Here goes. I live in KY and we have a tire store called Big O. Well I bought me wheels there after much hesitation but there aren't any good shops in this area as its not a big city. Well I've had them a while and I put some lowering springs on my car so it needed an alignment. I went to Big O and did the alignment (which sucked) but I decided to go ahead and have the wheels rotated and balanced. I got it all done and got to work which is about 5 miles away. I checked out my wheels and was sick. They had destroyed the finish on my wheels from the "rednecks" trying to operate the impact wrench to take the lugs off! It wasn't only inside the hole it was outside too. I took the car back and had to argue with the mechanics and the owner. I hate that place and will be hesitant to ever go back. Has anyone else had any issues?

 

You might want to post this in the regional forum.

 

No not me. But I would burn the place down lol!

 

when my Mazda dealer called the next day after leaving my 8 with them for some bulletin upgrades and the final swap of my original "dust devil" brake pads , I was pleased that the tech doing the work on my car was very concerned about scratching my chrome and informed me of the precautionary measures of using some tape around his thin walled lug socket to keep the scratches down to a minumum,which in fact I gave the guy a big thanks....I mean some would'nt think to go that extra length in they're course proceedures and I hope this is the guy does my next service...not all techs are morons and I let the service manager know they did indeed have a valued service tech working for them and it would be a loss to them if he decided to press on to better things...Cheers

p.s. sorry for not sticking to the original posters complaint of the BIG O's that are out there

 

I guess it depends on the shop. I've had some really positive experiences at Big-O. That sucks about your finish though, I hope you push through and get them to replace it. Do you have pictures?

 

The thing is when I orginally bought the wheels from another Big O they scratched the outer edge putting the tires on. When I questioned them the manager replied with its not possible to put them on w/ out that happening, lol. I decided to go to another one since you get the free rotation and balance. The manager there at least has taken my wheels to a Autobody shop to get the wheels color matched and painted in order to fix the screwed up finish. I wish I woudl have taken pics but I was in a rush to get it fixed. I'll pick my wheels up tomorrow and I'll keep you posted on the outcome. I should have just went to the Mazda dealership but didn't want to drive the hour up, guess I screwed that up.

 

The same thing happened to me when I we had one where I live. I got enkei's for my mx6 and they completely scratched the face of one rim because they couldn't get the tire on. What they did was put the rim face down on the machine that holds it in place.

 

It they did use the "touch free" machine but they used this metal rod to pry the tires around the wheel. I just wish there was a reliable shop that was into the sports car scene and knew what the hell they were doing. I guess they are just use to working on old Ford trucks, lol.

 

it's almost worth driving out of town to get them mounted and balanced. i have like 3 other shops in town that i should have gone to