Treadwright Nightmare

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Frambukie

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So I wanted to get some mud tires for my truck because my stock duelers were getting pretty shot. I saw Treadwright tires and a number of positive reviews on a few other forums.

I got on their email list to be alerted when my size was in stock. After a few weeks I got the email so I rushed to get my order in. I ordered four 285/65R18 Guard Dog MTs from their website in July 2014, The tires didn’t show up until October 2014.

First of all they charged me about $200 more than the invoice amount but I called them and they refunded the difference.

It was a long wait but when they got here the tires were beautiful. Instead of just being retread they actually remolded the sidewalls and everything. I couldn’t wait to get them mounted so I borrowed my parents car and had them take my truck with the tires to be mounted at my favorite shop while I was at work.

I told my father to make sure he gave the notice that came with the tires to the technician before he mounted and balanced them. You see when you buy Treadwrights they come with a little neon green notice on the packing slip that says something like ATTENTION: These tires must be mounted on the static setting with the weight split on the inside and outside at a twelve o clock position. That should have been a sign rite there…

When I got out of work I rushed over to the shop to pick up my truck. I saw my truck parked outside rocking the aggressive MTs and I couldn’t wait to take it out for a drive. Unfortunately when I got inside the tech told me that he spent an hour trying to get these tires to balance and something is wrong with them. I asked him if he followed the balancing instructions that came with the tires and he said he did and no matter what he tried they wouldn’t spin true or even close for that matter.

At this point I’m upset but my truck looked so good I figured how bad could it be. I had to shell out $50 for his labor and I took the truck for a ride.

Well I got up to about 25-30mph and the truck started shaking violently like the wheels were going to fall off. I knew immediately that the tires couldn’t even be close to balanced.

I didn’t want to believe that after all this time the tires were defective and I figured the first guy just didn’t know what he was doing so the next day I nursed the truck to a shop that specializes in recap tires for commercial applications. I told him the story so far and gave him the same balancing instructions as the first guy. he assured me he could balance them no problem.

After work I swing by to get the truck and he tells me the same thing, the tires must be defective they are calling for over a pound of weight.

I’m getting pretty upset at this point but the guy said he wasn’t going to charge me and told me I should return the tires to the manufacturer.

So on my way home I figure what the hell I’ll try one more place and I’m going to wait there while they work on them. Pep Boys was the only place I could find that was open late enough to do it. I took the truck in explained to them the situation, showed them the instructions and they of course assured me they could balance the tires. After waiting a half hour or so the tech comes out to the waiting room and said he wanted me to come with him. We went into the shop and he told me there’s nothing he can do with these tires, He showed me that he was placing the machine in the static setting and we loaded them on the machine one by one. I watched as the machine came up anywhere from 26-28 ounces per tire and said there’s no way he could stack that much weight on the tires.

So the next day I called Treadwright and told them everything, I asked them if there is something that I am missing on the balancing procedure and they said it didn’t sound like it. I asked them if I could return the tires and they told me I had to file a warranty claim through their website. I immediately did so after hanging up the phone.

A day later a customer service rep calls me and left a voicemail saying that they can take the tires I just have to ship them back to them for inspection and they will refund the purchase price. I called back and said you can’t expect me to front the shipping to send them back, I have already waited this long and spent a ton of money on the tires. She put me on with a manager that told me since they didn’t have any more tires in this size and I had written documentation from the tire shop they would refund my money and let me keep the tires. I was stunned I couldn’t believe how cool he was about it. He apologized to me and everything.

Well here’s where I screwed up. I didn’t get the guys name or contact info and sure enough 2 weeks later still no refund. I call to check in and they tell me “Well it says on the file that you are shipping the tires back so that we can inspect them, have you shipped the tires back to us yet?” So I told them that the manager said he was going to be refunding me and that I didn’t need to ship the tires back. Well of course they ask me if I got the managers name and tell me how their policy is that the need the tires back to receive a refund. I argue back and forth some more and they finally agree to take up the shipping costs to ship the tires back.

I was so frustrated at this point so I agreed to that until I realize that I don’t have any tires to put on the truck and I’m going to have to buy a whole other set just so I can ship these out. I called Treadwright today and asked them if they could just process my refund so that I could get a new set and then I would send theirs back. They just kept repeating vet and over that it's their policy and they can't do anything until they inspect the tires. I asked them if I'm just supposed to leave my truck on jack stands in the tire stores parking lot until they decide to refund my money and they said it would only take about a week and a half. Then I asked if they were going to refund the cost of mounting and balancing if their tires were defective and they said that they would no because that is something everyone had to do.

I mean is it just me? The manager says he's going to refund me, 2 weeks later they claim no one ever said that. Now they are holding my money hostage until I ship their defective tires back at which point they will only refund the cost of the tires even though I had to pay to find that it would be impossible to even balance them?

It old them to tell the manager thank you for not helping me in any way and hat I was going to spread the word on every forum and chat and tell everyone I know and she responded "that's ok we get that all the time"...

I just wanted to warn you guys about this company and I was wondering if anyone knew of s place like consumer protection or something could help me out. Thanks!
 

Dr.Zoom

Hi Tech Redneck
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I'm not sure what you can do, but thanks for the warning and good luck. Different states have different agencies, here we have the Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs. There's also the Better Business Bureau. I don't think the BBB has very much influence these days, but at least you can file a complaint so you're warning others. A state agency might actually get some results. I know of one person who went to the Gov's Office and the company he was having problems with fixed his problem promptly.

I'd call them back and see how far up the chain I could go. You already know to take notes.
 

bluex

Mall Crawlin' ****!!!
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The process treadwright uses is totally different from a semi recap though....
 

92GMC

I'm Awesome
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The process treadwright uses is totally different from a semi recap though....

Didn't know this, but I still wouldn't trust them when I can get a cheap mt new for within a few dollars.
 
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