Hello,
I bought a set of Cooper Adventurer A/T tires (275/65r18) for my 2003 Toyota Sequoia about a year ago at my local Pepboys, with the full warranty and the “Road Hazard” Warranty as well. About a month ago, one of my tires got punctured and went flat. When I took it to them, they patched in under warranty and said “You won’t need to worry about this tire again, that’s a hybrid repair that will never fail.”
Well last night on the freeway on my way home from work, the patch/plug failed and sent the car flying across the highway. Luckily no one got hurt as I was able to regain control of the vehicle after this happened. I brought the tire in this morning and they told me “Well if it was something we did wrong it would have gone wrong right away, not this long after it being on, but you can buy a new tire and we’ll mount it for you for a pro rated price.” Well the prorated price is almost the exact same price as a new tire plus the fee for mounting and balancing.
Should this be an price they should eat since their repair failed, or am I being ignorant? I think since their repair failed and they told me it would never fail, that they should replace the tire.
What do you think?
Small claims court - NOW! Never go to Pep Boys or any of the chain auto service stores.
Would small claims court do anything? I know they’re trying to screw me over, but it is just a tire, I don’t know if I would have a shot of actually doing anything in small claims court
I would not trust Pep Boys to screw in a light bulb. However the tire was probably damaged so badly there's no way to prove that something else didn't cause the problem. Additionally, no matter what they told you the actual warranty on their repair would be in writing and takes precedence over any verbal statement. (Never believe what you are told. They might not even know they are lying to you, always get it in writing.)
The tire actually isn’t all that damaged, the plug itself is. If there was a way to post a photo of it I would, it’s hard to explain what it looks like
You can upload photo(s) to a file sharing site and post the link here.
Okay, I’m gonna try to do that and show a picture of what the tire looked like when it failed, before I took it into them to look at. They still have my tire and I’m going to go pick it up in the morning, but I have a picture of what the outside looks like.
Here are the pictures I was able to snag after I took the bad tire off of the car. Oddly enough, it’s not really damaged at all, but it’s clear to me at least that the patch/plug was the thing that failed. That and the loud hissing sound coming from it after I did end up getting it off.
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It's a little hard to tell but that looks like a large damaged area that they should not have attempted to repair in the first place.
Yeah, it’s definitely something they were not willing to replace on their end without me paying for a new tire. I ended up taking my tire to several other places to get their opinion, and every one agreed with me that Pepboys should replace the tire for free. When confronted, they still wouldn’t budge. I ordered a new tire from somewhere else and am having them install it, and I will be looking into small claims to see if that would be worth pursuing. My biggest issue is, like you had mentioned, the damage wasn’t worth trying to repair in the first place, which is ultimately why the patch failed. I’m going to try to get a couple pictures of the inside of the tire to bolster my point if I choose to go to small claims, and I will also post the picture(s) of the inside here if I do get them. I just want people to know to never go to Pepboys. I only went to them in the first place because I figured you couldn’t mess up tires like this, but here we are.
They screwed you over. I see red flags anytime somebody says "never fails" to me. Not only is that a lie, but they're taking me for an idiot.
You absolutely have a very good case to not only get reimbursed for the lousy repair job they did but the cost of a new tire, and towing and whatever other expenses you can prove you incurred. I've been using tire plug kits for forty years and never had a problem. They did the job wrong and you suffered a financial loss, your Honor.
The only thing I’m worried about is proving that it happened. Luckily, I didn’t skid or slide or anything like that. The tire went bad, and the steering wheel buckled to the right, forcing me from the left most lane to the right most lane (about 4 lanes), where I was able to regain control and use the E-brake to stop the vehicle. I’m thankful for that, of course, but there’s not even exterior damage to the tire, the reason I knew it was coming from the patch was because I could hear it hissing loudly when I get out of the car to check if I had lost a tie rod or something. Of course, I know that it happened, and like you said, I was definitely cleaning some cake out of my pants, but I just don’t have proof other than the tire itself that went bad.
First of all, it's not an E brake, it's a parking brake. The tire itself went bad BECAUSE of the incompetent plug job done by Pep Boys. With receipts and photographs, this should be a slam dunk.
My mistake, I’m used to calling it an e brake because that’s what I was taught, plus that’s unintentionally how I happened to use it last night, but I’ll deal with that later. I should still have the warranty paperwork and I have photographs. If they’re not willing to budge when I talk to them in the morning, I’ll definitely look into small claims. Thank you!
Give them the opportunity to make it right first. That's the right thing to do. If they refuse, lower the boom!
Don't forget to add the cost of washing the cake out of your shorts when you went zinging across the highway because of their incompetence. And the cost of your anti-anxiety medication and psychological therapy.
Call pepboys corporate, threaten a suit and you should receive a check unless theres some bozo trying to protect them. Ever got stretched tires before, that's another way to get free tires when you didn't want a different size.
![Race_Snooze [BANNED]](https://i0.wp.com/i.postimg.cc/fLKMkt8H/ban-user.webp?resize=96%2C96 "Race_Snooze [BANNED]")
I’ve tried calling corporate several times today after receiving my latest update and taking the tire somewhere else to be replaced (learned my lesson there), but no one responded.
I’m also not familiar with a stretched tire, is it something people do to avoid using the proper sized tire?
A stretched tire is a tire with a smaller width than the rim specifies.
Try get in touch with a higher up manager. If you were driving a leaking tire under work they just warrantied and it exploded that is their fault completely and could be a civil matter