imalimepopsicle
2011-04-27 13:39:04 UTC
I should add at this point that I am a Trained Motorcycle Technician with many years experience working on cars and motorcycles, including hundreds of tire changes/balances. I am not just an average everyday consumer in this situation.
Anyways, I bought the wheels and a set of 4 tires, and I took them to do myself, I wanted them done right and with no scratches, and I wanted them balanced a certain way, using stick-on type wheel weights.
On 4/13, I mounted/balanced the tires, cleaned and waxed the wheels, and installed them on my car. I had a small problem, however. The only valve stems I had were for Harley Davidson Mag wheels. They are stainless steel stems with a rubber seal. They fit okay, but one had a slow leak, so I decided to go to the Walmart close to my house and have the proper stems installed. I didn't want to drive all the way out to my shop on these valve stems, so against my better judgment, I just went to Walmart.
I worked at the Tire and Lube at this particular Walmart years ago, and I knew some of the people that work there. I felt comfortable taking my car here. I called before I went to make sure they had stick-on weights, and I was informed that they did. Upon arriving at Walmart, I talked to the technician that was going to work on my car, and both my wife and I stressed that we only wanted stick-on weights used when they rebalanced the wheels. We were told this was not a problem.
The work was done, and I took my car. Everything seemed fine. Well, this past Saturday, 4/23, being the first nice day we've had here since I got the car, I gave it a good detail after work. I got down on the floor and hand washed and waxed my wheels again.
When I got down and started washing them, I found that they had in fact used hammer-on weights on the inside lip of all 4 wheels, and I also found multiple scratches all over the wheels, right around the valve stems and where the lug nuts go. This is absolutely unacceptable. The wheel weights, I guess, I could let slide as a mis-communication, but the scratches in the powder coat and the aluminum is just carelessness and I will not tolerate.
I called Walmart, and talked to a manager, and he said to bring the car in so they could see it and they would have to file a claim with their insurance.
When I got there, there was probably 8-10 people piling around my car trying to make excuses for what they did, trying to weasel out of responsibility. The technician who actually did the work was there, and he was being a first-class ***hole about it, making smart *** remarks and generally being an idiot, stomping around slamming doors, etc... They pulled my car into their garage, and asked me to come out and show them what I was seeing. I showed them the multiple scratches, and the manager took pictures.
They then proceeded to take one of the wheels off to look at the weights, whatever good that would do them. With the wheel off, we found that the rim had a small dent along the bead on the inside lip, which was apparently some huge deal to the tech that originally did the work. He immediately started acting like because the lip had a dent, he was off the hook. We looked at the front wheel on the same side, and found that it was dented as well. Not terribly, I've seen/repaired far worse.
Anyways, we started going over my information to make the claim, and the manager is telling me that since I installed the tires/wheels myself before I brought the car to them, and because 2 of the rims had small dents in them, that Walmart would likely not be held responsible for any of the damage that they caused.
I installed the wheels and drove straight to Walmart. The wheels were brand new and in perfect condition when it was driven into their garage. Their work order makes no note of any damage either before or after the service. It did state that the ABS light was on Prior to Service, which has nothing to do with the damage in question.
He was hesitant to even file the claim, and kept trying to talk me out of filing it, because they probably wouldn't do anything about it.
I have an attorney I can contact, but I would rather just keep this out of court. As far as I'm concerned, right is right and wrong is wrong. I had no idea the wheels were dented, but that is not the point anyways. They damaged the wheels, and they need to be held liable for the damage they caused. Dents or no dents, they scratched the wheels and used wheel weights that damaged the finish, and they need to make it right.
Am I wrong? Should Walmart get off the hook?