the long short story: took my car into a tire installer 2 weeks ago. in the process of removing the center caps so they could balance the wheels/tires, they managed to break 1 screw head off on one wheel out of 5 (aftermarket enkei's) and 2 more off another (which the wheel is now without its center cap, for now). the manager at the tire installer, claimed it wasn't their fault that the screws broke and he was rude about it. i looked at them like, "ok, so what are you going to do to fix it?" he told me as a courtesy, if i got replacement screws, then he would "try" to extract the rest of the broken screw out of my wheels and replace with new screws (which i had to get). so suffice to say my experience at this tire installer per tirerack is not looking too good...i left pretty annoyed at the fact i did not get my car back the way i brought it in. i called enkei directly and they were kind enough to send me replacement screws for my centercaps, no charge. so now i have the new centercap screws, but i am reluctant and not very confident in the tire installer to remove the broken screws from my wheels. to add to the drama, i later find that they also put a dent into the driver side sideskirt from the foot of the lift... so now i really have become annoyed and even less confident in wanting the tire installer to even put a hand on my car. so...is there a trustworthy place or person that can extract the broken screws so i can get my wheels "whole" again (short of buying a new wheel)?? i live in northern VA. any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

Where did you take it to?

 

okay, here's the update....all i have to say it pays to complain.

i sent an email and complained to the company. i get an immediate response from the regional manager. he sends me over to the manager at the NTB on route 1 in alexandria in an attempt to fix the problem. i originally went to the merchant's on lee hwy in arlington (they f'ed up the centercap screws in the first place). the manager at the NTB, tries to get the screws out...2 hours later....he says....they aren't coming and we're just going to get you new wheels. great! of course the problem with that is enkei no longer makes the wheel-ZR-1's ( i knew this....he was going to find out). this was back in mid october. OMG. first it was only going to be the 2 wheels that were messed up....

so after 6 weeks of trying to find the wheels and trying to find a color match...the manager opted to pick out the enkei GTC01's for me as the replacements for ALL 4 wheels. SWEET!! finally get them installed, the manager threw in a set of new lug nuts to go with the new rims since i had to wait so long. AND the manager did ALL of the work himself to make sure it was done RIGHT. same day i get home (day before turkey), i find a scratch on one of rims. ugh! so now i'm waiting for the replacement wheel for scratched rim...trust me what i've written is only half the story...its actually turned out to be amusing to a certain degree with all the murphy's law effects with these wheels.

this is one lady that was not going to be had. so hopefully this will all come to a close by next week. i will say that i absolutely love the new rims.

 

Wow... I need to complain more.

 

How come when I complain I don't get what I want. =(

 

its all about learning to play the game. with anything in customer service, you need to be calm, but obviously displaying overall dissatisfaction in the work. it will usually get you what you want assuming the retailer is going to try everything to make you happy. its always about customer service. persistence will pay off as long as you see it from both sides. and taking beyond the immediate manager usually helps too.

or maybe its because i'm a chick and i really don't like to be taken advantage of.

 

It's hard to find a woman that knows about car. When I use to live in LA and I help in the shop my stepfather use to work I notice that woman were the easy target because they did not know about cars. That's why my Stepfather stop working at that place. It's hard for to find good shops to work in my car in the NoVA area that I could trust. But I have found here in this site some good friends and we do most of the MODs our self to our cars =)
best of luck

 

sad but true. then again there are guys that are just as clueless as some women. and typically they aren't on enthusiasts' websites/forums. its a confidence thing. if i know what i want/need to get done, then typically it gets done. first sign you are clueless or not particular about your car....SUCKER is labeled across your forehead!

 

Point well taken

 

Got any picture of the damage they did to the wheels

 

invite to next big meet
https://acurazine.com/forums/mid-atlantic-311/2010-university-maryland-spring-meet-may-2nd-2010-a-765343/

 

ok seriously the level of incompetence at the NTB shop on rte 1 has bottomed out and so has any residual confidence in their ability to give a shit. still trying to get matching replacement wheels for the replacement wheels. the manager i was working with all these months is now gone (my gut tells me he may have been fired) and the new manager ....well to put nicely, he's nice and wants to help, but he's really not a wheel guy. this has been going on since september when they f'd up my original wheels doing a tire install at the merchant's in arlington. so suffice it to say i'm frustrated with the whole situation because i'm now having to work with a new manager who hasn't a clue what happened. he only inherited the problem from the previous manager. the regional manager just told me to talk to the new manager even after i had expressed concerns over the competency of the staff to handle aftermarket rims. the old manage supposedly ordered the wheels weeks ago and should have had them there all ready. after speaking with the new manager, he couldn't find them. however he seemed to find my old scratched up wheels from 8 months ago. WTF? so i dont' know what is going on over there and what the previous manager did, but i'm at the point of just living with the wheels i have and moving on. i feel like the old manager was jerking me around. even though he was really nice and understanding. ugh. so annoyed and frustrated.

so this has turned into a "buyer beware" thread. why the hell is it so hard to find good help these days in all facets of customer relations??

if you guys or gals need your tires installed, i'd be wary of getting them put on at the NTB/merchant's shops in the area. especially if you have aftermarket rims. just for the future, anybody know of a tire installer in No VA that will handle aftermarket wheels with kid gloves?