B
Bernie
Guest
Finally got COSTCO to do the balance and rotation today, though I think I came pretty close to actually committing murder with a blunt object on the guy doing the work.
Where to start? I want to tell the complete story, but I don't want to turn the TMC word censor into a puddle of steaming slag in the corner...
Okay... It all started well, with the woman at the desk confirming my appointment, and getting the paperwork done. It went completely downhill from there, and the whole process could best be described as "a fWONKIng Royal ClusterfWONk"... but only if I want to be charitable.
The "mechanic" that went out to the lot to pull my truck in got things off to a nice start, by trying to drive my 10 foot tall truck into the shop through an 8 foot high door, and completely ignored me when I was yelling at him to stop, that the door was too low. Fortunately, one of the other mechanics heard me yelling, saw what the fWONKing moron was trying to do, and rushed out and stopped him.
Then they had to have a 20 minute conference to debate if the truck really was too big to fit in that bay. I half expected them to get out a ruler and start measuring, but they finally took my word for it that the truck really is 10 foot tall, and would not fit through their 8 foot door.
Then the same idiot tried to get the truck in the bay next to that one, this with a 12 foot door, but had no fWONKing clue as to how to back up and pull forward to properly line up with the bay. He was about to shear the drivers mirror off on the doorframe when I yelled, then he reached out the open window and tried to pull the mirror in. The mirror which is bolted through the door with a heavy frame (see pictures of my truck) not the folding type, and he came very close to either yanking it off the truck or bending the door before I got over to him and told him to "get the fWONk out of my truck you fWONking idiot!" And then he refused...and started to try to pull in again.
That was the point at which two guys from the shop had to physically restrain me from diving through the drivers window and beating the idiots head repeatedly against the dashboard.
I did finally get him out from behind the wheel, but it involved a lot of choice swear words and phrases, called into question his complete ancestry, mentioned his mother's evident fondness for illicit fornication with blind and retarded goats, and culminated in his stomping off in a huff while several members of the shop crew tried to hide smiles behind their hands while I yelled for the manager.
That's when I found out that the idiot was the tire shop manager.
Eventually the manager for the entire store showed up, but wouldn't agree with me that his tire shop manager was a complete idiot, and actually tried to excuse his trying to get the truck in the small bay by saying that the big bay had someone working in it (a guy fixing the a/c on a ladder) and that the shop manager was simply trying to get my work done as quick as possible. When I asked how crashing my truck into the top of the bay opening was going to accomplish that he simply said that they have insurance for things like that.
Well, after that it didn't get much better. I eventually had to drive the truck into the bay myself so they could work on it (fWONk their insurance regs) and then watched this same idiot proceed to put my 5,600 lb truck up on a set of one ton jackstands. I complained again, and told him to take it off those pieces of crap before he ended up with a three ton truck in his lap, and he swapped them out for a set of 3 ton stands.
Then he proceeded to prove what an idiot he was by trying to balance the wheels without taking off the weights already on them. When I pointed this out to him he shrugged it off and said he just wanted to see how far "out" they were. All six wheels. I suspect that if I hadn't been standing right there watching, and he found one that was "close" he would have skipped that one.
Then he tried telling me my left front rim was badly bent, and I had to point out that he'd actually forgotten to clamp it down on the balance machine, and that was why it was wobbling like that.
Then came the fun of watching him put the wheels back on the truck...
First he tried doing it without using the bearing plates (a ring with the cone depressions the lugs fit into) and I had to stop him, then he put on only one wheel on the right rear, and couldn't figure out why the lugs were so long that the socket was bottoming out and being forced off. He actually rounded off two nuts (that I made them replace) before I asked him what the fWONk he thought he was doing, and how was he planning to mount the second wheel on that side?
And, of course, he then used an impact gun set as high as it would go to put the nuts on (probably at least 200-250 ft.lbs.) then took a torque wrench to "adjust them to the correct torque"... three times on each nut. He was not happy when I pointed out to him that you can't torque anything that way. The moron actually thought that putting a torque wrench on a stud that was already over torqued and making it click would somehow "magically" reduce the torque back down to the proper 140 ft. lbs. It took me and two other customers (who both left and would not let the shop work on their cars after that) to convince him that this was not the proper procedure. And then I had to scream for the store manager again to get him to pull all the nuts and do it over again, the correct way.
I'm halfway tempted to have all the studs pulled and replaced because they've been over torqued, and sending him the bill to the store manager.
I'm putting new brakes on the truck in a couple of weeks anyway, and replacing both front rotors (which come with the studs), so maybe just bill 'em for the rear studs.
Where to start? I want to tell the complete story, but I don't want to turn the TMC word censor into a puddle of steaming slag in the corner...
Okay... It all started well, with the woman at the desk confirming my appointment, and getting the paperwork done. It went completely downhill from there, and the whole process could best be described as "a fWONKIng Royal ClusterfWONk"... but only if I want to be charitable.
The "mechanic" that went out to the lot to pull my truck in got things off to a nice start, by trying to drive my 10 foot tall truck into the shop through an 8 foot high door, and completely ignored me when I was yelling at him to stop, that the door was too low. Fortunately, one of the other mechanics heard me yelling, saw what the fWONKing moron was trying to do, and rushed out and stopped him.
Then they had to have a 20 minute conference to debate if the truck really was too big to fit in that bay. I half expected them to get out a ruler and start measuring, but they finally took my word for it that the truck really is 10 foot tall, and would not fit through their 8 foot door.
Then the same idiot tried to get the truck in the bay next to that one, this with a 12 foot door, but had no fWONKing clue as to how to back up and pull forward to properly line up with the bay. He was about to shear the drivers mirror off on the doorframe when I yelled, then he reached out the open window and tried to pull the mirror in. The mirror which is bolted through the door with a heavy frame (see pictures of my truck) not the folding type, and he came very close to either yanking it off the truck or bending the door before I got over to him and told him to "get the fWONk out of my truck you fWONking idiot!" And then he refused...and started to try to pull in again.
That was the point at which two guys from the shop had to physically restrain me from diving through the drivers window and beating the idiots head repeatedly against the dashboard.
I did finally get him out from behind the wheel, but it involved a lot of choice swear words and phrases, called into question his complete ancestry, mentioned his mother's evident fondness for illicit fornication with blind and retarded goats, and culminated in his stomping off in a huff while several members of the shop crew tried to hide smiles behind their hands while I yelled for the manager.
That's when I found out that the idiot was the tire shop manager.
Eventually the manager for the entire store showed up, but wouldn't agree with me that his tire shop manager was a complete idiot, and actually tried to excuse his trying to get the truck in the small bay by saying that the big bay had someone working in it (a guy fixing the a/c on a ladder) and that the shop manager was simply trying to get my work done as quick as possible. When I asked how crashing my truck into the top of the bay opening was going to accomplish that he simply said that they have insurance for things like that.
Well, after that it didn't get much better. I eventually had to drive the truck into the bay myself so they could work on it (fWONk their insurance regs) and then watched this same idiot proceed to put my 5,600 lb truck up on a set of one ton jackstands. I complained again, and told him to take it off those pieces of crap before he ended up with a three ton truck in his lap, and he swapped them out for a set of 3 ton stands.
Then he proceeded to prove what an idiot he was by trying to balance the wheels without taking off the weights already on them. When I pointed this out to him he shrugged it off and said he just wanted to see how far "out" they were. All six wheels. I suspect that if I hadn't been standing right there watching, and he found one that was "close" he would have skipped that one.
Then he tried telling me my left front rim was badly bent, and I had to point out that he'd actually forgotten to clamp it down on the balance machine, and that was why it was wobbling like that.
Then came the fun of watching him put the wheels back on the truck...
First he tried doing it without using the bearing plates (a ring with the cone depressions the lugs fit into) and I had to stop him, then he put on only one wheel on the right rear, and couldn't figure out why the lugs were so long that the socket was bottoming out and being forced off. He actually rounded off two nuts (that I made them replace) before I asked him what the fWONk he thought he was doing, and how was he planning to mount the second wheel on that side?
And, of course, he then used an impact gun set as high as it would go to put the nuts on (probably at least 200-250 ft.lbs.) then took a torque wrench to "adjust them to the correct torque"... three times on each nut. He was not happy when I pointed out to him that you can't torque anything that way. The moron actually thought that putting a torque wrench on a stud that was already over torqued and making it click would somehow "magically" reduce the torque back down to the proper 140 ft. lbs. It took me and two other customers (who both left and would not let the shop work on their cars after that) to convince him that this was not the proper procedure. And then I had to scream for the store manager again to get him to pull all the nuts and do it over again, the correct way.
I'm halfway tempted to have all the studs pulled and replaced because they've been over torqued, and sending him the bill to the store manager.
I'm putting new brakes on the truck in a couple of weeks anyway, and replacing both front rotors (which come with the studs), so maybe just bill 'em for the rear studs.
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