if you like it when people take the time to tell the story with their review, then this is going to…read morebe one you may enjoy.
We have four cars in the family and we use the Lake Worth Road location of Discount Tire for them all (half an hour and four tires stores we pass on the way to get there). Here is my best example of why:
We have two Tesla Model X's and the design has a flaw in the way Tesla sets up the camber (no, this won't be a technical story, but you need a couple technical words to set the tone) the flaw makes you burn through tires within 8-11,000 miles.
Strange, rotten, but true.
So on my prior replacement, Juan here at Discount Tire let me know that there is a company that make a camber kit to help the problem. I researched it and bought both my Tesla's a kit that was supposed to fix the issue and felt smug that I outsmarted the problem.
However, Tesla had multiple layers of problems they hadn't solved and I didn't know it. The parts of the rear tires that were visible looked brand new, So I continued happy and smug until I got a nail in my rear tire, and that saved me. I stopped at a convenient roadside tire stand, as I was an hour from Discount Tire, I thought a patch done by another shop would be fine. When they looked, they were shocked - the far inside of the tires, where you couldn't see, was down to the cords on both rear tires.
I got back in the car and gingerly drove the hour to Discount Tire. I knew I could trust anyone to put on a bandaid, but if I needed surgery, there was only one place I could trust.
I arrived at Discount Tire to my favorite customer service advisor, Juan. He started by getting me a credit back from the tire maker for the uneven wear - bonus, as I hadn't remembered tire makers do that, but Juan just went about trying to do the best he could for me. He ordered in a new set of rears and I left the car and showed up the next day for the install.
In the meantime, I had researched Tesla's and found there was another layer of problems - you set the alignment at one level, but the air suspension goes to four different settings, so you wear your tires out by the change in settings. So I figured out how to set them to stay in one place - there, another Tesla issue fixed!
As the guys were starting the install, I cooked up a plan to fix the rest of my Tesla's problems once and for all. I wanted to replace all four tires and go to different wheels that weren't staggered, so I could rotate them properly and stop the wear in only one spot. I also wanted to stop having the car bang over the smallest uneven patched in the road, as it was on 22" wheels that look nice, but show no mercy for the occupants of the vehicle.
I thought I had time to research and get the right choice, but these guys are super speedy and had already put the new tires on, by the time I figured out what I wanted to do.
As a result, I didn't want to drive on the new tires as I wasn't planning to keep them. They couldn't take them off and put on the old ones, for, as the only reviews that are negative here state, they can't be liable for putting on faulty tires (or taking nails out of the sidewall) - this is frustrating, but it bears mention as it also saves you from doing silly things and hurting yourself.
The wheels would take a week to get in. I talked with Dustin, the manager and he told me he was willing to keep the car on the property and move it into the garage every night until the wheels arrived. I know he couldn't have been happy about that, but man, you wouldn't know it to look at him. Just the perfect image of professionalism when facing an adverse situation.
It got worse for them. Having taken this on, they moved the car around for a few days. However, then I had to come by and ask that they plug the car into the wall socket, as it was about to run out of electricity - Tesla's don't have a reserve tank, they just go dead. So they kindly agreed to do so. Ben and Juan moved the car in and out, charging it daily as they did.
When the wheels finally arrived, they had them mounted up with new tires, fully aligned and ready to go in under 90 minutes.
Discount Tire and Tire Rack share common ownership, so you always get same excellent prices Tire Rack advertises, without having to pay the shipping charge. It is genius.
Anyhow, Juan rang up the sale and Dustin had kindly authorized giving me an additional discount. If I was the boss, there is no way I would do that after all the extra trouble I had caused. It was a really kind extra touch that shows how classy these guys are and how well this store is run.
So, I'm back to feeling semi-smug, as I really think I've solved all my Tesla problems. We will see if I'm right, but the car rides like a dream on these new 19" wheels.
Thank you so much, Juan, Ben and Dustin - I'm your customer for as long as you don't get sick of me!!
