Beware of Wal-Mart TLE

[JMILLS]

OK, now this may not apply to every walmart tire department, but "buyer beware". I took my car in to get new tires yesterday and the idiots dropped my car off the lift. They appearently pulled the car too far forward on the lift so when they took the rear tires off the car the rear end of the car shot up in the air, slamming the nose down to the concrete. Then the techs had the nerve to tell me that it never hit, when I watched the whole thing. They broke my neons and cracked the verticle support in the front bumper. I am sooo pissed off right now. To make things worse, it was the department manager who did it and denied it, so now I am waiting to hear back from the district manager.

[ramairgt1]

SUE them :D

[TA^Guy]

Originally posted by Ramairgt1
SUE them :D :agree:

[tenspeed]

Whenever your car is involved in an accident, call the police to take a report and notify the insurance company...

Let's see if they lie on a official report that can land them in jail!

[rixGAphx]

Originally posted by tenspeed
Whenever your car is involved in an accident, call the police to take a report and notify the insurance company...
Don't know about your locale, but in Phoenix the police will not respond to a car accident on private property unless there are injuries, or damage more than $3000.

I can't imagine a town where the police are so overstaffed that they will send an officer 'cuz somebody's car tipped off the tire lift.

Jmills - Sorry for your damage. Make a formal claim against Wal-Mart and their insurance.
If you have collision insurance, *maybe* make a claim against your own insurance and let them go against Wal-Mart.

The damage is prolly less than $3000, so rather than get an attorney involved just file a court action in the local Justice Court (small claims).
Best evidence: Before and after pictures. Take some RIGHT NOW, with a camera that 'date stamps' the photos.
If they contest this claim, they will say the damage was prexisting. You need a dependable witness who observed your vehicle in undamaged condition immediately before the incident.

Good luck.
-Rick

[Gimli]

Holy crap man, I'm sorry for your car :(

Yeah, definitely take pics and try to see if someone else present (either another customer or a mechanic) can confirm your side of the story.

Anothter thing to think about: try to see if the manager's received training on these lifts. He very possibly didn't and that might give you the upper-hand.

[JMILLS]

Yep, as I expected everyone at TLE is denying the fact that they messed up, including the District Manger who wasn't even there. They told me to come in and they would take pictures and then decide if they want to file a claim.

So I told the DM, that I will contact the Corporate office instead, and then Small Claims court if nothing comes from that. Maybe that will light a fire under there ...

[Gimli]

Probably too late now but if you could've gotten pics of debris around the lift or something that would've helped too...

[92CamaroRS]

huh seems like a bunch of dumbasses at that store. hell i had new tires put on my bronco about 2 months ago and no problems. then they made it aware that one of the rims was bent so bad it couldnt be balanced. so i got another rim and had them do it. seemed like great service to me. but hey man im sorry that happened to your car.

[Artic]

That sucks man the biggest problem I have had is with ntb gouging the lip of my stockers errrr.

[2003 GT1 SILVER]

I just buy food items or small items from Walmart. I think there items from their and jeez to take your car their is just like taking it to one of those 10 minute oil change shops you are asking for trouble. ;)

[92CamaroRS]

on the contrary it is quite different from the quick change places i watched them do my tires and they use an airgun with a torque stick and then go and check them with a torque wrench. did it better than i prolly would have.

[JMILLS]

Yes, I agree. Every time I have been there with the exception of the last has been a great experience. And I totally disagree with people who think that Walmart sells reject items, or lower class items.

[ccarr8705]

There is always bad luck somewhere. Walmart is a great place. I bought a DVD box set and one of the disks was bad and they opened up another in the store and gave me that disk out of it. So they are helpful and I am VERY surprised that this happened and it seems very weird that EVERYONE is denying it. Maybe this happened b4 to another car. Maybe one or a few of them didnt get the training so they deny it. I would really look into this hard. If they didnt have the proper training there are serious consequenses with danger hazards and stuff like that. So dont let up on them.

[ProjectGT]

Originally posted by 2003 GT1 SILVER
I just buy food items or small items from Walmart. I think there cheaper than everbody else because the stuff they sell their is reject stuff I bought a nice radar dector from them and not after a day I had it the outlet fell out of it. I won't buy any big ticket items from their and jeez to take your car their is just like taking it to one of those 10 minute oil change shops you are asking for trouble. ;)


Dude, do your HW man, Wall mart is the biggest retail corp. in the world! And they did this, not by selling "reject stuff" but becouse they are smart! They buy all the inventory directly from the manufactorer so you dont have to pay for it to go trough national, regional and all the other wholesalers!
This is the way they bring the consumer the low prices you enjoy every day!

And no I dont have to do anythigbn with Wal-Mart, Im just an accountant :D

[redgrandam]

Walmart simply buys shit loads of stuff, and has a monopoly on the products a lot of the time. Won't get into that right now, cause I have lots to say about that, and them comming to canada, but a panasonic TV there is just like a Panasonic TV from Best buy. No diff. as far as service dept goes, I've heard both bad and good. Many times the service bays are relatively large, and a lot goes on in there, so there might just be some confusion. I know that round here in a Canadian tire that my friend works at a car drove into the lift that another car was on, and well.. guess the rest of the story.. lol.. but that was a little more severe, not to easy to deny that! :lol:

good luck, and keep pestering them bout it!

[Night Wolf]

one of my )internet) friends had tires changed at Wal Mart on his ~'95 Camero, they ended up scratching and suffing up one of his wheels pretty bad....don't remember how it turned out though.....

[Artic]

We have one of the super walmarts in my town.Its nice but has ran out all of the local shops in town.So I can agree with them being a monopoly.

[Black99GT3]

Where I go to college the wal-mart here has the oil-change service and everything. I never knew they did that because back home it was just a regular old wal-mart, but i tell you what i'll take an oil change for $15.00 over a $30 raping at quaker state any day! :agree:

[mom2mac]

well, ya all know I work at good ole Wally World. I suggest you all go buy the newest issue of PlayBoy, there is a GREAT article on God and Satan in Bentonville...where Wally is based.

Anyways, the store I work in doesn't have a TLE but I am sure getting ahold of someone at corporate in Bentonville's home office...if you have proof you should be alright.

Good luck and I am sooooooo glad it wasn't my store b/c my profit sharing check would have just been cut in half!

[matts]

back to the topic. how long has it been since it happened? wal mart has cameras everywhere. may not do you any good if it's been longer than a couple days. i don't trust wal-mart TLE, which actually the TLE is kind of like subcontractors. you'll more than likely have to get a lawyer. wal-mart isn't just going to write you a check. why do you think the waltons are worth billions? it's not because they bend over and take it. they're usually the ones doing to giving.

[TA^Guy]

You can easily get your car repaired.

Here is my little story...

While working at Sears Auto I pulled a Ford truck in after having to jump start it. I pulled into the shop and into a bay. I left it running so I could do the charging systems check since the battery wasn't that old. I got out, open the hood and went for the scanner. WHAM! After jumping out of my skin I look back and see the truck across the shop against a lift where it knocked a Jeep onto it's side. WTF I thought. Shop manager asked if I put it in park. "Of course I did, I got out and opened the hood, I didn't do that while it was moving." Well we both looked and sure enough shifter was in "P". The truck's owner comes out after seeing it happen to tell us that his truck as a bad transmission linkage. Thanks for telling us now jack@ss. I was about to pack up my tools look for a new job. The owner of the Jeep got back and she threw a HUGE fit (not that I could blame her). The Jeep was repairable but Sear's insurance(not that truck's owner) ended up giving her full value of her vehicle.

I'm sure if you push hard enough they will fork over the cash. Besides this is what insurance is for, so they don't have to pay out of pocket. Make sure it's clear how often you shop there and how you trusted so called 'professionals' only to have your vehicle damaged and denied. Tell them you want to see video tape from that day, and if they can not provide it ask why. If they still refuse contact your lawyer and have them go over the managers and district managers head and go striaght for the regional manager or higher. Nothing a regional manager hates more than to do the DSMs dirty work. And if they have to fix the problem the DSM will surely get tounge lashed for it. Use it to your advantage.
Good luck.

[matts]

that's funny. of course not for the girl in the jeep.:D

[Jordon'sGrandAm]

well that sucks dude, well i guess if you keep at it something good will come out of this.

[SC/TGrandAm]

your not the only one that has happened to and thats not the only walmart that does that kind of crap it happens everywhere. Here at my local walmart they have been known to change tires and forget to tighten the lug nuts some people havent even got out of the parking lot before their wheels fall off.

My dad is a manger of a Gm dealer and walmart call them ALL the time my dads shop replaces an average of 3 engines a month because the walmart employees do oil changes and forget to put the oil in. They have also drove cars off of the lifts and jacked up cars on things they shouldnt.


Moral of the story if you want a new car/new engine take it to walmart :D

[matts]

i've heard of them putting in too much oil, not enough oil, no oil plug, and they really piss me off with tires. my girlfriends parents swear by taking cars to wal-mart. they took my girlfriends car to get tires on it, STRONGLY against my will, and i had to replace the 4 little chrome valve stem covers. i know its not much, but since then she's had to take the tires back a couple times and it's a pain in the ass replacing the things. Jiffy Lube type places aren't much better. i know a guy that used to work in one. his boss told them to get as much money as they could out of the customer. they would take a dirty air filter, take it inside, and tell the customer they needed a new one. that's dirty. they'd take a hacked up windshield wiper blade and say they needed a new set. it really was gut wrenching. 1 reason i change my fluids at home and when i don't have time or don't feel like getting dirty i take it to my uncle's place.

[TA^Guy]

I used to goto Sears for tires.
But now I purchase them at TireRack.com and have my friend RJ (bluez) mount and balance them and he also does my alignments. Warrenty work went to the dealer, except the rotors, I solved that problem the first time with rotors from PepBoys. All other work that doesn't require a lift or specialty tools like oil changes, brakes, etc I do myself.

[neuro_optic]

Antone know what the outcome of this case was if there is any yet?

[matts]

i take it to my uncles because he's family and he won't try to screw me. for instance a couple weeks ago my girlfriend was complaining about her brakes. sounded like she needed rotors turned and brake pads to me, but i didn't drive it. the car has 80000 miles on it so i figured it prob. needed brakes. i had her take it to my uncle and he called me and told me that he went through her entire brake system (minus a couple parts) and couldn't find anything wrong. if i had told her to take it anywhere else they would have automatically threw a new set of pads and turned the rotors and charged me for it. so he saved me $100 and was honest with me. but as far as i've seen he does that with all his customers, not just family

[JMILLS]

I haven't heard anything back from Wal-Mart yet, haven't contacted corporate quite yet because I wanted to give the store a chance to correct it.

[scott9050]

Does your local TV station have a trouble shooter? If so give them a call. I do not think that they would enjoy the publicity.

[HeyDace]

Call the corporate office, explain it to them. Most likely they will pay for the damages because they will lose in court anyway and it would cost more in litigation.
When I owned my Garage, I think I only won one case. I've learned its easier to just pay up, it's cheaper and you may save a good customer.

[LoneRangers15]

Originally posted by HeyDace
Call the corporate office, explain it to them. Most likely they will pay for the damages because they will lose in court anyway and it would cost more in litigation.
When I owned my Garage, I think I only won one case. I've learned its easier to just pay up, it's cheaper and you may save a good customer.
Yeah, I would try to get as much publicity as possible. There is a man named Frank Gray who writes articles around here about the little guy when the get screwed. 95% of the time the problem is fixed just because of his article. I would call all of the TV stations and newspapers and explain it to them.

[RedGASE97]

Yeah those TLE guys are a bunch of idiots. I took my car there twice for an oil change (the Wal-Mart I use to work at no less). The first time the guy blew the in-line fuse to my system and I had to pay for a new fuse. The second time they left the dipstick out about halfway. Hey Wal-Mart TLE- :2up:

[PFloyd2002]

My brother had tires/rims put on at NTB and they cracked the front bumper. After some pissing and moaning, they broke sown and paid for the repairs. Just be a COMPLETE prick and call as many authorities (police, Wal-Mart management, etc) and don't leave them alone until Wal-Mart PAYS THE PRICE!!! Bastards...

[vdgmcool]

I hate Wal-Mart I worked there for a month and I wanted to quit and it seems like if the samething happened at the store that I worked at they would have done the same by denying it.






P.S. WAL-MART BLOWS!!

[koolgt]

Well i figured i'd add my walmart oil change history..i go to walmart get my oil changed. i go there all the time(well used too) i always got mobile 1 5-30w well i told em my usuall, they give me my car back, as i got in, and ready to leave i look down, and there were valvoline 10-30 regular oil sitting in my car i about crapped..u do not mix synthetic oil with regular oil...i mean how could they screw that up..well i go in complain..they look..they said yeah ur supposed to have mobile 1..so i tell them they have to push the car in..i did not want it ran, cause im not gonna mix oils like that...so they changed the oil 2 times twice with mobile 1 and never even charged me..but see if i go back there again

[JMILLS]

Well, here is a pic of the main damage done. Granted, it is not that much damage, but still I don't think I should have to fix it myself. I am filing my "official" claim with Walmart tommorow and they are going to send it to thier insurance company, any suggestions before I send it off?

http://www.ctel.net/~jmills/damage.gif

[vdgmcool]

Get the most money that you can get! They should pay for the repairs and more.

[rixGAphx]

Originally posted by JMILLS
...., any suggestions before I send it off?
1. Be factual, no emotion.
2. First, write the three or four paragraphs of the 'body' of the letter. Then write a concluding paragraph. Finally, write the introductory paragraph, by rewording the concluding paragraph.
3. Do not settle for 'some money' based on it being a seven-year old car. You have the right to 'be made whole'; specifically, for the vehicle to be returned to it's pristine condition immediately prior to their damage.
4. Have you gotten an estimate yet?I would be concerned about internal bumper damage (the cellular plastic and metal that forms the 'energy absorbing' body of the bumper; this could be much more expensive to repair than a simple 'cosmetic' plastic over-bumper.

-Rick

[RedGASE97]

Hey if they have to put on a new fascia, tell them to put on the AED fascia and have Wal-Mart pay for it. :D

[JMILLS]

Originally posted by RedGASE97
Hey if they have to put on a new fascia, tell them to put on the AED fascia and have Wal-Mart pay for it. :D

That would be nice, but I dont see it happening :)

[JMILLS]

Walmart finally got around to taking pictures of my car, and filing the claim. Lucky for me I got to deal with the guy responsible for dropping my car (and of course he still denied it). They did, however, offer to replace the two 48" Neon tubes they broke for up to $100.00 without the claim even being filed. I will have to wait and see what happens with the acutal damage.

[Gimli]

Just be careful, don't take any money from them before it's completely settled. They might try to trick you into taking 100$ and then claim that you accepted it as total final compensation.

[JMILLS]

Yeah, I am prepared for that. Not signing anything, and I am not going to get the lights until this thing is settled.

[TA^Guy]

Originally posted by JMILLS
Walmart finally got around to taking pictures of my car, and filing the claim. Lucky for me I got to deal with the guy responsible for dropping my car (and of course he still denied it). They did, however, offer to replace the two 48" Neon tubes they broke for up to $100.00 without the claim even being filed. I will have to wait and see what happens with the acutal damage.
I wouldn't settle for anything less than full coverage for all damages done.

If they don't want to give you the entire ammount to cover all damages then tell them you will see them in court.

On that note you could wait a bit and advise them that thousands of automobile owners now know how they treat thier customers and their property.

[02GARacer]

no way man, that ****ing blows

[02GARacer]

oh yeah which Walmart was it in maine, so next time i go up to maine soon i dont end up going there

[Artic]

Originally posted by TA^Guy
I wouldn't settle for anything less than full coverage for all damages done.

If they don't want to give you the entire ammount to cover all damages then tell them you will see them in court.

On that note you could wait a bit and advise them that thousands of automobile owners now know how they treat thier customers and their property. Ya I agree don't let them try to cheat you at all.

[JMILLS]

Well folks, I have finally recieved compensation from Wal-mart for the way they treated my car. While its not what I wanted, I took it anyway because I am sick of fighting with them.

They determined the the crack in my bumper was not caused by them dropping my car, however they did admit that they dropped the car and handled the situation poorly. They also admited that they broke 2 tubes on my neon lighting.

In regards to the neon, they are going to cover the cost of replacing two tubes up to the amount of $100.00. For my time and trouble they refunded all the money I paid for the tires and service that day $227.00. And when I went in today to get an oil change and pick up the money they gave me the oil change for free. After all is said and done, I am satisified with the way they handled this, I still have a cracked bumper and no explanation but at least Wal-mart did make it up to me in some way.

My recommendation is to watch your car, no matter where you take it because you never know what could happen.

Thank you to everyone for your advice on this matter. At first they weren't going to cover anything, until I mentioned that GAOC was waiting to here how this ended. Something about 3,000+ people watching this transaction may have swayed the way they felt about it. :)

[antirice]

I've got a couple buddies that work at the wally-world TLE over here, they both just got their ASE certifications, so I'm just gonna say that not all of the workers are complete idiots

[stuman2.5]

I know this is an old post but, One time i took my 90 ga 2.5 to get the oil changed, and i had the trouble of getting the oil filter lid of of my car cause someone had overtightened the nut so i couldnt get it off. So thinking they would be able to fix it. Also i had not been able to change the oil filter for about 7,000 miles. The next i went to change it my father in law had to weld a new nut on it to get it off. Wal-mart had jsut wiped silicon around the lid act like they changed it. So when i took it off it was just wiped around the outside nothing on the outside. Really pissed me off, havnt gone back. But i used to work there and my wife still works there, so i am not a walmart hater.

[GrandAm95]

yea i worked at Sams club the brother of Wal-Mart and its all the same, i well admit that i worked in the tire department and we did lie alot if there was something wrong that we did, we just blaimed it on the people that worked on it before us if u could, but if u say it the they shouldnt lie about it cause that is a good way to get fired, u should see if they had cameras in the shop if not let home office know they need to put some in there cause we had 4 cameras in are garage it was insane, the manager was able to tell when we went to lunch or when we scratched are @$$. i'm glad i dont work there anymore

[TA^Guy]

Glad to hear you got something out of the situation.

Like you said, watch you rcar when it's there.

Not eveyone that works at those places are idiots, but they do pick up tire and battery guys by the dozen. Most of them never worked in a shop or had any formal automotive training before.

[GrandAm95]

Originally posted by TA^Guy
Glad to hear you got something out of the situation.

Like you said, watch you rcar when it's there.

Not eveyone that works at those places are idiots, but they do pick up tire and battery guys by the dozen. Most of them never worked in a shop or had any formal automotive training before. :agree: we had acouple kids in are shop that i thought were :crazy: but managment dont care who they hire as long as there is a ceriant amout of people down there to make them look like there good on staff. we had one kid that would sit in his truck all day on the clock and smoke cigg, well he didnt last long maybe a week