I have 2 tires that I bought from Discount tires a couple of years ago. I paid for lifetime balance and rotation. Everytime I go, they tell me my rims are bent and they push me to buy aluminium rims. They are extremely pushy about it and they almost won't take no for an answer. This last time I had to beg them to balance my tires even though I paid for a lifetime balancing. I even complained to the manager and he acted like it was my fault...was very unsympathetic.

When I left after they balanced my tires it seemed like my tires were more unbalanced then before I brought the car in. The steering wheel seems to wobble when I drive slow, and they car wants to pull to the left more strongly. Is this just in my head or could they have worsen my tires on purpose?

 

Of course it is possible. I refuse to use them because of similar tactics here in Dallas. Buy a set of tires and they slide in the lifetime crap. Only problem is, next time you show up and want something w/o money changing hands, they think you are invisible. They will do tires while you wait, but balancing will be a few hours. My advice? Go to a local tire shop and pay to have them balanced. It's a horribly bent rim that will hold air but not balance out. I worked in a tire shop for a while...it's amazing what can get balanced. BTW, I now buy all my tires from tirerack.com and have them mounted/balanced at a small independent shop.

 

I usually try to get my tires at Sam's. If I get them elsewhere I still go to Sam's to get them balanced. Most of the wheels on my T-5R sedan were bent. Sam's don't sell wheels so they just usually told me that the wheels were bent and that was that.

As for what you should do, I'd file a complaint up the ladder and get them double checked at another place asap. Don't make a big deal about it at the new place, just act casual about it and say something along the lines that you had them balanced a couple of days at another place (don't name it) and you think they did a poor job. After they get done ask if they were off and they'll likely tell you.

 

Filing a complaint will most likely get you a "free" balance coupon or some such discounted service. This happens often enough I'm sure they have some sort of bone to throw po'd customers. For me, at my age, I have too many other things demanding my time. I simply never patronize such establishments again. When re-balancing, I'd suggest telling the new shop up front they were most likely poorly done. Why? The first thing they do is pull off all the old weights before balancing. To have them check the current balance, they will need to add a step. Put them on the machine and run them w/ the old lead on first, then remove it all and start from scratch. At least, that's how it should be done. The tendency will be to merely add a weight to the existing ones. I've seen wheels here at the shop with, say, 1.5 oz on one side and 2.5 oz on the opposite. In such a case, the one side w/ 1.5 oz should be removed and the opposite side should have 1 oz. Some tire handlers are experts at their jobs...others...not so much.

 

Not exactly related but.... always believed in replacing ALL four tires at same time. Lot of issues if you don't. From initial post sounded like may have only replaced some and not all four.

 

You can balance bent wheels but that won't fix the vibration