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So it was was another day at the ye ole autocenter, hooray however it was July 4th and we closed an hour early than usual. It wasn’t that busy, but we were working. The only thought going on in my head while helping customers was “It’s Sunday and the 4th of July, don’t you have something better todo like uhm be with your family or etc?” But nevermind that, some SC’s have no sense of time or have lives outside their suckyness.
While helping this guy for an oil change I notice from the corner of my eye a silver BMW roll into the express parking (which also has a spare tire on the Left rear), which is just a parking spot on the curb on the side of the store. Needless to say I wasn’t thrilled to help this guy out since I have been in this similar predicament before.
The gets behind the guy I’m helping instead of the one line we have for customers. I go in the back after finishing oil change guy and take with work ticket to the back shop to drop in the workorder tickets box. I hesitate for a min from walking back to the showroom, hoping one of my CW’s will help him out. But then I get caught by my AM for lollygagging and he tells me to go back to the front.
I go and course I end up having to help Mercedes guy. I suck it up and great him enthusiastically like I’m suppose to. He tells me how he bought tires a few months ago (which is never the case, it’s always longer than a ‘few’ months) from us and how now one of them had a blowout and his other tires are worn out. He is showing agitation in the fact how ‘our’ tires have screwed him over. Great this already going to be pleasant. It’s always the same story whenever a SC comes in cause something they bought from us doesn’t work/broke. How it’s “Our crappy tires, Our shitty battery” etc and never their shitty car or them not taking care of their stuff. When there is something wrong it’s our fault and not their dumbass.
So I look up his information on the computer and find the tires he purchased with us. . . over a year ago! I also notice he never purchased the additional road hazard warranty or had the wheel alignment done, which is not surprising being people like him are too cheap to bother protecting their investment and rely on bargain bazaar bartering to save a buck. Of course he also purchased the cheapest tires that were available for his car at the time. I don’t tell him that right away, I just ask to go with him to see his tires and inspect them and get information from the vehicle like the mileage and so on. Sure enough like I expected the tires have worn unevenly because his wheel alignment is out. I don’t tell him that there and then either.
We go back inside, thank goodness for air conditioning. And that’s when I explain that there is no warranty on the tire that has the blowout since he declined the road hazard warranty, and the tires wore unevenly so there would be no mileage warranty. It even says on the computer when he purchased the tires he declined those services/warranty.
Course this doesn’t make him happy and he goes to tell me how his tires have a 40,000 mile warranty and only has driven like 5,000 miles, which is bullshit, cause the mileage on the vehicle history from his last purchase to his current odometer show he has driven a lot more. It also shows he never returned to get the tires rotated which is complimentary for buying tires with us. I go to explain the mileage warranty is a warranty and not a guarantee, and go into explanation as thus:
The mileage warranty covers if the tires wear down evenly and that he has kept up with his tire maintenance like the rotation, checking and correcting his alignment, replacing worn suspension parts and checking his tire pressure (which from the tire wear also suggest he never did). I then told him if that was the case we don’t just replace the tires, but prorate the tire on the unused mileage warranty towards the purchase of another set of tires.
So he see’s he has lost and has no foot, I should say tires to stand on lol. . . I’m such a ass sometimes The SC looking agitated then asks (to my surprise) what is the sale we have on tires for his car. I was expecting what’s the cheapest. So I look what we have available for his cars tire/performance size. I notice we have a tire on promotion with the Buy 3 get 1 free. It has the word free in it, so I’m sure he cannot pass it up, I know how people like him think. I show him the tire on the showroom tire wall and he says ‘ok what’s the price with installation’ Seeing how he needs an alignment I price the tires out and also include the road hazard warranty since well it might do him some good this time. I show him and of course I get ‘Oh that’s expensive, why is it so expensive?” So I explain how the price includes the tires with installation, the road hazard and alignment (which he desperately needs)
Course the answer to his question furthermore it also has a few other points.
1. You own a $50,000 dollar car!
2. Cause it’s a high performance vehicle it needs high performance tires.
3. Tires are not just round things made of rubber
4. To conquer why is gas expensive? Cause of oil. . .which leads into the fact the cost of manufacturing and materials for tires have gone up. . .
. . .Hence why tires for your car cost soo much.
He pauses and here it comes! “Can I get a discount?” (fuck no you ain’t!) actually he says “are there any other discounts?” Implying that I would be able to some how hook him up for being a douchebag. I tell him how he already is saving money being he is not paying for the 4th tire, just to install it. If anything it’s a good deal, not the cheapest tire, but for the promotion it’s the cheapest overall deal. Then he counters with how a competitor has it for cheaper, which I respond to that we do have a low price guarantee and can price advertised prices for tires, and that I could look at the competitors website in front of him to make sure he gets the lowest price from us. . . however no one could match us being he is basically paying for just 3 tires in essence, just paying to install them all.
Then he goes onto his whole story about he doesn’t plan on keeping the vehicle very on, which is another lie in itself, cause often times your gonna see that customer 2 years later driving that same vehicle. Why do I care how long you want to keep the car, you bought it, you deal with it. He then asks if the wheel alignment is necessary and I counter by how the tires wore, I’m pretty sure he does, but we do check before doing it on the alignment machine. He asks “can you check first?” I counter again telling him “yes we check it and if it is off we correct it. If it isn’t (which is unlikely) we just charge for the alignment check and we give you a alignment sheet after it is done showing what was off and adjusted”.
He succumbs, realizing I’m not going to ‘hook’ him up with a discount for being a cheap ass. Then again it’s not like I could even give a discount. He decides to decline the road hazard which I’m not amazed by. He goes with the sale, I print the work order and say how it will take 2 hours for the tires and alignment. SC of course wishes to have it done sooner, but of course this is not Burger King and he is also not the only one here to have his vehicle serviced. I get his keys, take the work order and walk to the back and decide to go for a quick smoke break. . . some people don’t get it.
While helping this guy for an oil change I notice from the corner of my eye a silver BMW roll into the express parking (which also has a spare tire on the Left rear), which is just a parking spot on the curb on the side of the store. Needless to say I wasn’t thrilled to help this guy out since I have been in this similar predicament before.
The gets behind the guy I’m helping instead of the one line we have for customers. I go in the back after finishing oil change guy and take with work ticket to the back shop to drop in the workorder tickets box. I hesitate for a min from walking back to the showroom, hoping one of my CW’s will help him out. But then I get caught by my AM for lollygagging and he tells me to go back to the front.
I go and course I end up having to help Mercedes guy. I suck it up and great him enthusiastically like I’m suppose to. He tells me how he bought tires a few months ago (which is never the case, it’s always longer than a ‘few’ months) from us and how now one of them had a blowout and his other tires are worn out. He is showing agitation in the fact how ‘our’ tires have screwed him over. Great this already going to be pleasant. It’s always the same story whenever a SC comes in cause something they bought from us doesn’t work/broke. How it’s “Our crappy tires, Our shitty battery” etc and never their shitty car or them not taking care of their stuff. When there is something wrong it’s our fault and not their dumbass.
So I look up his information on the computer and find the tires he purchased with us. . . over a year ago! I also notice he never purchased the additional road hazard warranty or had the wheel alignment done, which is not surprising being people like him are too cheap to bother protecting their investment and rely on bargain bazaar bartering to save a buck. Of course he also purchased the cheapest tires that were available for his car at the time. I don’t tell him that right away, I just ask to go with him to see his tires and inspect them and get information from the vehicle like the mileage and so on. Sure enough like I expected the tires have worn unevenly because his wheel alignment is out. I don’t tell him that there and then either.
We go back inside, thank goodness for air conditioning. And that’s when I explain that there is no warranty on the tire that has the blowout since he declined the road hazard warranty, and the tires wore unevenly so there would be no mileage warranty. It even says on the computer when he purchased the tires he declined those services/warranty.
Course this doesn’t make him happy and he goes to tell me how his tires have a 40,000 mile warranty and only has driven like 5,000 miles, which is bullshit, cause the mileage on the vehicle history from his last purchase to his current odometer show he has driven a lot more. It also shows he never returned to get the tires rotated which is complimentary for buying tires with us. I go to explain the mileage warranty is a warranty and not a guarantee, and go into explanation as thus:
The mileage warranty covers if the tires wear down evenly and that he has kept up with his tire maintenance like the rotation, checking and correcting his alignment, replacing worn suspension parts and checking his tire pressure (which from the tire wear also suggest he never did). I then told him if that was the case we don’t just replace the tires, but prorate the tire on the unused mileage warranty towards the purchase of another set of tires.
So he see’s he has lost and has no foot, I should say tires to stand on lol. . . I’m such a ass sometimes The SC looking agitated then asks (to my surprise) what is the sale we have on tires for his car. I was expecting what’s the cheapest. So I look what we have available for his cars tire/performance size. I notice we have a tire on promotion with the Buy 3 get 1 free. It has the word free in it, so I’m sure he cannot pass it up, I know how people like him think. I show him the tire on the showroom tire wall and he says ‘ok what’s the price with installation’ Seeing how he needs an alignment I price the tires out and also include the road hazard warranty since well it might do him some good this time. I show him and of course I get ‘Oh that’s expensive, why is it so expensive?” So I explain how the price includes the tires with installation, the road hazard and alignment (which he desperately needs)
Course the answer to his question furthermore it also has a few other points.
1. You own a $50,000 dollar car!
2. Cause it’s a high performance vehicle it needs high performance tires.
3. Tires are not just round things made of rubber
4. To conquer why is gas expensive? Cause of oil. . .which leads into the fact the cost of manufacturing and materials for tires have gone up. . .
. . .Hence why tires for your car cost soo much.
He pauses and here it comes! “Can I get a discount?” (fuck no you ain’t!) actually he says “are there any other discounts?” Implying that I would be able to some how hook him up for being a douchebag. I tell him how he already is saving money being he is not paying for the 4th tire, just to install it. If anything it’s a good deal, not the cheapest tire, but for the promotion it’s the cheapest overall deal. Then he counters with how a competitor has it for cheaper, which I respond to that we do have a low price guarantee and can price advertised prices for tires, and that I could look at the competitors website in front of him to make sure he gets the lowest price from us. . . however no one could match us being he is basically paying for just 3 tires in essence, just paying to install them all.
Then he goes onto his whole story about he doesn’t plan on keeping the vehicle very on, which is another lie in itself, cause often times your gonna see that customer 2 years later driving that same vehicle. Why do I care how long you want to keep the car, you bought it, you deal with it. He then asks if the wheel alignment is necessary and I counter by how the tires wore, I’m pretty sure he does, but we do check before doing it on the alignment machine. He asks “can you check first?” I counter again telling him “yes we check it and if it is off we correct it. If it isn’t (which is unlikely) we just charge for the alignment check and we give you a alignment sheet after it is done showing what was off and adjusted”.
He succumbs, realizing I’m not going to ‘hook’ him up with a discount for being a cheap ass. Then again it’s not like I could even give a discount. He decides to decline the road hazard which I’m not amazed by. He goes with the sale, I print the work order and say how it will take 2 hours for the tires and alignment. SC of course wishes to have it done sooner, but of course this is not Burger King and he is also not the only one here to have his vehicle serviced. I get his keys, take the work order and walk to the back and decide to go for a quick smoke break. . . some people don’t get it.
Still, when I did finally replace the 1977-ish (yeah, I know) set of Michelins, I didn't cheap out. The Yokohamas I bought weren't the cheapest, but they didn't break the bank either.
But be careful some places have tires that are only made exclusively for them, it's what helps them stay competitive. 
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