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New Tires 4 Z06 from Colony Tire in Raleigh, NC. Bad experience that turned out GOOD

2K views 10 replies 9 participants last post by  JLA 
#1 ·
I wanted to post about my experience with Colony Tire in Raleigh, North Carolina.

On January 8, 2002, I went to Colony Tire in Raleigh, NC to inquire about the price for a new set of tires for my Z06 Corvette.

I spoke with John, who was the assistant manager of the store and told him I wanted to know what opinions existed to replace my current tires. He came out and wrote down the sizes of my current OEM tires and told me he would call me back later that day

After I spoke with him, I picked up a nail in one of my rear tires and caused a slow leak. I checked out the prices on TireRack.Com and the shipping time for my tires was 2 days.

John from Colony Tire called me back and told me the only option that he would recommend would be the OEM Goodyear F1 Supercars. He gave me his price along with the promotion that Goodyear was running and the price difference between Colony and TireRack installed was around $30.00.

I decided to go ahead and order the tires through Colony Tire (They are a Goodyear authorized dealer/installer/store.) I was told by John that the tires would be shipped via UPS and should arrive within a few days.

On Friday, January 11, 2002, I called John back and asked for the status of my tires and he stated that they had not arrived to their warehouse/distribution center in Garner. I asked John if he could track the tires to find out where they were at and he said all he could do was call the warehouse in Garner.

He called me back later that day and said that the tires should arrive on Monday. I asked him where the tires were and he said he did not know. I told John that since the tires were shipped via UPS, then they should have a tracking number and by that he should be able to locate their exact location and estimated arrival date.

On Monday, January 14, 2002, I called John back again and asked on the status of my tires. He again stated that they had not arrived. I asked him where they were and if he had tracked them. He stated that he had not and did not know where they were at. He stated that he would again call the warehouse in Garner to check on their status. He called me back and stated that the tires still had not arrived. I asked him if they had been tracked through UPS and he stated that he did not know and he would again call the warehouse in Garner to find out. He called back and told me that they should be in the next day.

On Tuesday, January 15, 2002, I again called John and he stated that (3) of the tires had arrived at the warehouse in Garner. I asked John where the fourth tire was and he stated he did not know. I again asked John if they had tracked the tire through UPS and he did not seem to know if they had or not. He stated that he would again call the warehouse in Garner and find out where the tire was and when it was scheduled to arrive. John later called me back and stated that they did not know where the tire was and he hoped that it would arrive later that day when UPS delivered.

After the delivery time, John called me back and stated that the tire did not arrive and I asked him to provide me with the tracking number for the tire from UPS. He stated that he did not have the tracking number and he would have to call the warehouse in Garner for that infomation. Later sent me the following e-mail:

From: Store store@ColonyTire.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2002 4:30 PM
To:
Subject: UPS tracking number for missing tire

Dear Jim:
We have obtained the tracking number for UPS which can be found at the link
below:
http://wwwapps.ups.com/etracking/tracking.cgi?tracknums_displayed=5&TypeOfIn
quiryNumber=T&HTMLVersion=4.0&InquiryNumber1=1z62w3510341311023&InquiryNumbe
r2=&InquiryNumber3=&InquiryNumber4=&InquiryNumber5=&track=Track

John @ Colony Tire


I tracked the tire using the tracking information above at UPS website and this is what I found.

Status: In Transit

Tracking Number: 1Z 62W 351 03 4131 102 3
Service Type: GROUND




PACKAGE PROGRESS
Date Time Location Activity
Jan 11, 2002 6:27 A.M. RALEIGH HUB, NC, US OUT FOR DELIVERY
5:36 A.M. RALEIGH HUB, NC, US ARRIVAL SCAN
3:56 A.M. GREENSBORO HUB, NC, US DEPARTURE SCAN
1:48 A.M. GREENSBORO HUB, NC, US LOCATION SCAN
Jan 10, 2002 3:41 P.M. GREENSBORO HUB, NC, US LOCATION SCAN
3:25 P.M. GREENSBORO HUB, NC, US UNLOAD SCAN
1:56 P.M. GREENSBORO HUB, NC, US ARRIVAL SCAN
Jan 9, 2002 10:27 P.M. FOREST PARK, GA, US DEPARTURE SCAN
6:45 P.M. FOREST PARK, GA, US ORIGIN SCAN
6:07 P.M. FOREST PARK, GA, US UPS INTERNAL ACTIVITY CODE;FORWARDED TO DESTINATION

The infomation above showed that the tire was out for delivery on January 11, 2002.

I called John back and he seemed to not know what all this meant and I again asked him where the tire was and all he said is that he could call back the warehouse in Garner and have them contact Goodyear. I had asked John if they had the tires at their store from Garner and he stated that no, he did not. They were still at the Warehouse in Garner.

At this point, I felt like I was receiving no satisfaction, so I contacted Mr. Scott Creighton, the Vice President and Chief Operating Officer (Son of Mr. Charlie Creighton, President of Colony Tire Corporation) of Colony Tire Corporation and explained to him the information above.

Mr. Creighton apologized for the problems I had experienced and stated that he would call me back in the morning and hopefully everything would be worked out the next day and I would have my tires installed.

On Wednesday, January 16, 2002, I did not hear back from Mr. Creighton and he was in meeting the entire day with representatives from Goodyear. I called back John to find out if they had found the missing tire and he stated that they had not and it had not arrived. Later that day, John called me back and told me that it would take 3 to 5 days for UPS to trace the tire so they had contacted Goodyear and Goodyear had tail loaded a tire on a truck due to arrive in Raleigh on Friday, January 18, 2002.

I heard back from Mr. Scott Creighton on Thursday, January 17, 2002 and he again restated that the replacement tire would not arrive until Friday. He once again apologized for the problems I had experienced and hope that this would not cause me to not want to do business with their company in the future. I thanked him for the apology and told him I guess all I can do is wait until Friday. I told him that I was upset that I had ordered the tires directly through Colony tire ( and paid slightly more) and had I ordered through Tire Rack, I would have had my tires on January 10th or 11th. Mr. Creighton at that point offered to give me a credit for the difference in the amount I would have paid and some other type of service (I.E: Oil change, etc.) to compensate me for my time and troubles.
I again thanked him and accepted his offer.

On Friday, January 18, 2002 at about 10:00am and 1:00pm, I again called John and asked him if the tire had arrived. I told him that it was getting late and I was concerned that I would again not have tires installed on my car before the weekend. He stated that the tire had not arrived and he did not know where it was at. I asked him if he would call and try to track it. I also passed this information along to Mr. Creighton per his request.

At around 2:00pm, I was contacted by Leo who is the manager of the store. Leo asked if I would bring my car in so they could install the three tires that they had and would be ready for the 4th when it arrived. I told him yes and Leo even offered to give me a ride back to my house since I just lived right down the street.

After Leo dropped me off, I went to run so errands and Leo called and left a message stating that the fourth tire had arrived. At approx 4:30pm, I was called back and told my car was ready.

Leo came by the house to pick me up and on the way back he told me that they had determined that both of my rear rims were slightly "Out of Round" or bent. I asked Leo what could have caused this and he stated that they could have taken an impact or they were defective. He told me that all the rims had "Balanced Out" on a "Lugcentric" type of balancing machine and one wheel had to be "Counter Balanced." I asked Leo if the bent rims would affect my handling and he stated that I would have possibly felt some type of vibration.

I picked the car up and the new tires looked great. They did not scratch or damage the rims in any visible way.

One note, at the time, I was not given the credit/discount or offer of service that Mr. Scott Creighton had offered previously. I also asked Leo if they would save my old tires and they dropped them off at my house free of charge.

Later that day, I noticed that my tires didn't seem to be handling properly and I had the tire pressure checked cold and all the tires were 5 psi underfilled (25psi versus 30psi) After correcting the tire pressure, the tires and ride was much better.

Over the weekend, I posted my concerns about the bent rims on the Z06Vette Forum and I was advised that I should have my rims checked on a Hunter GSP9700 machine. It was stated that this machine was the best around and would tell me if my rims were bent, out of balance or if I had defective tires.

I found one of these machines in town and had all four of my rims checked with the balance and road force variation tests.

The following infomation was discovered.

Left Rear: The rim was NOT bent and Colony Tire had added "6 ounces" of weight and the wheel was not properly balanced. Colony Tire had also "Counter Weighted" the rim by placing weight on exact opposite sides of the rim. The technician who worked with the Hunter Machine said he had never heard of a rim being "Counter Balanced" in such a manner. They removed the weights and ran the balance test again and the machine said to add 40 grams (Approx 1.5 ounces) to one place on the rim. After that, the wheel was balanced perfectly.

Right Rear: The rim was visually slight bent on what appeared to be the inner bead edge of the rim. This was only able to be seen while it was spinning. The machine confirmed that there was indeed a problem with the rim. Colony Tire had installed 3 ounces of weight and again counter balanced and the rim was not balanced. They removed the weights and reran the balance test. The machine called for 65 grams (Approx 2.25 ounces) to be installed on 1 place on the rim. After that, the rim balanced out. I was told that the rim didn't appear to be bent by impact or mounting machine and may be due to a manufacturing defect. This was based on the location of the defective/bent portion of the rim.

Left Front: The rim was not bent and was perfectly balanced by Colony Tire.

Right Front: The rim was not bent and was perfectly balanced by Colony Tire.

I was charged $44.95 for the balancing of the two rims and I presented the receipt and results to John at Colony Tire and asked if they would reimburse me due to the fact that Colony Tire did not correctly balance the two rear wheels. He stated that he would have to talk to Leo and have him get back with me the next day.

I spoke to Leo and he 1st stated that they would only reimburse me $21.00 for the incorrecly balanced wheels. I told him that I felt that I should be reimbursed the total amount due to the fact that both rims were incorrectly balance and that the balancing error was not due to machine variation as they had correcly balance the two front tires. He stated that he would have to get back with me.

I then called and left a message for Mr. Scott Creighton and explained to him the findings of the Hunter test and also informed him that I did not receive the credit he had offered along with offer of service compensation.

Later on, I received a call from Leo and he asked if I would be home so he could come by and drop off my money. Later on, Leo came to my house and handed me $45.00 out of his wallet. I am assuming that he reimbursed me the money out of his own pocket.

I called Mr. Creighton to let him know that Leo had taken care of the reimbursement and Mr. Creighton stated that Colony Tire would also be sending me a check to reimburse me for my time and troubles from the transaction.

Overall, even in light of the apparent break down of the process in obtaining my tires and communcation, Colony Tire Corporation came through on this one and did the right thing. Based off of everything I truly believe that Colony Tire is committed to customer satisfaction and I will consider them for my future tire and service needs.

JLA
 
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#4 ·
Tell me about it.

Thank God every consumer experience isn't like this. You guys did square me away (When you were Xtreme Motorsport w/Nate) with my issues with the B&B Tri-Flows on my 2000 Coupe.

There was a good example of Great Customer Service!!!!!!!!

JLA
 
#8 ·
JLA and Bibsuit! You guys are a trip! Sort of like the Lucy and Ricky show of Z06dom! J/K.... :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
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