff.

I can see some tears on the horizon,and you getting royally shafted if you don't play this out in the right way.

I'd pre-empt the severe bending over you're likely to get,by getting the paperwork from the local court in readiness for a small claim at the local Mags.

Sorry to hear about your woes,what a bunch of uber morons!

[Kerr]

The guy seemed ok about it but I did think I might have issues.

I did make sure sure I took video evidence of the wheels on the tyre machine and record him admitting liability.

[Dragon88]

Absolutely shocking! Hope you get it resolved without being out of pocket.

[gatto667]

Sorry to hear this, annoying when you can't trust a "professional" with your pride and joy.

[blackrabbit]

This kind of thing really annoys me. You pay good money for supposed trained profesionals to carry out a task. What do you end up with?.....some lazy arsed bastard who either cant do the job, or cant be bothered to do it right. They all deserve to go out of business!

These type of people are the first to shout foul when something goes wrong for them! I hope they sort it out for you ASAP

[BanziBarn]

You can't trust anyone these days. I've been there with wheel damage except the place was no way as helpful as in this thread.

It's just hassle you don't need.

[blackrabbit]

There should be a sticky thread for naming and shaming shite garages?

[sohlman]

I suggest you get the wheels professionally refurbished.

Speak to the proprietor and document the conversations before during and afterwards. Basically I think you can give him two options.

The reasonable approach with little or no hassle. Admit that they damaged the wheels which it appears they have as they offered to get there chap in. Document this.
Pay for the damage to be repaired to the same condition as before. They should have insurance and so this should not cost them anything per say. Payment after completion would be reasonable if you get it done or allow them to do, but specify standard of finish you will accept. A touch up is not acceptable.

Or the unreasonable approach

Involve the police, trading standards, small claim courts etc. a complaint to trading standards will get persons sniffing around. Small claims under £5000 can be done outside of court and don't cost as much. Once claim is in a county court judgement can then be taken. This is lots of hassle and in all likely hood won't get you any monies and may cost you a bit. But the threat of this action could do the trick. Also mention the power of an online slur campaign. Again this can be very damaging to a business. If you really want to give them hell an anonymous tip to HMRC that you think they are up to no good can cause an audit which will effectively stop them from being able to trade whilst they answer questions. Someone did that to our business once and it cost is 10 days of our accounts department running around like headless chickens.

One option is no hassle for both with very little pain. The other is highly disruptive.

My vindictive two peneth

[coopersim]

I had exactly this problem, it ended well with new wheels. To be fair the guys were really good, and they said the refurb was shocking too.

[RagingKileak]

The Wheel Specialist will have them spot on I can assure you. I actually take my car to them for tyre changes, I wouldn't dream of using any other garage.

Sorry to hear of your woes mate. Hope you get it sorted without any hassle.

Matt

[Darlo]

What a complete pain in the arse that is. I would have gone mental, especially when they refused to pay after you had spoke to the wheel specialist. Alarm bells would be ringing as he has had the chance to pay and not.

I hope this gets sorted asap

[Kerr]

He was pressing me to allow the wheel specialist to view the damage rather than accept the description over the phone before deciding what remedy was required to repair.

I remembered there is a powder coating company local to me and allowed them to view the wheels.

They said exactly what the Aberdeen guy said and that they needed redone properly.

The guy who owns the tyre company gave me his direct mobile number and I texted this information to him.

8 hours later I've not heard a word back.

I'm down here until tomorrow and not sure if the guy is open on Sunday. I'm going to fire an email with pictures to the wheel specialist tonight and hope he checks them regular for custom and responds tomorrow.

That should allow me to go visit him with the evidence rather than deal with him over the phone.

It is amazing how much people behave differently when there is a phone or a computer screen between us.

It is a never ending saga with me having to deal with shoddy workmanship and services.

When I got the car the dealer damaged the wheels, I had big issues with the damage the BMW garage did during work and only just settled the damage for the sunken manhole cover.

I'm honestly pig sick of pretty much every garage, dealer or car services that I've encountered. The standards or workmanship and care is just embarrassing.

Nobody has any respect for your property, can't be bothered or simply not trained to do their job right.

Skilled people are few and far between in this country.

[MEGA]

I know a good tyre guy (who I don't work for) - but it's a bit of a journey for you.

Bad luck and all that.

[ihpj]

Originally Posted by sohlman

Or the unreasonable approach

Involve the police, trading standards, small claim courts...

Umm...why involve Us (Police)? We got enough to do without getting roped into what is quite clearly a Civil Dispute between two parties ;o)

Otherwise I agree with your advice on course of action through Small Claims Court.

[RagingKileak]

To be fair it would be helpful if the police could be involved in civil matters, as its often very tough to find a morally fair resolution and the police could usually assist.

That said, chances are that Sohlman doesn't have the life experience that many of us have in respect to civil/legal matters and has made his comment based on the fact that he thinks that the legal code is aligned to his own moral code, which of course it is not.

No offense to you as a police officer of course, you don't decide what is/isn't your business - I'm just saying what I think Sohlman was thinking.

Matt

[Dr Dave]

Must admit, I too thought "Why is he suggesting getting the (already overstretched) Police involved!! Nothing to do with them!

[Dr Dave]

To peel off and refit tyres on modern day rims, you need a semi-automatic tyre machine. You can tell these as they have all sorts of arms and attachments coming out at all funny angles.

This is the type of machine you need to be using to do the job



But I bet they had something like this.........

[sohlman]

Just trying to give the op some support.

Interesting on the police view. I work with the local police and community officers and have built a relationship of exchanging information and gaining advice. I saw this as one of those situations. I don't advocate waisting police time far from it. My original concern for the op is that matters like this have the potential to spiral beyond a civil matter.

I do however believe that the police could and should play a role with civil matters. We had a virus toon were a staff member stole £26,000 from our company. It was regarded as a vocal matter. We have gone through every legal means of recovering the monies. CCJ, magistrates judgement etc. yet a kid who steels some trainers in the riots gets prison time. Hardly even handed.

I hope going back to the op problem that a resolution can be found in an amicable way. Never easy and generally the honest person looses out

[bbillboyy]

Originally Posted by Dr Dave

To peel off and refit tyres on modern day rims, you need a semi-automatic tyre machine. You can tell these as they have all sorts of arms and attachments coming out at all funny angles.

This is the type of machine you need to be using to do the job



But I bet they had something like this.........

I'm a tyre fitter and you don't need a semi-auto tyre machine if you no what your doing we don't have one but we take care and without bigging myself up we no what were doing don't get me wrong it's easier and safer with a semi-auto machine but it's perfectly fine to do it with a normal machine as long as your careful, there are a lot of so called tyre fitters out there but they have no clue as to how to fit or strip a wheel without absolutely demolishing the wheel!!

[Kerr]

It shouldn't be a police matter as it stands now.

However if as feared he tries to pull a fast one and denies liabilty then it should.

I have the evidence to prove his guilt and trying to worm out of the damage he caused should be an offence in my opinion.

Hopefully we won't end up going down that route.

Still not had a response to yesterday's text message.

I'm not sure if he is open today but I will pop in to see.

I will make an offer to buy the tyres to take away and see if he will go for that.