Did they really just scrape all my rims??
Discussion
My brother (he just joined Pistonheads then found out he had to wait 2 weeks to post on the forum) took his 2020 F56 JCW Mini to a high street tyre fitting company to have four new tyres fitted last week. Front pair were going off and the backs were original 2020 tyres, thought it was time to ditch the run-flats and get some better tyres!
When he went back to pick it up he took a quick look before going in to collect the keys. he was horrified to find scrape marks around the edges of all four rims, and a couple of gouges. He also saw that all four rims were coated in a greasy oil, not what you would expect after having work done!
He went in and got the manager to come and explain them. His obvious response "they were like that when they came in" and "Our machine cannot physically do this". He knew this was all lies as he had cleaned the car and rims the day before, and knew that there was only one curbing mark on one rim, that was his
and the other three rims were completely perfect.
He opened a complaint with the company, and then emailed the CEO, which resulted in an email exchange with the "Customer Relation Executive", after investigation their response was :- "I have now been in touch with the regional manager, who has reviewed the pictures you sent through. He does not believe the damage is consistent with machine damage and has advised that it appears to be kerb damage. He has stated that the machine would cause deep gauges in the alloy, rather than separate dents, as can be seen on the images."
You should hopefully be able to get an idea of the damage here, he put together a couple of the photos into one to make it easier :-
SO --- My question to the assembled PH experts please :-
1) Is this true, can a wheel fitting machine not damage a wheel?
2) Does he have any recourse, or is it just I say/they say?
Many thanks for any help or advice.
When he went back to pick it up he took a quick look before going in to collect the keys. he was horrified to find scrape marks around the edges of all four rims, and a couple of gouges. He also saw that all four rims were coated in a greasy oil, not what you would expect after having work done!
He went in and got the manager to come and explain them. His obvious response "they were like that when they came in" and "Our machine cannot physically do this". He knew this was all lies as he had cleaned the car and rims the day before, and knew that there was only one curbing mark on one rim, that was his
and the other three rims were completely perfect.He opened a complaint with the company, and then emailed the CEO, which resulted in an email exchange with the "Customer Relation Executive", after investigation their response was :- "I have now been in touch with the regional manager, who has reviewed the pictures you sent through. He does not believe the damage is consistent with machine damage and has advised that it appears to be kerb damage. He has stated that the machine would cause deep gauges in the alloy, rather than separate dents, as can be seen on the images."
You should hopefully be able to get an idea of the damage here, he put together a couple of the photos into one to make it easier :-
SO --- My question to the assembled PH experts please :-
1) Is this true, can a wheel fitting machine not damage a wheel?
2) Does he have any recourse, or is it just I say/they say?
Many thanks for any help or advice.
alidude said:
My brother (he just joined Pistonheads then found out he had to wait 2 weeks to post on the forum) took his 2020 F56 JCW Mini to a high street tyre fitting company to have four new tyres fitted last week. Front pair were going off and the backs were original 2020 tyres, thought it was time to ditch the run-flats and get some better tyres!
When he went back to pick it up he took a quick look before going in to collect the keys. he was horrified to find scrape marks around the edges of all four rims, and a couple of gouges. He also saw that all four rims were coated in a greasy oil, not what you would expect after having work done!
He went in and got the manager to come and explain them. His obvious response "they were like that when they came in" and "Our machine cannot physically do this". He knew this was all lies as he had cleaned the car and rims the day before, and knew that there was only one curbing mark on one rim, that was his and the other three rims were completely perfect.
He opened a complaint with the company, and then emailed the CEO, which resulted in an email exchange with the "Customer Relation Executive", after investigation their response was :- "I have now been in touch with the regional manager, who has reviewed the pictures you sent through. He does not believe the damage is consistent with machine damage and has advised that it appears to be kerb damage. He has stated that the machine would cause deep gauges in the alloy, rather than separate dents, as can be seen on the images."
You should hopefully be able to get an idea of the damage here, he put together a couple of the photos into one to make it easier :-
SO --- My question to the assembled PH experts please :-
1) Is this true, can a wheel fitting machine not damage a wheel?
2) Does he have any recourse, or is it just I say/they say?
Many thanks for any help or advice.
Can't actually see the pictures, but my first thought was did your brother happen to check the mileage when he dropped the car off? It may well be kerb damage, just caused by someone else. It's not unheard of for staff in some places to take the car for a spin...When he went back to pick it up he took a quick look before going in to collect the keys. he was horrified to find scrape marks around the edges of all four rims, and a couple of gouges. He also saw that all four rims were coated in a greasy oil, not what you would expect after having work done!
He went in and got the manager to come and explain them. His obvious response "they were like that when they came in" and "Our machine cannot physically do this". He knew this was all lies as he had cleaned the car and rims the day before, and knew that there was only one curbing mark on one rim, that was his
and the other three rims were completely perfect.He opened a complaint with the company, and then emailed the CEO, which resulted in an email exchange with the "Customer Relation Executive", after investigation their response was :- "I have now been in touch with the regional manager, who has reviewed the pictures you sent through. He does not believe the damage is consistent with machine damage and has advised that it appears to be kerb damage. He has stated that the machine would cause deep gauges in the alloy, rather than separate dents, as can be seen on the images."
You should hopefully be able to get an idea of the damage here, he put together a couple of the photos into one to make it easier :-
SO --- My question to the assembled PH experts please :-
1) Is this true, can a wheel fitting machine not damage a wheel?
2) Does he have any recourse, or is it just I say/they say?
Many thanks for any help or advice.
The first picture looks like just black rubber on the edge, the others look like they may have been there a while as they look grubby?
I bought some OZ Super T's for my new-ish car just after I started driving a fair few years back now - they were still in the box so I went to my local tyre place to get new tyres on them. the outer rims didnt end up getting scratched, but where they gun the nuts in was, so I got them to pay for new ones as they had literally just taken them out of the box about 30 minutes before!
I bought some OZ Super T's for my new-ish car just after I started driving a fair few years back now - they were still in the box so I went to my local tyre place to get new tyres on them. the outer rims didnt end up getting scratched, but where they gun the nuts in was, so I got them to pay for new ones as they had literally just taken them out of the box about 30 minutes before!
To my untrained eye those look like previous damage to the rims.
Not saying a tyre fitting machine couldn't damage them but would have thought said damage would be more uniform and over a greater circumference of the rim and also look" fresher" ?
In addition if the fitter had damaged one with the machine wouldn't they have stopped to adjust it when then fitting the other tyres ?
Not saying a tyre fitting machine couldn't damage them but would have thought said damage would be more uniform and over a greater circumference of the rim and also look" fresher" ?
In addition if the fitter had damaged one with the machine wouldn't they have stopped to adjust it when then fitting the other tyres ?
Surprised that the tyre place didn’t take pics really.
A well known mobile fitting service do take photos.
My sister in law thought they had damaged hers wheels, I told her it looked like they had been kerbed… She kicked off anyway, they sent her photos of the wheels before they started, clearly existing damage!
A well known mobile fitting service do take photos.
My sister in law thought they had damaged hers wheels, I told her it looked like they had been kerbed… She kicked off anyway, they sent her photos of the wheels before they started, clearly existing damage!
Thankfully I left the industry 10+ years ago… but I was a Technician for 7 years or so…
Whilst a tyre machine can 100% damage a wheel… which I regret to say I did on occasion… I completely agree with the manager that it wouldn’t look like the pictures.
They look like quite old/dirty gauges caused by kirbing and I wood expect damage by the machine to be clean, longer and shallower ‘scratches’.
Whilst I would not in any way be surprised to hear they had caused damage… I would be fairly certain they had nothing to do with what you have posted pictures of.
Think your Brother might be on a hiding to nothing here I am afraid
Whilst a tyre machine can 100% damage a wheel… which I regret to say I did on occasion… I completely agree with the manager that it wouldn’t look like the pictures.
They look like quite old/dirty gauges caused by kirbing and I wood expect damage by the machine to be clean, longer and shallower ‘scratches’.
Whilst I would not in any way be surprised to hear they had caused damage… I would be fairly certain they had nothing to do with what you have posted pictures of.
Think your Brother might be on a hiding to nothing here I am afraid
Hopefully the mods allow this post to stand as it naming but not shaming.
The diamond cut alloys on my BMW picked up damage from the tyre machine when getting some new boots fitted by my local Kwikfit. Spotted it at the time and the manager immediately agreed with my diagnosis it looked like their tyre machine had chewed the finish, checked against pictures their system logged when the car was first driven in and clearly showed the damage had not been there prior. He put me in contact with a local wheel refurbishing place they had an arrangement with and both wheels were fixed within a few days and Kwikfit settled the bill direct so no faffing about reclaiming costs. Been back since with no hesitation and no repetition thankfully! Things do go wrong in any business, its about how they get rectified that really makes the difference imho.
That aside, I'm joining the prevailing wind on this one, those pics don't look like the kind of damage done by a tyre machine.
The diamond cut alloys on my BMW picked up damage from the tyre machine when getting some new boots fitted by my local Kwikfit. Spotted it at the time and the manager immediately agreed with my diagnosis it looked like their tyre machine had chewed the finish, checked against pictures their system logged when the car was first driven in and clearly showed the damage had not been there prior. He put me in contact with a local wheel refurbishing place they had an arrangement with and both wheels were fixed within a few days and Kwikfit settled the bill direct so no faffing about reclaiming costs. Been back since with no hesitation and no repetition thankfully! Things do go wrong in any business, its about how they get rectified that really makes the difference imho.
That aside, I'm joining the prevailing wind on this one, those pics don't look like the kind of damage done by a tyre machine.
alscar said:
In addition if the fitter had damaged one with the machine wouldn't they have stopped to adjust it when then fitting the other tyres ?
You'd like to think so.However, after damaging one of the [previously mint] alloys on their machine, the techie fitting tyres to an S4 of mine then proceeded to damage a second in exactly the same way. Not major, but damaged nonetheless.
Fortunately, I had told the manager beforehand that the alloys were unmarked and asked them to take extra care. This meant they could hardly wriggle out of any blame or responsibility.
The regional manager got involved and, because the Audi Sport rim transfers would have been lost during a repairing process, they very quickly agreed to replace both alloys with new - at a cost of about £900 each. Not impressed with the damage, but top notch customer service thereafter.
The experience now means I always have a prior walkaround with anyone fitting tyres to my vehicles, especially those where the wheels are unmarked.
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