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I'm new to this forum but would like to share my experience last week with the Costco Tire Center in Duluth, Georgia.
About a month ago my Ford Dealership near Ft. Lauderdale advised me to get new tires. We spend the Summer in the mountains of N.C. and I thought I could get away with a couple more months on my tires and then do it in September when we returned to South Florida so I didn't buy tires from Ford. When I got to N.C. I had an episode of hydroplaning in a rain storm and decided to go ahead with the new tires. I would buy the tires from Costco.
First, I have been a member of Costco for over twenty years. In every respect I love the company and have never had a problem with anything. Their rotisserie chickens rock! I own a bunch of Costco stock that has done very well. So for the first time I decided to take my 2016 F150 in for new tires. I wish I had spent some time looking online and what I have now found to be a chronic problem for the Costco tire centers on higher end wheels.
I had a 1:00 appointment and the truck was taken into the bay at exactly 1:00. It took 45 minutes to put the tires on and at 2:00 I got a call that the truck was ready. I was in the store shopping.
When I got out to the truck I walked around and looked at the chrome wheels. When I drove in that morning the wheels were in perfect condition. But now, on every wheel, near the edges, chrome was peeling off. On two wheels I found significant gouges on the wheel spokes. I brought this to the attention to one of the managers who claimed that, "The chrome is peeling off where the tire rubber sticks to the wheel." I looked at him and said, "What are you talking about?" He repeated his claim. I said, "The Ford dealership where I bought it has taken my tires off two times on one wheel to fix a problem, and a chain tire center has done it on another occasion to fix a flat, and never before has the "rubber stuck to the chrome and peeled it off." Then I showed him the gouges. He said, "That's road damage." I looked at him and said, "B.S., the gouge is a direct impact with a slight rotation in the wrong direction for road damage in terms of the direction of travel of the tires." This seemed to confuse him. He said that he had to leave but would have the other manager file an incident report. The other manager had a more sympathetic attitude and actually found some areas of delimitation of the chrome that I had missed. He photographed all the damage, agreed with my point of view on the gouges, and filled out a report (which I took a photo of with my phone). They also trashed one of the lug nut chrome covers before they realized that the covers are ... well, just covers. They took the rest off before turning the actual nuts.
I'm not sure the the two or three hundred bucks I saved on the tires was worth the trouble of this. If it was a one off I'd understand. But I don't think this is a one-off as a simple Google search of "Costco damaged my wheels," shows a chronic problem.
Here is a sampling of the damage that the Costco Tire Center in Duluth, GA did to my wheels.
I just want to warn everyone. If you take a vehicle into Costco for tires, photograph you wheels before you do, and state up front that you're aware that Costco has a history of damaging wheels and you want them to be very careful. These wheels are about $600 each. I will go all the way to the CEO of Costco if I have to. I will update this thread when I find out what Costco is going to do.
Last edited by 777Driver; 05-12-2019 at 11:36 AM.
Reason: Moving text, spaces between photos, more explantation
The chrome flaking off is a common problem i think and it was most likely already loose and when they put the new tire on it rubbed it off. Hard to tell for sure but if you look at the picture you can see some type of rust coloring in the grooves, if you took the pics right away there is a good chance that that damage was there before
The chrome flaking off is a common problem i think and it was most likely already loose and when they put the new tire on it rubbed it off. Hard to tell for sure but if you look at the picture you can see some type of rust coloring in the grooves, if you took the pics right away there is a good chance that that damage was there before
Situations like this are where your personal powers of observation come in handy. When I pull into the parking lot of a garage or shop, I'm looking in the bays. I look at what type of work they are doing, what types of vehicles they are working on, what types (and values) of cars in the parking lot, and if I'm getting tire work done I especially look at the tire machines to see if they are even capable of installing tires on nice chrome or mag rims.
Sorry you had to learn the hard way. Good luck with your claim. Costco will probably come through for you, eventually.
Pics 2,3 and 4 are old damage that was under the 'chrome' and definitely not caused by Costco. Some of the others also appear to be rusted which means it has been there a while. Picture 5 does appear to be new damage though.
Pics 2,3 and 4 are old damage that was under the 'chrome' and definitely not caused by Costco. Some of the others also appear to be rusted which means it has been there a while. Picture 5 does appear to be new damage though.
Aren't these wheels aluminum?
The tire changer head (the piece on the machine that peels the tire off the wheel) is usually steel(but is supposed to be covered by a nylon shoe so the steel never makes contact with the wheel, they break/wear out and sometimes the tech doesn't put a new one on), so its possible either IT or another part of the machine that gouged the wheel simply impregnated the wheel with its rust when it tore into it
05-12-2019, 11:14 AM
Costco Damaged Chrome Wheels
