Complaint Review: Wheels America



I brought my summer wheels to your Elk Grove Village store for cosmetic refinishing and painting of four wheels in November of 2014. I was told that the work would be performed within a week for $599.00. The store failed to complete the repairs until March 2015, a five-month period, because they lost a tire pressure monitoring system sensor that I was forced to purchase. At that time, Wheels America employees ignored instructions I had provided to re-install the wheels on my car, resulting in damage to bolt caps and wheel caps.



After the wheels repair I experienced shaking of my car while driving and I noticed a residue peeling off of two of the wheels that Wheels America had repaired. There was no problem with car handling before the wheels were "repaired" by this company.

I called the Elk Grove Village location and was instructed to return for a warranty repair. Upon returning the vehicle to Wheels America and receiving a two-day service quote, the store again failed to complete the work because a particular powder coating was required. Despite this, I granted them another week in order to procure this powder coating and allow for repairs to be made. A week later, I returned to Wheels America for the powder coating to be applied, at which time your employess reversed course and told him that not only was no powder coating needed, but no warranty applied because the damage to the wheels was cosmetic in nature. 



Upon this news, I called Mr. Scott Stretch, who is a headquarter employee and he promised a repair done at a discounted rate of $150.00. I agreed to those terms, dropped my vehicle off for another two-day repair period, and returned to receive a car that exhibited even worse shaking at low speeds, around 15 miles per hour. Fed up, I took my vehicle to a third-party repair vendor, who diagnosed multiple problems with the repairs done at Wheels America. Bolts - the ones that were not already missing - were only hand tightened rather than mechanically secured, rims were bent.  The front wheel was almost lost while driving a distance of 3 miles to the third party repair shop. Worse, one of the tires Wheels America put on my car was the incorrect size and type and had a dangerous bubble in the sidewall. On the whole, I could not safely drive his car due to the grossly negligent work Wheels America performed.

The wheel and hub repairs, new tire and road hazard policy I had to purchase to replace the wrong tire have ballooned to almost $1,400 in damages, and these numbers pale in comparison to what the costs will be if the wheels are not repairable due to Wheels America's failures. 

I had lost the use of his vehicle for months on end and had exposed myself to grave risk as a result of an unsafe vehicle that Wheels America provided me. 



Mike Wilson who is Elk Grove Village location manager completely ignored my attempts to get this resolved, so did Mr. Scott Stretch of Dallas who is employed by Wheels America headquarters to help resolve problems like this. 

I hired a law firm to protect my consumer rights. Every single attempt to contact Mr. Mike Wilson of Elk Grove Village and Scott Stretch of Dallas headquarters was completely ignored. Phone calls, emails, certified mail letters - all totally ignored.