Tyre fitter damaged alloy

[D2EW]

hey I have a cupra 300 on lease recently got 2 tyres put on the front.
I work at a body repairer we have a tyre machine but no one was confident doing the low profile tyres so I decided to take the car over the road to ATS (10 meters).

I thought I'd rather pay and be safe than someone at work scratch a wheel. we use ATS for customers wheels sometimes never had a problem.

so before I head over I wipe all the brake dust from the outer rim with a cloth and check for any damage. there was no damage as expected (I wash the car weekly).

I drive the car literally over the road park it up hand them keys.
I get a call to say it's ready and go collect the car. i drive it back over the road and I notice the damage when I get out.

i take the car back over go inside and im told to talk to the person who did the tyre, he is outside. I show him the damage and he denied it saying he has 30 years experience, I said I understand but accidents do happen I literally checked the rim a minute before drop off. He says it's not possible due to rim protectors (I know it is possible just from where I work) he told me the rim was dirty when he changed the tyres he had to wipe the dust off I said no i did that and grabbed the cloth from the car (bit daft I know) but it was a new cloth with 2 black marks.
I say where the damage is, it isn't possible to curb it there I said check the old tyre to see if it's damaged he said a curb wouldn't damage wheel there. I said exactly. The damage is clearly fresh it's a clean scrape.
He stormed off comes back with the manager he just tells me about the machine goes no where near the rim.

I head inside with the manager. I Had paid 20 cash as a favour job. He said all he can do is give me my money back! I wasn't happy.
I just wanted it sorted so I had to pay full price 30 quid( I would of paid anyway) so I could make a complaint and apparently they will call me. I got my 20 cash back.

sorry about the rant just a bit frustrated!

I doubt it will go anywhere .
annoys me I take so much care of the car and people just arnt bothered


damaged wheels https://imgur.com/gallery/6tHlGqF

 

[Deleted member 103408]

Rant is fully understandable all I can say is that if you are Modding Your Car, Servicing The Car (in any way) or having bodywork done talk to others in your local area or talk to a garage who you do trust and get recommendations for good places in your area.

 

[D2EW]

I did trust them we send lots of wheels over they are usually all fine! just my luck

 

[Deleted member 103408]

That's a bugger and i am very sorry for you I have been lucky so far, If people f**k up all I want is an honest sorry I f**ked up.

Get the wheel fixed and try and find another place to take your work to and explain to these guys why, don't help you but might make them pay more attention in future.

 

[SRGTD]

@D2EW; It’s so annoying when this happens, and the people you entrust and pay to work on your car don’t take care of it as you’d hope and expect them to.

Hindsight’s a wonderful thing, but when having new tyres fitted or punctures repaired, I’d always suggest getting the tyre fitting place to agree the condition of your wheels, and take photos of the wheels in their presence before they start work. Then if they damage your wheels, it’s very difficult for them to deny causing the damage.

If you’re planning on getting your wheels refurbished to remove the damage, a good quality refurbishment of a diamond cut alloy wheel will cost in the region of £90-£100 plus VAT per wheel. If you’re going to live with the damage, I’d recommend putting some clear lacquer over the damaged areas, otherwise water and (at this time of year) corrosive road salt can creep under the lacquered surface of your wheel where they are damaged, leading to the onset of unsightly white worm corrosion.

If you choose not to get your wheels refurbished, I don’t think the lease company will charge you for the damage when the time comes to return your car, as in my opinion it’s within what I’d expect them to consider to be normal wear and tear damage.

 

[Shaady]

Looking at the pictures I'd be fuming too, that really is not on but unfortunately I think you will struggle to get them to admit to any sort of liability.

Seems weird that they're being so defensive about it, surely if you stop sending them wheels for work the hit to them will be much more than sorting that out, surely their best bet is to sort it and take the extra business that comes their way

 

[Rooster]

In my experience you would be better off escalating it further up the chain. Always stay calm and polite but DO remain persistent and push the point that you took it to professionals to get a professional job done. Hope it works out.

 

[Leeoncupra]

Or just stop using them for work purposes

If one of your customers come back with damage due to them then your company would be liable

I say get someone more experience at your work with doing tyres and wave the flag at ats as all the chain companys like quickfit are reknown for being dogs*** , i use a romanian bloke by me , cheap as chips , does anything you require professionally and without damage and he also gives me a complimentary cigarette while i wait!



bagged fr , k1 rep , 19s

 

[bluehandle]

If you have given the local outlet a chance to make good, and they haven't, then get on social media - ATS is a big company and won't want a bad reputation.

Get on their Facebook page and Twitter and post your comments. Someone from Customer Services will be in touch in no time.

 

[Carbonara]

I took my RS2 to ATS first thing one morning and some young numpty was concentrating more on his cup of tea than where he was positioning the trolley jack. Successfully bent the floor of my very different "Audi 80".

 

[Oldbutswift]

I used ATS two years ago...never again.
Bought a set of winter tyres to be fitted on winter rims.
They "arrived"a week later than promised,I took the wheels to them,but when I got there the tyres were absent!
Tried again some days later.I took the wheels home with the new tyres fitted but when I looked more closely putting them on the car I had three tyres the correct size but one the wrong size!
It got sorted in the end but the overall experience was of a very disorganised set up.

 

[Maypack]

Booked my Father in Law a tyre change with Protyre. Ordered the whole thing on line for a few days later.

On the day he turned up, all 4 tyres waiting and changed in a hour. He only has a 1.0 Fiesta with steel wheels but he said the care they took was great.

 

[CupraRobX]

Such a PITA when this happens. I had a similar problem with STS tyre Pro in my estate and they said the same thing.
I showed them the picture I took outside their unit timestamped and dated BEFORE they did the job. The fitter tried to say it was there before until I showed the pictures. The Manager tried to accuse me of both photoshopping AND taking the pictures elsewhere. He came unstuck when I showed him the EXIF data with geotagged location. They paid cash for a full wheel refurb from Lepsons and I burnt my bridge for cheap wheel tyre swap overs...

 

[Sharpy]

This soty of thing always makes me nervous, I need to tyres on my mk2 but the wheels were recently re-furbed, im genuinely nervous about taking it in... I'll be heeding the advice above and making sure they know they wheels are in great condition before letting them start work.

 

[Legojon]

This soty of thing always makes me nervous, I need to tyres on my mk2 but the wheels were recently re-furbed, im genuinely nervous about taking it in... I'll be heeding the advice above and making sure they know they wheels are in great condition before letting them start work.

The place that refurbed my wheels said if I ever get new tyres to order them to be delivered to them and they would do the fitting for me. Might be worth seeing if your refurb place will fit tyres for a fee.

 

[SRGTD]

The place that refurbed my wheels said if I ever get new tyres to order them to be delivered to them and they would do the fitting for me. Might be worth seeing if your refurb place will fit tyres for a fee.

Wheel refurb places are one of the best places to go to have tyres fitted if you value your wheels and want to minimise the risk of them being damaged. They’re fitting tyres to newly refurbished wheels all the time, and wouldn’t want to risk damaging these newly refurbished wheels as it’d cost them time and money. So they’re likely to have the best tyre changing / fitting equipment and skilled fitters who are well trained to fit tyres without causing damage to all types of wheel.

 

[kazand]

Wheel refurb places are one of the best places to go to have tyres fitted if you value your wheels and want to minimise the risk of them being damaged. They’re fitting tyres to newly refurbished wheels all the time, and wouldn’t want to risk damaging these newly refurbished wheels as it’d cost them time and money. So they’re likely to have the best tyre changing / fitting equipment and skilled fitters who are well trained to fit tyres without causing damage to all types of wheel.

I use a local non chain place where all the fitters have been there for years, the coffee is good and cheap, they also do refurbs so look after wheels and have some pretty exotic motors in there at times too!

 

[Jaco2k]

Sharing a couple of my own stories...

On a road trip from Finland to Norway, I found myself in Sweden noticing a screw throw a tire. Since I had no spare and I was going to be on some very remote and isolated roads, I decided to get it repaired.
I took it to the place most locals recommended, with my pristine 19" wheels (it was the Skoda then, but wheels were also diamond cut) and I specifically told the fitter that the wheels were very soft, please be extra careful.
Sure enough that when I checked after, he had put a similar mark as the ones in the OP on my wheel... I didn't even say nothing - it was pointless. But people just don't care.

Another story:
I dropped the car for service, again with 4 pristine 19" wheels - when they called me to say it was ready, I took a walk around as I always do and confirmed everything was still ok.
I don't remember what or why, but something was not right and I complained about it, so the guy at the desk comes out pissed and says "I will take the car inside and we will quickly sort it!" and then drives inside, visibly furious.
15 mins after, while I was waiting inside, I am told my car is ready outside. I get to the car and do another round and one of the front wheels was completely kerbed and destroyed (more than half) rashed down to metal.
I went back inside, complained, he took a look and immediately said "We will order another wheel, we will call you when it is here" (not even an apology, but ok...)

People just don't care, or.... accidents happen. On this second case, I remember they had to put the car on the lift and I am guessing he just drove in too fast and clipped that elevator arm fork, which was probably not open enough. I bet they noticed, but they kept quiet about it, since it was in the passenger side, and hoped I would not notice it

 

[Cupra290]

hey I have a cupra 300 on lease recently got 2 tyres put on the front.
I work at a body repairer we have a tyre machine but no one was confident doing the low profile tyres so I decided to take the car over the road to ATS (10 meters).

I thought I'd rather pay and be safe than someone at work scratch a wheel. we use ATS for customers wheels sometimes never had a problem.

so before I head over I wipe all the brake dust from the outer rim with a cloth and check for any damage. there was no damage as expected (I wash the car weekly).

I drive the car literally over the road park it up hand them keys.
I get a call to say it's ready and go collect the car. i drive it back over the road and I notice the damage when I get out.

i take the car back over go inside and im told to talk to the person who did the tyre, he is outside. I show him the damage and he denied it saying he has 30 years experience, I said I understand but accidents do happen I literally checked the rim a minute before drop off. He says it's not possible due to rim protectors (I know it is possible just from where I work) he told me the rim was dirty when he changed the tyres he had to wipe the dust off I said no i did that and grabbed the cloth from the car (bit daft I know) but it was a new cloth with 2 black marks.
I say where the damage is, it isn't possible to curb it there I said check the old tyre to see if it's damaged he said a curb wouldn't damage wheel there. I said exactly. The damage is clearly fresh it's a clean scrape.
He stormed off comes back with the manager he just tells me about the machine goes no where near the rim.

I head inside with the manager. I Had paid 20 cash as a favour job. He said all he can do is give me my money back! I wasn't happy.
I just wanted it sorted so I had to pay full price 30 quid( I would of paid anyway) so I could make a complaint and apparently they will call me. I got my 20 cash back.

sorry about the rant just a bit frustrated!

I doubt it will go anywhere .
annoys me I take so much care of the car and people just arnt bothered


damaged wheels https://imgur.com/gallery/6tHlGqF

The guy that fitted my new winter tyres damaged all four rims!! They had to pay for new ones, cost them 2000k

 

[Mr Pig]

I did trust them we send lots of wheels over they are usually all fine!

Well, not any more! I would tell them that after all the work you've given them you are very disappointed that they're choosing to lie about the damage and deny responsibility. Tell them that you won't be using them any more and you'll be telling everyone else you know, both in the trade and private customers, about the situation and advising them to go somewhere else as well.

And do it. It doesn't matter if they cave now, never use them again. Never do anything for them again. There is no shortage of tyre fitters out there.