I do believe that I've "owned" the Sears Auto Center.
 

My tire went flat and the sidewall died on Monday. Today, I went to Sears (where I got the tire) to have it replaced. As you can see from the attached image, my persistence paid off, and I saved quite a bit of money by arguing forcefully, but politely, with the grumpy man behind the counter. I won.

daaaaang... that's pretty impressive.

what exactly were you arguing over? just the price they were charging or did they do something wrong?

so, let me get this straigt: the initial estimate was 75 bucks, but you talked them down to 54 cents? lol that's awesome man. but hey, if it's their fault, it's their problem. over here in the NW, we have a tire company called Les Schwab, and they rule. they fix flats for free, and are some of the nicest people i've had to professionally deal with.

I argued over the tread depth left, because 7/32, down from an initial 9/32, is less than 25% of total wear (nevermind that the actual tread depth is 11/32, and 9 is only the usable tread.) I argued with the guy until he was "nice" enough to bump the reading he got from 6, to 7, to 8, to 9, at which point I was actually making money off the transaction, but he put the road hazard warranty renewal on again, bringing me up into the positive range. The manager (who I had asked to speak to several times,) just said, "print it out, bill it as cash, and don't worry about the 54 cents."

In reality, I paid nothing, although I would have tipped the kid who did the work if I had cash on me*.

* - I had a quarter.

Social Engineering at its finest.

ha, yeah, Les Schwab rocks it! I need to go get rotated...although i think it might be too late...Is a year too long to wait?

In two visits my local Les Schwab insured that I'd never go anywhere else again, awesome service, good products, and decent prices.

I'll refer anybody that cares to listen to go to Les Schwab.

you deserve a cookie.

Les Schwab is the best. Few businesses offer the customer service that they do.

back when I lived in the NW, and drove les schwab was the way to go!
How havent they expanded?
PS I lived in Washington. Seattle and then right below the NW border.

Yeah, Les Schwab definitely has terrific customer service and my local Schwab tire store has a popcorn maker too.

I didn't find their prices too good though. I priced tires for my Honda and a similar tire was $100 more for the set at Schwab than at another local tire store.

I really wanted to buy my tires at Schwab but I couldn't justify the extra $100.

Sears got their lesson a number of years ago via large class action suit for over charges and predatory/deceptive practices.

but good on you for working the system fairly.

I paided 80 bucks for 2 front tires last summer:)

But I don't go to sears

damn thats some good work there Mr.selfdestruct. I wish i had some haggling/bargining/arguing skills like you do

:rolleyes: I paid like $758.00 for my tires, and i get them balaced, rotated, and aligned for free. I'm Still Sad.:rolleyes:

The moral of the story is never buy anything automotive from Sears (or for us Canadians, Canadian Tire). I go to a place called Karbelt for my automotive needs, but I have no idea if they're even outside the GTA.

When we were completely broke and could pay off the Sears card $10 at a time, it was a pretty good option.

Just got new rims and tires for my car at Les Schwab and not only do they have awesome customer service, and they stand behind their products with lifetime service, but their financing is great as well, just pay 1/3 down and have set payments that go down on the rest til you pay it off and it's fairly easy to get credit there. Just paid off my setup today and am happy about it. I would personally give them an A+++

Something just doesn't sound right about financing tires/wheels, but even with that we have a place here that will rent rims.

interesting.. renting dubs...