Complaint Review: Tire Kingdom- 16th St location - Saint Petersburg Florida

Ordered tires from Tire Rack delivered to this Tire Kingdom store for installation. Received Tire Rack email notification that they had been delivered, plus UPS confirmation, but upon calling the store, they could not find them, and said to call back later.  I did so, and the employee curtly said "I told you they're not here, do you want me to look again?" I said "Yes", and after a few minutes, he curtly repeated, "They're not here. Maybe tomorrow."  I called Tire Rack customer service, who called this store while I waited, and then informed me that the store had indeed found the tires.  How about that!

I did not call the store back, since they refuse to make service appointments anyway and simply showed up the next morning. The semi-rude phone guy was slightly more affable, and recommended an alignment, at a price slightly higher than a local car dealership's service department.  I agreed, and he mentioned that the vehicle might need "camber bolts," at about $30 a set.  Later on, he called me at home, and said the car definitely needed the camber bolts, which would be about $160 (with labor). I trusted him (big mistake), and ended up with a $335 charge to mount TWO tires, do an alignment, and install "camber bolts." 

The employee also insisted that they must, by law, mount new tires on the rear axle, and did so.  When I took issue, he insisted that was the Law.  When I picked up the vehicle, I asked if I could bring it back the next day for a "free" tire rotation since I had wanted the new tires in the front, and he was kind of amused.  First of all, he said, rotation is not free unless you buy the tires there.  Oh, I see.  But he agreed that if I brought it back the following week, he would rotate them. He also highly recommended a brake job, which I thankfully declined.

And now the kick-in-the-butt:  I brought the car to its dealership 10 days later for an oil change and brake inspection. The Service Advisor was shocked about the "camber bolts," stating that such parts are NEVER changed unless they're physically broken. A simple 4-wheel alignment would have sufficed. And he said they probably installed salvaged or aftermarket parts of dubious quality.  (I foolishly forgot to demand the return of the replaced parts.)  AND he told me there's no such Law about mounting 2 new tires on the rear axle only.  It's standard practice to do it that way, but can be done differently if the customer prefers. No such Law!

And to top it all off, I never received any paperwork on the new tires, either the manufacturer's info or the paperwork from Tire Rack. So, between the telephone rudeness, lack of scheduling, phony upselling of unnecessary work, possible installation of used parts, missing paperwork, and phony tire-mounting Law, I would strongly recommend staying far away from this store, and any other Tire Kingdom franchise.  The dealerships service departments are not always 100% trustworthy, but have a far greater interest in NOT misleading you, and making stuff up.  At least get a second opinion before letting the rip-off artists at Tire Kingdom do ANY extra work on your vehicle.