Complaint Review: Big-O-Tire - Phoenix Arizona

Purchased four new p215-65r15's for my car. Also got alignment and balance done at the time of purchase. Total cost of roughly $500. A few months later my car began to woble at low speeds and I began to experience very violent vibrations at speeds above 60mphs.

Took my car to Lou Grubb Chevrolet because I believed it was a mechanical problem that would be covered by my extended warranty. After nearly a day of diagnosing the car and not finding any problems, the technician finaly figured out the most obvious item.

The tires. He did a "load force test" on my tires and found that two where defective to the point that he stated "I wouldn't put those tires on my enemies car". He showed me print outs that illistrated the severity of the problem. He was even kind enough to give me copies of all of the tests he performed on the car. So on my way to Big-O-Tire I went.

No big deal, right? Bad tires, documents to prove it. Should have been an easy warranty replacement. "Should have been", is the key fraze. From the moment I entered Big-O and uttered the word "defective", I received nothing but grief. Every possible stall and denial tactic was implimented at the same time. In about a five minute span I discerned these guys had been schooled in the age old art of dishing out bountyful amounts bull excrement.

Needles to say after four attempts to meet the manager I finally got to plead my case only to find out he was the Yoda in dishing out bull excrement.

Despite the fact that I had hard copy documentation proving the tires where defective he, without being struck by lightning, sternly claimed otherwise. At one point he claimed there was no such test and if "the equipment exist we would have it", only to be stumped in the repair bay by one of his less disciplined deciples when the worker stated "those units are to expensive" and "only large authorized dealers have them". Of course he was quickly repremanded with a quick stare from the Yoda of rip offs. At one point he even made the following comment "if people mainained their tire pressure those Firestone tires wouldn't have failed either and Ford would have been the one in trouble". Here's the kicker, after arguing to no avail and on my way out the door after haven given the manager my opinion of him and his shop, a couple entered the front office infurriated about the fact that three of the four tires they had purchased for their Altima had experienced tread failures. I couldn't help but watch as the couple was treated the old "up your arse" attitude of the shop.

I later found out, while talking to my brother that he to had experienced the same problems with a tires he had purchase from the same shop. He had eventually replaced all four Big-O tires with a different brand over the span of a year.

One of the Big-O tires had failed on the freeway and when he took it in the "Yoda of BS" claimed he voided his warranty by "driving on the tire". I didn't realize cars can come to a complete stop from 65mph. Neither did my brother. However the "Yoda of BS" did.

Amazing, just freaken amazing. On a serious note this place is setting themselves up for a very ugly and costly lawsuit. It's only a matter of time before someone gets seriously hurt when one of these pieces of crap fail on someones family car.