Complaint Review: Sams Club - Fishkill New York

Why did I go to Sam's. I went there because they sell and install tires. I needed tires. I didn't know they don't install tires properly. Got anymore brain busters?

The tires that were being replaced were installed by Sams about a year prior to this. They had plendy of tread but one tire had developed a bubble on the side wall. They then prorated the cost of the new tires, replacing all four because the car is AWD. I don't know if they were worn unevenly. I rely on the tire experts to decide that. I did not see any noticable uneven wear but I don't know how much if any is too much. Not sure if they were cupped but do know that they did not make the noise that the replacement tires made once they were rotated. Let's face it, if you can't do an alignment or even check for it you should not be installing tires. Bottom line, I had four Michelin tires in the garbage after several months of use. If I had not rotated the tires they would not have gotten cupped. They would have just worn out there time unevenly and had a short life span. It seems to me that one should have the alignment check quite frequently to maximize tire usage. This has been a learning experience for me and I learned the hard way. I would like to rely on a tire expert to inform me of these things as needed. I believe that the entire tire industry could care less about people properly maintaing their tires as they would not sell as many if we did. My next topic (Mavis) to follow is replacement brake pads that DO NOT have wear indicators. I am on my 3rd set of rotors for two vehicles. The original factory sets lasted 50+k miles. The replacements last about 15-20k becasue the pads don't have wear indicators. Everytime I get pads I need rotors. This is a scam. Getting back to tires, for me, if a store does not do alignments, I don't buy there. My goal is to have a vehicle for only three years and then flip into a new one again to avoid all this mayhem.

If they don't have the capability to do wheel alignments (many tire stores don't) they would have no way of knowing your wheels are out of alignment.  You can't tell by looking, it requires special equipment.  They can balance wheels but alignment is your responsibility and should be checked periodically and certainly before buying new tires.

Were your old tires cupped or worn unevenly?  Maybe that's why you needed new tires to begin with.

I am not a auto mechanic. I rely soley on any auto service industry to do what needs to be done properly. It was only after this experience that I learned about the correlation between alignments and new tires. I understand they don't do the oil changes and other services. I also believe that if they are in the business of tires they need to be capable of providing all basic services that encompass tires. If not, when a customer approaches them for tires, they need to be able to evaluate through observation of the existing tires, if an alignment is needed. If they observe an alignment is needed they should tell the customer to go and get an alignment first. The sad thing is, I cannot rely on many industies to do there job. Why is it that I have to be educated in nearly every field I encounter. It takes all of my time and effort to be very good at what I do and I don't expect my customers to know everything about what I'm doing. My customers don't need to know all the details about my field because I am competent in properly doing what they need done. I expect that of any other industry and rarely get it. Sams should stick to what they do best, selling large boxes of comsumer goods. 

 If you are so concerned about your alignment, since it is obvious that they don't do alignments why did you even go to them in the first place?

But beyond that, they don't do oil changes, brakes, or any other general maintenence on a car either.  So why didn't your regular mechanic check on the alignment when you got your regular service done?