Americas Tire - scratching rims to install balance weights??
 

Anyone have this same experience?

I had new tires installed monday on my stock 2006 rims. i washed the car today to find that all four rims have been sanded down (they said it's a wire brush) such that the paint is kinda gone. It's the area where they needed to attach the balancing weigts.

I've NEVER had a shop do this before. I think it's visible in the pics so you can see what i'm talking about. I only put a pic of one wheel but all four are the same.

I keep my rims pretty clean so i'm really disappointed to see this. What happens after the next rebalance, more paint removal?

kevin

looks like they messed up your rims and gave you a BS reason to why it happened to get you to leave. ive never heard of wire brushing a rim to put on wheel weights. if that happened to my rims, they would be buying me a new set.

That is wrong. They should have not done that to attach balance weights. Only clean the area. Not scrape it. That's so hurt.

Call another America Tires and other big tire installers too (Costco, Goodyear) and ask them if they use wire brushes to scrape away a fresh spot to mount weights. When they so "No, that'd damage the wheel." say "Thank you very much."

Then go back to the offending AT and politely ask to talk to the manager. Go over the situation politely. If he again says that is common practice bring up that homework that you did, showing that it is not common practice, including at other AT's.

If that doesn't work you might have to complain to corporate. Manager will most likely be trying to protect his ass, but corporate is worried about protecting the image of the company.

I posted a thread a couple of months ago about my horrible experience with Americas tire and this isn't a shocker. Americas tire will NOT do what it takes to make this right, I tried for weeks to get some kind of refund or something from these A** holes but no one would return my emails or phone calls. I went as far as sending an email to " Call Kurtis" but soon found out that they were a sponsor for that station so you can guess what became of all that. HEY PEOPLE!!! Stop using Americas tire!!

the ATC that my friend used to work at used the wire brush method. but here at my shop, we use rubbing alcohol, dries fast and cheaper than brake cleaner

looks like they should pay to paint yo rims, never heard of anyone scraping paint off to get weights to stick. they stick fine to paint!! if its clean. Get some small claims court paperwork to scare them with!

it's in the inside of the wheel so it would not bother me, But they are your wheels and your car. If it is something that really bugs you go back to the tire place and ask to talk to the manager, keep your cool and I'm sure they will do something for you. Come off like a dick and be rude they will tell you to F off. This is from my personal expirence with the sam company.

I would **** someone up if they did that to my gold BBS's

It is on the inner portion of the rim (as close to the outter portion as possible)but its still way too visible for me because i keep my rims clean inside and out. one of the rims has the marks beyond the inside. this is just so stupid man, sooo stupid. i've called them and will be asking them to remove the weights, fix the rims, and rebalance w/o freaking scratching it all up.

I did even call the hamilyon AT and they said they use chemicals not a wire brush. My guess is the installer thought these were not painted and a brush would do no harm.

You guys can clearly see it in the pics right?

Sheesh, all I go to is americas tire up here in Santa Rosa and have had nothing but good experiences with them. But I like everyone else think they bullsheited you after scratching your wheels.

[QUOTE=kinkers;3105138]You guys can clearly see it in the pics right?[/QUOTE]

I dont really see anything, too be honest.

I see it. That is messed up. That is more damaged than putting the clip on weights!

What do you expect them to do? pay to repaint the wheels? Give you $50 to make you feel better? It's a tiny little scratch on the INSIDE of the wheel, and it's only visible when you got on your hands and knees to wash the wheel.

You went to a budget tire shop and they used budget methods to do the job. Next time get your wheels balanced at a shop that sells $2000 wheels instead of $50 ones, maybe they will pay more attention to the details.