Falken Corporation

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 8, 2015/05/27) */ After researching we found we had never been contacted directly from this consumer, nor have any record TireCrazy submitted the two rear tires for warranty consideration I called Mr [redacted] and was informed his two rear tires were worn out on his BMW Mequipped with a staggered fitment with no way to regularly rotate the tires (this vehicle has slightly wider Tires on the rear, with higher torque for better performance than the standard BMW three series and is most likely the reason for the fast wear) from front to rear After discussing the warranty details with Mr [redacted] , he is now aware most Tire manufactures do not offer mileage warranties on vehicles with staggered fitments due to being unable to rotate the tires from front to rear to help mitigate the turning and traction forces, thegetting even wear on all four tires and achieving the warrantied mileageHis biggest complaint was that TireCrazy did not state mileage warranties are voided on vehicles with staggered fitmentsHe feels he was misled by them (TireCrazy.com) and they since stopped communicating to him over this rapid wear claimHe has since removed the Falken Tires and purchased a new set thru another Tire dealerI have asked if there is something we can do for customer satisfaction, but at this time have no responseWe will be happy to assist him in the future if he decides to try Falken tires again Initial Consumer Rebuttal / [redacted] (2000, 10, 2015/05/29) */ (The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.) The representative from falken tires responded to the issue and after some clarification and deduction of where there may have been important detailed terms of the product's warranty not clearly disclosed was at the fault of the vendor (TireCrazy.com)The vendor listed falken products specifically highlighting warranty terms that did not actually apply to the model or combination of items which made up a complete tire setThe vendor implied that the manufacturer was contacted and informed of the warranty claim filed, but did nothing of the sortEven more so, TireCrazy.com suddenly ceased any further response after giving the implication, failing to correspond with other unanswered questions after that

Revdex.com: I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID 12433521, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to meI called the dealership and found that the road hazard coverage was provided by another company rather than the tire manufacturer Their office is in Chicago so I will file my complaint through the Illinois Revdex.com

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 8, 2016/08/03) */ Our Manufactures warranty is based on a pro-rated credit based off remaining tread depth, as informed to Mr [redacted] when he initially contacted usWe have recently contacted Mr [redacted] and found that since his initial contact, Americas Tires have replaced the two tires with sidewall cracking at no charge as a courtesy to Mr [redacted] I requested that Mr [redacted] return to his dealer to have the remaining two tires inspected - at which time they found very small cracks in the sidewalls of the remaining two tiresI have agreed to replace the two tires for him at no charge, but only after the inspection and air pressure checksWe have informed Mr [redacted] that his plus three (17" OE size to 20" size) tire fitment requires more air pressure to maintain proper carrying capacity, and the tires should be checked more regularly for correct pressuresWe believe his tires are cracking on the sidewalls due to underinflation/over-loaded conditions Initial Consumer Rebuttal / [redacted] (2000, 10, 2016/08/08) */ Today the issue with Falken Tire is completely resolvedI am fully satisfied [redacted]

This customer has never reached out to us regarding any warranty considerationI believe she may have tried contacting the vehicle manufacture and if she is upset with the lack of communication or response her complaint should be with this establishment - all numbers and contacts listed our not
associated with our CompanyMost Tires, to include OE tires do not include Road Hazard coverage - assuming this was the case, regardless of how many miles drivenAny manufacturing condition should have been referred to the Tire manufacture, not vehicle manufacture

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 8, 2016/07/22) */
Based on the facts of our first discussion with Mrs*** and her tire dealer *** @ *** *** back in January 2016, led us to believe her tires have Irregular wear due to cupping, which is a maintenance issue, and the Ohtsu FPdoes not
have a mileage warranty, so we refused any warranty consideration
As of 7/22, Mrs*** and FTC has agreed to have her tires shipped into our facility so a *** specialist can physically inspect themWe have agreed on a partial refund if found tires have irregular wear due to abuse as a customer satisfaction, and will fully compensates her claim if tires are found to have any anomalies
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 10, 2016/07/23) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I cannot say I am completely satisfied with business response as their response does not state all the facts as I believe them to be, espin first paragraph aboveParagraph two is correct as per our discussionHowever, since I don't believe *** was completely honest when saying he talked with *** when in fact, *** says he did not, I am ooncerned that when they receive the tires, they can say whatever they want, regardless of what they find with the tiresFirst, relative to paragraph 1, Jared @ Tire City, clearly states in person that no one from Falken Tire has contacted him, and I believe *** is being honest with me, so I don't believe anyone from Tire City has told anyone at Falken Tire about any "cupping" or anything elseIt didn't sound like "cupping" was the issue, they just wore like the tread was too soft, or something not right with the tiresIn fact, when I talked with *** on Friday regarding *** at Falken Tire insisting he spoke with him, *** said that is not trueHe said he did not talk with anyone there about "cupping" or anything else*** at Falken Tire stated that *** was lying to me when it appears that *** was the one lying*** and I both had a very good memory of his inspecting the tires and noticed a roughness when running his hand over the rear tires in particularAnd at that time he said the tires were defectiveOn Friday, he also told me that if Falken Tire insists there is nothing wrong with tires, to ask them why the tread wore prematurelyHe verbally listed the things that wear them out too soon, none of which, in my case, should have have enough impact to have resulted in such low miles on those tiresI agreed to give the tires to FedEx when they arrive to be shipped to Falken Tire for inspection by engineers*** at Falken Tire agreed to reimburse me $as a courtesy, and will reimburse full $as requested if any anomalies found with the tiresAdditionally, which was not mentioned, when I see tire ads, or tires on display by dealers, most have some type of mileage mentioned, such as 45,milesI question why FTC has chosen not to have a mileage warrantyCould it be they know their tires can't compete with others in the industry on mileageI believe it is only reasonable to believe that a set of tires costing me $332, even without clearly stating a mileage warranty, should be expected to perform on mileage similar to other like priced tires
Final Business Response /* (4000, 12, 2016/08/03) */
We received the four tires for Inspection from Ms*** only to find the two tires have severe miss-alignment wear - which is plausible since Ms*** informed us she had recently had bad ball joints and had her repair shop replace these and realign her vehicleThe other two tires have high tread remaining with only slight edge wear and feathering due to miss-alignment and lack of regular rotationsAll four tires were pre-maturely worn due to poor maintenance, and miss-alignment settingsHer Tire shop should have provided her better service and more accurate informationDue to finding no defects in these four tires, we will not be reimbursing Ms*** for her claim, but will still provide the goodwill credit as mentioned to her earlier
Final Consumer Response /* (2000, 14, 2016/08/06) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
Don't have much choice at this pointIt is a matter of choosing your battles, as they have the tires and say they are the expertsI discussed with Jared Arlinghaus, manager of the service shop who changed out those tires and who indicated he believed the tires were defectiveHe disagreed with the evaluation of the tires by Falken and said he had hoped they would have stood by their productFrom what I understand from conversations with *** *** at Falken, the Ohtsu tires that I believe were defective, were marketed, as a lower grade, and thus less expensive, tire in order to be competitive with the poor quality tires made in China that have conicity issues resulting in radial runout with car pulling left or right after rotationsAlthough I did not have this problem with tire rotations with the Ohtsu at less than 17,miles, I also believe they are a low quality tire that should sell for half the price they are selling them forThey have agreed to a $goodwill credit which is not a total loss for meI also believe a good quality tire should not need rotating every 3,miles as Mr*** suggested as best rotation scheduleThe Ohtsu tires were replaced by Sumitomo which I believe may also be a Falken productMy service shop and I will be paying very close attention to these tires and will see how they wear and last as a further test of their productI had the service shop check these tires yesterday and Jared said they were not quite ready to rotate*** *** also advised crisscrossing the front to the back at rotations when I am informed radials are normally only moved straight front to backFurthermore, my Sentra owner's manual recommends only straight front to back rotations as Jared said they normally do when they rotate radialsI would think a tire engineer would know that about a car as common as a Nissan Sentra, a car they manufacture tires forMy car manual says rotations are only necessary at approx7,mile intervalsThat would sound about right as I don't have quite that mileage since they were put on and am told they are not quite ready to rotateSo why would a tire engineer say I should rotate every 3K miles to wear everyone out unless they know their Ohtus for small cars is not up to grade and wear too fastSo, while I'm not totally satisfied with Falken's response, in fact, it is about what I expected as my experience they try to avoid being totally accountable for their inferior product until they run into some really big problem such as someone being killed by their lower grade product and wind up in a big lawsuitIn fact, they probably make more profit by selling a lower grade product, as most people won't make the effort to contact the company as they are too consumed by other more pressing matters of life, so they just pay for another set of tires and hope the problem is solved for a little while longerI would also believe my consumer input, which could wind up saving someone's life, on this product would at least be worth the $reimbursement I requested as a result of the fast wearout on the Ohtsu tires

I contacted this customer and was informed she purchased her first set of tires (SN-828 pattern) from her local tire dealer. She stated she later went to her dealer for rotation and was informed they needed to be replaced with approximately 14k miles use. We (the tire manufacture) do not offer any...

mileage warranty on this pattern, but her dealer does warranty these for 50k miles use and appropriately offered her a pro-rated adjustment into another set of the same product.
Around the first of November she again went to her dealer for rotation and was informed that the tires were almost worn out and should be replaced rather than rotating them. She complained of the short mileage (again approximately 14k miles use) she received on this second set and asked for replacement. Rather than getting the second set pro-rated from her dealer she contacted us and we reluctantly agreed to offer her 100% goodwill credit on this set and allowed her to apply this credit towards another brand.
Her dealer places the mileage warranty on this product, and has honored this warranty with her, and we also have stepped up and assisted her in getting out of this pattern and into a more suitable tire for her needs.
She has been fully compensated for her first set of tires thru a pro-rated credit from her dealer, and we have provided a 100% goodwill credit on her second set and feel no further compensation is due.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 8, 2015/05/27) */
After researching we found we had never been contacted directly from this consumer, nor have any record TireCrazy submitted the two rear tires for warranty consideration.
I called Mr. [redacted] and was informed his two rear tires were worn out on...

his 2002 BMW M3 equipped with a staggered fitment with no way to regularly rotate the tires (this vehicle has slightly wider Tires on the rear, with higher torque for better performance than the standard BMW three series and is most likely the reason for the fast wear) from front to rear.
After discussing the warranty details with Mr. [redacted], he is now aware most Tire manufactures do not offer mileage warranties on vehicles with staggered fitments due to being unable to rotate the tires from front to rear to help mitigate the turning and traction forces, there-by getting even wear on all four tires and achieving the warrantied mileage. His biggest complaint was that TireCrazy did not state mileage warranties are voided on vehicles with staggered fitments. He feels he was misled by them (TireCrazy.com) and they since stopped communicating to him over this rapid wear claim. He has since removed the Falken Tires and purchased a new set thru another Tire dealer. I have asked if there is something we can do for customer satisfaction, but at this time have no response. We will be happy to assist him in the future if he decides to try Falken tires again.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (2000, 10, 2015/05/29) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
The representative from falken tires responded to the issue and after some clarification and deduction of where there may have been important detailed terms of the product's warranty not clearly disclosed was at the fault of the vendor (TireCrazy.com). The vendor listed falken products specifically highlighting warranty terms that did not actually apply to the model or combination of items which made up a complete tire set. The vendor implied that the manufacturer was contacted and informed of the warranty claim filed, but did nothing of the sort. Even more so, TireCrazy.com suddenly ceased any further response after giving the false implication, failing to correspond with other unanswered questions after that.

I am rejecting this response because: I got a total of 33,700 miles from two sets of tires rated to 50,000 miles. For the two sets combined that's considerable less than the warranteed rating for one set of these tires.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 8, 2016/08/03) */
Our Manufactures warranty is based on a pro-rated credit based off remaining tread depth, as informed to Mr. [redacted] when he initially contacted us. We have recently contacted Mr. [redacted] and found that since his initial contact, Americas...

Tires have replaced the two tires with sidewall cracking at no charge as a courtesy to Mr. [redacted]. I requested that Mr. [redacted] return to his dealer to have the remaining two tires inspected - at which time they found very small cracks in the sidewalls of the remaining two tires. I have agreed to replace the two tires for him at no charge, but only after the inspection and air pressure checks. We have informed Mr. [redacted] that his plus three (17" OE size to 20" size) tire fitment requires more air pressure to maintain proper carrying capacity, and the tires should be checked more regularly for correct pressures. We believe his tires are cracking on the sidewalls due to underinflation/over-loaded conditions.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (2000, 10, 2016/08/08) */
Today the issue with Falken Tire is completely resolved. I am fully satisfied.
[redacted]

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID 12433521, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. I called the dealership and found that the road hazard coverage was provided by another company rather than the tire manufacturer.  Their office is in Chicago so I will file my complaint through the Illinois Revdex.com.