To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing this letter to express my distaste with Town Fair Tire in Avon, CT. This past weekend I discovered one of the tires on my car had a shifted belt, and needed to be replaced as soon as possible. Unfortunately the tires on the car were discontinued, so I had to find a tire that had a similar tread pattern to what I have on the rest of my car.

On Monday morning, while at work, I called Town Fair Tire in Avon to see if they could help me because the company I work for does a lot of business with them as well. The only person I have dealt with in the past at this location is Hank, who was always very helpful. This time around I got Ernie on the phone because Hank wasn’t in. I explained to Ernie, what I needed (tire size, speed rating, etc), and Ernie said he had plenty of tires in stock in that size to choose from and, to come on in. So I did, I left work in Hartford, and drove out to Avon. When I got there, for some reason Ernie only had one tire in that size in stock, a Toyo Proxes 4, which I had no interest in because it wasn’t even close to what I have on my car. At this point I was a little annoyed because of the wasted trip, and time out of my work day. Ernie then searched in the computer and found a similar tire to what I had (225/40/18 Nankang NS-2) at another location and said it would be there by 10:00am the next morning. So I asked him, if I come in at ten the next morning, if he would be able to get me in and out in a timely manner, he said yes.

So yesterday, I left work again, and arrived at the Avon location at ten to ten. Ernie was there, and he told me there was a problem with getting the tire and now he wouldn’t be able to get it until Thursday. At this point I was REALLY annoyed. I told Ernie this was unacceptable, and I had now made two trips and I still don’t have a tire. He then told me that even if the tire did come in that morning, it wouldn’t get there until ten or eleven. I looked at my watch, and told him it’s ten now, and you told me yesterday it would be here by ten. Ernie searched the computer again, called another location, and said he could get the tire by the afternoon. He then walked away from me and into the back of the store somewhere. I stood around for about ten minutes, waiting for him to come back because I wanted to make sure he had my contact info so that I didn’t waste any more time going out there. He finally came back and I asked him if he wanted to take my number so he could call me when the tire comes in. He went to his computer, and asked my name, I told him, but I then told him to put it under my company name. He huffed in annoyance, and I asked him if there was a reason he was giving me an attitude, and he said I should have told him it was going to be under the company name in the first place. I was in disbelief as to how I was being treated. I then left.

When I got back to my office I was very angry with the way I was treated, and with the fact that I had wasted about four hours out of two days trying to get one tire. At this point I decided to call a local tire shop to see what they could do for me. This shop (Tires Plus Wheels in Hartford) had the tire Ernie was trying to get for me in stock. I asked the salesman (who turned out to be the manager of the store), if I were to come in on my lunch break, if he would be able to get me in and out. He said he could. I went there at noon, and met the manager and he knew who I was when I got there. I paid for the tire (installed price was $20 less than TFT was going to be), they got my car right into the bay, and I was back out fifteen minutes later. Additionally, the installers were very friendly, one of them noticed I was missing an aluminum valve stem cap, and gave me one to replace it, and three more that I could keep in the car in case others went missing. Penny’s worth of parts, yes, but it’s little things like that that will keep me going back there.

I am really disappointed this happened. My mom has worked at the same car dealer in New Hampshire for thirteen years, and they get all of their tires from your Nashua location, and my mom buys all her tires there as well. The company I work for also gets all of our tires from you, and I know for a fact that my boss, my mom, or my mom’s dealership has never been treated like I was treated or they wouldn’t keep going back. I wasn’t rude to Ernie, I didn’t yell at him or cause a scene in the store, but I was annoyed and disappointed with his attitude toward me, and his lack of care.

I hope this isn’t normal practice at all of your locations, because as of right now I don’t think I’ll ever go back to that location. I am usually not one to complain, but this whole situation left a really sour taste in my mouth. I hope in the future that if I go to other Town Fair locations to buy tires (which I will be within the next two months to buy two more of the same tire), that I will be treated with a little more courtesy.

If you have any questions for me I can be reached at 860-478-0712, or by email at jbmiller616@gmail.com.