Bit of a rant about my Saturday trying to get tires installed.
Ordered a set of tires for my Jeep on the Walmart website. Factory size, shown to fit online, and known by me to have fit on the rims on the Jeep as they were the same exact tires - manufacturer, size, and product line - which were on it when I purchased the car 6 years ago.
This is foreshadowing.
Scheduled my appointment for 9:00 AM Saturday.
9:00 AM Saturday
Arrived at 8:50 for my appointment. Pulled around to the customer door on the tire center. Door was locked.
So, I pulled around to the main doors of the store. Two employees are standing out front. As soon as I get out of the car they're yelling "We're closed!"
I want to ask what I should do about my appointment, so I walk toward them. They keep shouting "Turn around! You can't come in! We're closed!" and I'm nodding and gesturing to explain that I understand but I've got a question.
When I'm about 20 feet away I raise my voice a little and say "Ok, understood. Listen, I had a tire appointment at 9:00. Do you know what I should do now?"
I get a "We're closed. Turn around or we're calling security."
Ok... alright I guess.
So I go back to my car and I call customer service. Their AI is incapable of understanding that I'm telling it that the store is closed, but that the store isn't SCHEDULED to be closed. It keeps saying to check the store hours, and when told "no, the store is scheduled to be open" says "yep, then you can go right in and pick up your items!"
Eventually security comes around and informs me "Hey, sorry, there's been a power outage. They should be open at 10:00.
I go over to the walgreens nearby, pick up a few cans of Arizona iced tea (it was on sale) and give one to each of the employees out front - it was gonna be a hot day - and drink one myself and sit tight until 10.
10:00 AM Saturday.
At 10:00 I go inside and go to the tire center. I tell them I had a 9:00 appointment. Tire center guy says I'll have to take the last time slot of the day because I was late for my appointment.
I'm confused and ask what he means late, the store was closed.
He says it doesn't matter. I should have checked in.
I tell him that's nonsense, the door was locked and I wasn't allowed to come in.
He tells me I should have had the employees by the door radio him.
I tell him they wouldn't talk to me. He won't budge.
So for the first time in my life I pull a karen and ask to speak to his manager.
Manager comes over and manages to convince him to let me in first in line.
Okay, finally we're making some progress. So they tell me they'll call me when it's done and I go out into the store. An hour passes, it's now 11:00. I head back to the counter and ask if they think it'll be much longer.
11:00 AM Saturday.
Tire center guy tells me "We can't install these on your car." - I ask why not. He tells me that they're too narrow for my rims. I look into the bay and see my car isn't there. I ask him how he knows. He tells me "You've got 235 rims."
I tell him they're the factory supplied 7 inch rims and that they've previously had 205 tires on them, and show him how on the manufacturer spec sheet for the tires it shows 7 inches to be within spec for the tires.
He says "No they aren't"
I ask how he can know that without having even had the car up on a lift or removing a rim, how he can possibly know the size of the rim.
He says "Look at them. They've got 235s on them"
Frustrated, I go look online and find that they've got a set of 215s from the same brand which are 10 bucks cheaper per tire.
12:00 PM Saturday
I'm not getting anywhere with this guy and I can wait another week and try a different walmart so I say "If there's no way you can possibly mount them... can I return them and order a different size?"
He says yes, but that their system is "down right now" and so what he can do is mark them as picked up, but keep them in "the office" there and I should come back later to have them checked in as returned and get a refund.
Well, to me, the idea of having these tires marked as me having actually taken them with me out of the store, and then stored in some ambiguous office sounds like a recipe for them getting lost and me getting screwed, so I say "if you're going to mark them as picked up I'd better just take them."
So I do, to a local tire place, and I show the owner there the tires and the car and he says "Well... they could for sure be mounted. They'd look a little small though. If you've got a good deal on some 215s I'd go with those, but they'd totally mount."
So, later, I take the tires back to the walmart to return them. They then tell me they can't do it and I'll have to contact 1-800 Walmart. I do this and eventually have to resort to just swearing at the AI to get it to give me to a human.
The human - the only helpful person all day at Walmart - tells me they'll email the tire supplier, who will then send me shipping labels.
They do so - I get the shipping labels - I give them over to Fed Ex.
Here we are, five days later total, and I've yet to get a refund for the installation fee, and of course I'll be waiting a week at least for a refund from the tire supplier.
To top it all off, the new set I ordered (to a different, more rural Walmart that I've had better luck with in the past) has now been delayed until next Tuesday (rather than the original delivery date which would have been today)
All in all, 0/10 way to spend a Saturday, would not recommend.
Anyway... all around horrible way to spend a Saturday.
