Hey guys,

I'd love some advice and opinions on how I might deal with a situation I ave found myself in.

Over the winter, I bought myself some dedicated track rims and tires. I have never bought new rims and tires in my life, so it was a reasonably major purchase and I was very excited.

The shop I brought the wheel and tire package to for mounting was a little uncomfortable dealing with the depth of my 10.5" Enkei RPF1s so they outsourced the mounting a balancing to a local specialty shop.

I brought the wheels home, tires mounted and balanced, and stored them in my basement. A few days later, I noticed wheel weights living underneath two of the wheels.

I returned the two wheels that had the weights fall off to be rebalanced and expressed my surprise that this could happen.

The shop owner brought the wheels back to the "other" shop for them to fix their error. They claimed that they had a bad batch of weights. That seems reasonable. We all know that sh&$ happens and I am not a rager when things go wrong.

Picked the wheels up, cleaned and dressed them, and stacked them vertically in my laundry room for the rest of the winter.

A couple of weeks back, I was going to move the wheels out of the house and into the garage. At the bottom of the pile I fund more wheel weights. Now I had no idea which wheels had dropped their weights.

Brought all four back to the shop and again gently expressed my disappointment. The hassle for the shop is that it was not their work that was faulty - it was the "specialty" tire shop - and now they were dealing with an unhappy customer.

I go to pick up my wheels once they are rebalanced again and - to my horror - every rim has tons of scratches where the "specialty" shop must have pried the old weights off.

Tons of shiny, silver scratches on my brand new matte black rims. On every wheel. The tech didn't even stop to say to himself, "Wow...maybe I need to reevaluate what I am doing!"

My new wheels now look like *****.

I am awaiting to hear what the "specialty" shop intends to do to resolve this. Should I be satisfied with some touch up paint? What is their responsibility here? Thoughts/opinions welcomed...

This is so disappointing that words fail me. I know they are just track wheels, but it's still $3200 worth of brand new gear that they have damaged.

 

yikes, that sounds awful.
It really sucks it messed up the finish, but can you see the damage with the wheels mounted? If not no big deal really.

Also they are track wheels so they'll take some abuse.

If you can't see the damage I say you'll just have to live with it.

 

Get a quote to have them resprayed.

The shop will have to pay for it.

Put on your big boy pants.

 

Hey man,I work at a shop and what has happened to you isn't acceptable.
Talk to the owner/manager of this shop and express to him/her that he/they need to fix your wheels properly.End of story
If I damaged wheels when balancing or mounting tires it would be the shops responsibilty to fix the wheels.Sounds like your dealing with some shoe makers though my good man.
Good luck
BTW make sure the shop has agreed to pay for repairs before you go get then fixed

 

Is it just scratches where the weights go in the inner barrel? Or is there scratches on the lip/face?

 

Inner barrel only.

 

I honestly don't think its that bad since its in the inner barrel. Your inner barrels will be covered in brake dust anyways since its your track wheels. Matte black touch up should be good enough.

I would also never go back to that shop.

 

It's the inner barrel man... Go drive around the block twice and the scratches will be magically gone.


(due to the **** tonnes of brake dust)

I understand you're probably pissed because they were brand new, but that portion of the wheel is ALWAYS bound to get dinged and scratched.

 

There's no way you'll ever get the shop to pay for a respray over scratches.. they usually have disclaimers or signs that say they're not responsible for custom wheels.. chalk it up to experience n never go back to a tire shop that cant perform all the work themselves while you watch/wait. Any tire shop with a professional wheel clamp and an experienced tech can get your tires mounted on.. no specialty shop needed.

 

That sucks but it's not a horror story

 

Honestly, I see his point.

There is a difference in you deliberately destroying your own property and someone who is supposed to be an expert doing it for you.

Still, what I would do since they are track wheels is negotiate for some/ all money back. If not that say you are willing to give them another chance buy you want a store credit.. Something like that. Get some high temp matte black header paint, mask off the face, and just do a quick touch up of the spots.

 

Never go back to that tire place again.

 

Like other said, if it was the outer part of the wheels then I'd be pissed but dirt will hide that quick.

 

yeah inner barrel scratches?? not really a big deal.

what city are you in?

 

I mount and balance my own tires.

I remove the old weights from the inner-barrel with a pocket knife, then use a rag and brake-cleaner to get the old adhesive off. After ~12 sets of tires, I have a lot of scratches in there.

 

Newmarket. 30 minutes north of Toronto.

I scrub my wheels clean after every track event - my wheels won't be covered in brake dust.

Maybe "horror story" as a thread title was more an emotional response than a rational one..but damn am I pissed at this.

Given what everyone has offered/suggested, I think a respray at the shops expense should be my target.

We'll see what they have to say tomorrow.

 

I don't blame you, brand new wheels... first tires on the wheels and already looks like as if you changed tires 5 times. I can't stand when someone does not respect someones property.
You should have posted a photo. See how bad it really is

 

Sucks, had that happen to me when i bought a new set of rota's for my honda like 5 yrs ago. Didnt make a big stink out of it but i was pissed. Learned my lesson and when it came to mounting my volks, i went to speedstar lol

The shop that i went to was also in newmarket...

 

Not exactly true.

 

how so? We unmount and remount tires all the time.. stretched, donutted, u name it.. even had to mount a 215 on a 18x9.5 and they were able to do it.. i have NEVER needed to go to another "specialty" shop for mounting a tire.. the issues come with the tire shop not having a strong enough piston on the wheel clamp to turn the rim as you're trying to mount the tire..