What would you do?

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Juniorss

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So on the way to the airport last weekend at 5am I happened to get a flat right in front of a Mavis tire. It was going flat fast but I had enough time to get it into the lot before it went completely flat. Luckily I was only 5 minutes from my parents house so I decided to get a ride instead of putting on the spare. I was also kind of lucky that I had two new Goodyears in the back that I just didn't get around to mounting on my rear wheels. The unfortunate thing is that the flat was on the front.

My dad went in when they opened but had somewhere to go, so he told them not to drive the truck since the tire was now completely flat down to the rim. A couple hours after he got done doing what he had to, he went to the Mavis to pick up my truck. Being the car guy he is (I blame him for making me the way I am lol) he goes and looks at the rim since it was now parked in the middle of a huge puddle when they had no reason to move the truck. Well he finds the whole edge of the rim completely chewed up and marks from where they must have pried against the wheel to remove/install the tire. At first they tried to tell him that it was normal "road rash" and that they see it all the time. Then after my dad telling the guy that he was out of his mind, and the guy going out and looking at every other rim that was spotless, he agreed to fix it and didn't charge to put the new tire on. Im assuming they pulled it into their shop with the tire completely flat and probably turned the wheel which resulted in the tire folding under the rim and them basically driving on the pavement with the rim.

Anyways I got home today and saw the rim in person. Just like I said, they literally chewed up the rim all the way around right on the edge and there are a few places where there are nicks on the face. Now they want to fix it but I am afraid of it not matching. The sport wheels are polished with the painted areas on each spoke. I am thinking about giving them one chance to fix it (Im going to take the wheel off, put the spare on and hand them the wheel/tire), but if it doesn't match the first time, I'm going to ask for a new wheel. Is that unreasonable?

Ill try to get better pics in the morning but these are some that my dad had taken when it happened.

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reek

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i'm a tolerant person. scuff and scrapes are part of life. no one is perfect. what you have is just plain damage. I second the replace it opinion
 
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Juniorss

Juniorss

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I thought about skipping the repair option too.. I know a new wheel is around $650 from the dealer. I understand if they put a nick in the wheel by acciddent but what they did is ridiculous. I have in writing to bring the wheel in to get repaired, so they are admitting fault.
 

MeatCurtains

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That wheel is shot. I wouldn't have even mounted anything on it as dragging the bead across it is likely to damage the sealing surface of the bead. I've been down that road and it sucks.

You may find the burden of proof is on you if they refuse so be prepared to fight for it however there is no repair that's going to work well as it looks in some places the wheel is cracking.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
 

huntergreen

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Needs to be replaced. Skip the repair.
 

01Ram2500

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Replace for sure. It appears to me that Mavis Tire is a dishonest company unwilling to admit their mistakes. Bunch of snakes. If it was me, they would replace the wheel or deal with my lawyer.
 

gofishn

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Replace and never use that shop again.
 

O.R.T.

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New wheel. Their fault their responsibility. You brought it in with a wheel that was essentially "new" and undamaged, therefore you should be allowed to leave with the same.
 

-B-

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use the term willful neglect in speaking with them to replace the wheel and tire
 

Craw

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New, would you want to rely on a "fix" in a blizzard and have that part of your anxiety or focus on what is ahead of you and not worrying about the what-ifs with a new wheel.
 

Jeepwalker

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I've endured so many tire shop horror stories over the years along the lines of yours. I wonder how many screw-ups the average shop has per day?? It's got to be a lot. They're lucky the average person doesn't know squat about their cars. It doesn't matter what you tell most shop guys, they'll either forget or won't tell the person who is working on your car. You HAVE to be standing right there! I even had one case where I WAS standing right there and watched the guy starting to destroy an expensive wheel cover he couldn't figure out how to remove. I'm yelling for him to stop, he proceeds to screw the cover up ...turns out he was actually deaf! You just can win against these shops!!!

I've resorted to taking my tires off at home and taking them to the shop in my truck during a slow period so they can get to them right away and stand there when they're changing the tires. They'll be a lot more careful and you can usually catch and stop a potentially costly problem before it happens. Plus, some guys will do a quickie balancing tires. If you're standing there, b.s.ing with them, listening to their stories, they'll usually go the extra mile for ya. That's nice. That's something to keep in mind for the future.

Good luck getting a new rim out of this. I'm sure the scuffs on the wheel edge, as I see them, could be filed, sanded and polish out fine or at least to 95% where you wouldn't see them. Not that difficult to do. I've restored and polished several AL wheels for various classic cars. Uncleared wheels are easy to do and turn out nice ...if you take your time. Problem is, are they going to do it 'right'? Probably not. The scuffed areas on the wheel surface are going to be a different story. They could be cleaned up so as to be less visible, but you'll always see the depression. And most likely the wheels are clear coated which they wouldn't be able to replicate. When you chip or remove the clear (if they 'are' clearcoated), then you introduce accelerated corrosion at the exposed area. The wheels would have to be professionally restored to get the faces cleaned up. And then the problem with getting wheels 'professionally' restored by a wheel shop is they generally sandblast the wheel backsides (creates a different texture) and either paint the backside, clear them, or don't do anything (to the back), so that wheel would be different than the other wheels, even though the fronts would look about the same.

It's probably not worth getting into. Are there any used ones on Ebay that are really nice?

I definitely feel your pain and understand your grief brother!
 
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TruckNut

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Go to eBay where you can find single replacement wheels for sale for a lot less than $650. Don't let them fix it, but rather have them pay for the replacement.
 
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Juniorss

Juniorss

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Well I spoke to the local Rep for Mavis and he said that they HAVE to try and fix the wheel before replacing it. I told him I doubt it will match, but we will see. Now I have to try and find time to put the spare on and give them the wheel..
 

TRCM

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I had taken my truck in to the dealer to get the oil changed, an alignment done, and the tires rotated & balanced, as I was going on a 3000+ mile road trip in a few days.

When I picked it up, I noticed a lug nut was missing, and they had no alignment print out sheet. They got me a print out, and said they would order a new lug nut.

I get home, and the alignment clearly shows some readings are still out (red), and warns that tire wear can occur. I call the dealer to ask, but they are closed for the weekend.

The next day, I'm washing the truck before I leave on my trip, and find a nice nick in the rim.......obviously from a socket or impact wrench getting away from someone, based on having done it myself when I worked as a tire jockey. I also noticed when they balanced the tires, they did not remove the old weights, and simply put more weight on top of the old, and in different places as well. So, I call the dealer first thing monday, and they ask me to bring it by for them to check out.

Same mechanic did all the work.

I took it in to show them the nick I found, mainly to get them to tell the guy to be more careful (as it was a 2012 truck and it's now 2017, altho the rims & 98% of the truck still looks brand new), but when the manager saw it, he walked back in and told the service writer to order a brand new rim, but the alignment would have to wait (I was leaving on a road trip the next day, which is why I had the tires balanced and the alignment done).

Long story short, that mechanic no longer works there, and they did put a brand new $570 rim on my truck (too bad I couldn't keep the old one for use as a spare), they rebalanced all 4 tires, and they redid the alignment....they also changed the oil again, as it was due again.

A single mistake is one thing, but this guy did at a minimum 4 things wrong on this one work ticket.
 
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RamInfo

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TRCM, the mech who worked on your truck screwed up. That happens sometimes. But I am very impressed with your dealer, who by your description stepped up large and took care of the issues without a problem. I would definitely be sticking with that service department if I were you, and I think you should tell us the name of the dealership—they have earned a shout-out, I think.

It is nice to hear good reports when they happen, we get more than enough of the others here in the forum.

Glad you got taken care of,
DG
 

TRCM

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TRCM, the mech who worked on your truck screwed up. That happens sometimes. But I am very impressed with your dealer, who by your description stepped up large and took care of the issues without a problem. I would definitely be sticking with that service department if I were you, and I think you should tell us the name of the dealership—they have earned a shout-out, I think.

It is nice to hear good reports when they happen, we get more than enough of the others here in the forum.

Glad you got taken care of,
DG


Yes, people do make mistakes, which is why my intent was for them just to tell him to be careful with the rim, but I guess the combination of the other screw-ups did him in. Only resason I knew, was when I took it back in 5 months later for another issue, I asked that he not work on it, and they said he didn't work there any more.

Problem is...every time I pick the truck up from there, something is wrong or has to be cleaned up:
1) from the grease blob on the interior of my door and leather passenger seat
2) to the oil they spilled on the frame and didn't clean up during one oil change ( I found it by the puddle of oil under my truck in the driveway the next day)
3) to the oil they spilled all over the top of the engine and didn't clean up during another oil change
4) to the pinch marks on the front tires from trying to drive it between the pinch/pivot point of a swing arm lift (several times, even tho I warn/ask them NOT to try & drive between, but instead to put 1 tire up ON the lift arm as they drive it in)
5) to the jack cover and jack being left out in the floorboard cuz the tech didn't read the ticket as to where the lug lock key was
6) to the greasy hand prints all over the side of my white truck
7) to the greasy footprints on the door sills (mine are the light tan colored version)
8) EVERY single time I pick it up from them, I have to get them to clean up some kind of grease mark or dirt spot or something left out
9) their parking lot is lined by pine trees....which means pine tar/sap and needles all over it when you pick it up, as they park the customers vehicles them outside overnight
10) ..............need I go on ??

They have a different service person now for trucks, but the one that worked there when I got my truck use to always tell me "it is normal" and huff & puff when I told him I wanted it fixed cuz it wasn't right.....but strangely, it always got fixed...even if it took more than 1 visit of me complaining. So, I guess it wasn't so normal after all.


I only still use them for 2 reasons, and with my work schedule most of the time, it is more the 2nd one....1) I bought the truck there, which does carry some perks/discounts, and 2) they are within walking distance of my house (3/4 mile).
 
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