Happy Tire & Auto Repair

Review: I brought my vehicle to have my driver side front and rear tires and rims switched (rear tire put on front rim and front tire put on rear rim). My home is 1.3 miles from the location, which is where I drove immediately after having the service done. Approximately 15-20 minutes after I arrived home, I realized the left rear tire was completely flat. Under the assumption that perhaps the tire wasn't properly sealed to the rim, I returned to the shop (after airing the tire back up). When I arrived, [redacted] (the service man) told me the rim was not properly welded (which I had done due to a previous crack). I attempted to explain to him that that could not have been the reason because the rim had given me no issue with leakage until after I brought it to his shop. In addition, I had two other rims repaired by the professionals who repaired the rim in question, without issue. He refused to take responsibility nor provide me with a refund. Instead he blamed it on the weld job which had completely held up until his services and sent me on my way. I brought the rim to the original welders and their diagnosis was that [redacted] most likely did not handle the rim appropriately when using his machine to remove the tire from the rim and reopened the sealed crack. I attempted to call him once I arrived back home and explain this to him, however he proceeded to yell and not take responsibility then ultimately hang up while I was speaking.

Product_Or_Service: Rim/Tire swap

Desired Settlement: DesiredSettlementID: Refund

Desired settlement would be a full refund of $40 and the costs to repair the rim.

Business

Response:

Business' Initial Response

The customer brought the vehicle to our shop and requested that we install front tire to rear rim and the rear tire to the front rim. After we performed the work she comes back claiming her tire was flat. We checked the tire and found the wheel had previously been welded, and it was leaking from the where it was welded. We informed customer that the leak is coming from the weld, and she accused us of damaging her wheel.

I tried to to explain to her that is leaking EXACTLY from where it has been welded previously, how could we have possibly caused that damaged?

I tried to show the customer that the weld hasn't been tampered with, it was probably just a poor job of welding aluminum. She stated that the guy who welded her wheel claim that "[redacted] most likely did not handle the rim appropriately", I have been in the tire business for have OVER 25 years. I have seen MANY "aluminum" weld jobs leak. The customer doesn't understand that she has aluminum wheels, welding aluminum wheels is NEVER guaranteed fix (as I have seen many many times before).

I can say with 100 percent certainty that our shop did not cause ANY damage to her wheel. It is just a matter of time before her OTHER welded wheels leak as well.

Consumer's Final Response

(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)

This is an inadequate response to the issue this place of business caused. In short, my weld had been secure for a substantial amount of time (at lease a few months) without so much as minor leakage. It was not until the transferring of tires between the two rims took place, that my rim will no longer even hold air. Like I've previously stated, my other welds have caused no issues and have never leaked. This man is attempting to take advantage of me as a woman not in the tire business, but admitted to an older male friend of mine (whom confronted [redacted] on the day of occurrence) that he did cause the weld to break open.

After speaking with a few others whom specialize with tires and rims, they informed me that carelessness in mounting a tire on the machine used to remove the tire from the rim would cause a weld to receive unnecessary pressure, for example, if the rim was not mounted level to stand up to the pressure of tire removal.