Some of you guys probably know my story already. I brought my four high performance rims to tire shop for installation. I was happy at the day, and can;t wait to see how my Z will look like with those new rims, but that's when the frustration begin. At first the tech was trying to put a 245/40/18 tires on my 18X10.5 rim. (u don't need to be a genius to know it won't fit by just looking at it) I stopped him and tell him that it belong to 275/40/18 tires. And just right before I was wondering maybe I should tell his manager and has someone else to work on my new rims, he broke my valve stem. And since the valve stem on the high perfomance rims is not something you can just get it from Pep boys, and obviouly they can't get it, so I have to handle all the issues by myself. And guess what, since these valve stem doesn't come around every day, I have to keep calling and waiting, and I still don't have them yet, and it is already been a week, and most likely I won't get it next monday either. Damn.

I just want to warn everyone here that, when you have someone install tires on your TE37, WORKS, ADVAN, or anything that is not on Tire Rack catalog, make sure the techs has experience with aftermarket wheels. Otherwise it's pain in the AXX for us to find spare parts. Although the manager is willing to reimburse me and been polite and nice to me, but all this waiting and frustration is really really not worth it, expecially you know it's someone else's mistake.

 

I hear ya man.
I just got my front stock 18" tires replaced due to tire feathering. When I got my car, I made sure to check my rims and sure enough I found a scratch, not one but two. I talked to the service rep and pointed the scratches. He said before they touched the car they made sure that they check around and noted any pre -existing damages. He showed me a documentation that the scratches were there prior to them working on the car. He said I might have ran into a curve. I was fuming at this point cause I know every inch of my car. Beside the scratchmark is vertical as oppose to being diagonal, typical of curb rashes. He said they can't do anything because it was documented that the scratch was there before the work is done. I asked for the manager and they said he is gone for the day. How convenient ha.! I'm going to try to call him tommorrow and make a complaint.
BTW the service is done at a Nissan dealer too.
Before you guys hand over the keys, make sure you tell the service rep to check around the car with you present and write no visible scratch mark anywhere, And if there's one, specifically write down the exact location and description. Take pictures if you have to right there.

 

Those pictures definitely look like curb rash to me. Are you sure you didn't curb the rims. I guess they could have curbed the rims while test driving the car or moving it. As for shops, I would recommend that you pick a shop listed on www.discounttiredirect.com or www.tirerack.com as a trusted installer. Then when you take them the rims make sure you explain everything to them, and make sure that they have a policy to replace the rim if they mess it up. When you pay $3000 for rims and tires, DON'T take them to get a $20 mount and balance job at your local Wal Mart.