I wasn't gonna leave a review but decided to tell my story to help the next person out. I took my…read moretruck to get an alignment and wheel balancing. The balancing didn't go well, as the truck still hopped a little around 80mph, so I took it back. They realigned it and it made a difference, so I was ok. A few days later, I looked at a wheel and a center cap was missing a bolt. 3 other center caps were cracked to where the bolts didn't secure the caps anymore. I just sat there like, "...now, why wouldn't they tell me this?"
Point: plastic center caps crack ALL the time! It's not a big deal. The manufacturers are the problem, being cheap and not wanting to reinforce the caps...as if they want to make money selling us new center caps all the time. I have 6 cars, and two have plastic center caps. You must gently put them on, or they crack if you over-tighten, even slightly. The person at Discount didn't know this, so when they cracked three of my caps, they tried to conceal it by not telling me (and just making the bolt look like it was on correctly).
I was NOT UPSET at the cracked cap. Get that out the way, first. I ordered two new caps and had a spare cap in my garage from my spare tire. They aren't expensive at all. Just $35 each, so I bought two new ones online. The next day, I went to Discount - not to get reimbursed - but to show/tell the manager (Tyler, I believe) about the plastic center caps being broken. I wasn't upset about it breaking, but more upset about the tech not telling me it was broken. THINGS BREAK and I get it: plastic is cheap and the manufacturers are wrong for doing our wheels like this. I told him I already bought new ones, but if he could just run it by the guys to BE CAREFUL with plastic center caps, as many have no reinforcment and they will snap/crack.
He understood. He felt bad. I wasn't looking for reimbursement, but he asked me how much I paid and reimbursed me! I was not expecting that because I work on cars and I know how plastic will snap. Again, I own 6 cars and I do 99% of the work myself. I'm ok with things breaking, but not ok with concealing the fact that it was broken. Tyler understood and apologized and paid me for the two caps I bought. To me, that was more than I expected and truly genuine for him to offer and to do that for me.
In my opinion, the manufacturers need to reimburse us all because cheap is cheap. They need to make center caps with reinforced holes or they need to make them in aluminum. The person that broke mine clearly didn't realize this about plastic center caps and it was not intentional at all. But the concealment of the damage was intentional and that's what upset me. Breaking it? Nah. I was ok with that. It happens. The fact that Tyler made it a point to resolve it AND to have a talk with the techs made the bigger difference. Not all customers would have been so understanding about a broke piece of plastic, but owning multiple cars, I get it.
I appreciate Tyle and I appreciate Discount for taking the time to listen and to train the techs to save people the headaches of small mishaps. Things happen, and that's just how life is. That's why replacement parts are sold: because things happen. But we just have to teach our young men to accept responsibility and not hide it. I'm old. Tyler (the manager) is about 10 to 15yrs younger than me. His techs are probably 10 to 15yrs younger than HIM, so we need to pass these lessons down from generation to generation. Tyler understand why I was there: it wasn't for the money, but I appreciate him reiumbursing me. I just needed him to be the leader of the shop and help his guys become more honest mechanics in this world. I'm a mechanic, myself.