Tire Kingdom Consumer Reviews - Page 3

TITUSVILLE, FLORIDA -- In a nutshell, when hitting my brakes, I heard a "scraping" sound, which my boyfriend verified was a problem with one of the brake pads. THAT'S PRETTY MUCH IT.... Tire Kingdom "found" $715 worth of "work" that needed to be done.... I am so fed up and aggravated with this company that I am fighting every whim of my being to start a lawsuit...

I am emailing in regards to the terrible service I have received at one of the new locations in Titusville, FL. My boyfriend and I had gone in there to have a brake inspection, and being he has a lot of knowledge on vehicle maintenance and up keeping, he checked out my brakes beforehand to see what needed to be done. All he had thought that was an issue was possibly a rear brake pad, a tightening of the E Brake and a new light bulb in the right tail light.

When we arrived to Tire Kingdom, we had mentioned of these issues, to which we received a phone call 45 minutes later explaining to us that there were several other things wrong with the vehicle that my boyfriend had already previously looked at. They included leaking of brake fluid, warped rotors, and worn out front brake pads. They then proceeded to tell us that this would all cost around $715.00! That is RIDICULOUS.

We had researched the prices of parts supposedly needed and the cost is nowhere near that. On top of all of this, when they were backing up my car, the guy scraped the bottom of my car with the top of the lift, adding insult to injury by causing other issues that were not originally there.

When I opened the car door, I saw a bunch of grease on the interior and steering wheel, which I had cleaned before we got there. I am very dissatisfied with the unprofessional, RUDE, and dishonest employees that work there, and I will make it known to whomever I can that this is not a worthy place of spending your hard earned money for work that doesn't need to be performed on your vehicle.

METAIRIE, LOUISIANA -- On Friday, 10/19/07 I went to this establishment for a wheel alignment because my vehicle was pulling hard to the left & the steering column was not aligned (this diagnosis made by my regular mechanic a week earlier during a test drive with me present). I also asked to check the struts & brakes, an additional cost of $14.99. I left the location to get lunch. I was gone for about 25-30 minutes when I received a call advising me that my front struts & back brakes needed replacing. He quoted prices for each. I declined the repairs & wanted the wheel alignment only. I asked how much longer it would be? He advised that it would take approximately 1 hour.

After about 15-20 minutes, I returned to the establishment (which was 5-7 minutes away) to find my vehicle in the section where I parked when I first arrived (NOTE: when I left, the vehicle was on the rack in the service area). I stated that it hasn't been an hour since you called and my vehicle is parked & ready to go. The salesperson's comment was that it doesn't take quite an hour.

I still insisted that I wasn't gone very long. I paid the bill & left. On my way home, I noticed the car was still pulling hard to the left & the steering column still was not aligned. I was very upset & called back immediately. I was assured that the alignment was done & asked if I was given the printout. I said NO & asked how was it possible that it was done and the problems still exist. I was offered no explanation.

I demanded a full refund for service I was charged for and had not received. I feel that the business practice of this establishment is not only dishonest & deceptive to the consumers, but illegal. I was fortunate enough to detect that service was not performed on my vehicle after paying for it, but what about all the others who trust that they're getting what they're paying for.

SARASOTA, FLORIDA -- I drove in for an oil change at Tire Kingdom. This was accomplished and I was on my way. Within 3 miles, smoke, smell, and a red warning light appeared. Diagnosis was provided by an auto repair shop adjacent to the incident. "Double gasket" the young man said. That is an egregious error allowing the previous gasket to remain in place, while installing the new oil filter. The result is no seal, resulting in a loss of oil. The engine was totally starved of oil.

The shop refilled, and the good news was - the engine ran, the bad news - an amber engine caution light was illuminated. This light had never been on before. I looked to Tire Kingdom to fix the condition, but they were unable. Next stop, the dealership where it was purchased. It took the Ford dealership two attempts to fix it as they under-diagnosed on the first effort due to idiosyncrasies in the on board maintenance computer. It's fixed now, and I felt the process was reasonable given the radical condition of oil starvation.

Tire Kingdom paid the first bill but stuck me with $926 for the second bill. The second bill was for the same work, but on the opposite side of the V8 engine as the first and was necessary to get the light out. I did not mind the mistake by the Tire Kingdom tech, though it was obvious negligence (I have made a few myself). What I strongly object to is the way the district manager shifted blame (to Ford dealership) obfuscated, and refused to step up and take responsibility for a situation they created.

Our second unpleasant conversation ended when he stated: "You can't prove we caused the light to come on in the first place." Do yourself a favor and take your business elsewhere, and may the marketplace reward them according to their deeds.

PEMBROKE PINES, FLORIDA -- I was a regular at the Tire Kingdom Store #056 9898 PINES BOULEVARD Pembroke Pines, FL 33024, until last year, I went for my usual oil change, and they tried to sell me an unneeded engine flush claiming they found sludge. I refused, and they said that it was company policy and would not do the oil change without the flush. I have worked on cars since I was 12 years old, so I have a clue.

I asked how did they find sludge without draining the oil? They said it was on the dip stick! My car had less than 50K miles and I had checked and wiped the dip stick the day before driving the one mile to the shop. Of course I left immediately, got my oil changed down the street, I looked over their shoulder as they drained the oil, no sludge.

A few days ago I went for brake estimate to the shop at Tire Kingdom Store #260 2600 PINE ISLAND ROAD Hollywood, FL 33024. This time the guy looked at brake rotor through the rim and with a very concerned look pointed to bluing on the rotor and said they would have to be replaced. I told the story to a friend and he laughed and said they tried to sell him on a flush and replacement of his power steering fluid, the car has electronic assisted steering, not hydraulic! LESSON LEARNED: AVOID ALL Tire Kingdom ripoff shops!

KINGSLAND, GEORGIA -- Had a flat so our vehicle was towed to Tire Kingdom on King's Bay Road -- between 6-7pm, shop open till 9pm. Tire Kingdom had a special buy two and get two free but of course our tires did not qualify and they needed to be ordered and would not be in till the next morning. OK. Ordered two new tires and an oil change, and asked Tire Kingdom to check out a couple of problems. Heard from them at almost noon the next day -- they had not changed out our tires or done the oil change but had priced out a $200+ plus part plus $99 for labor and wanted the go ahead to order it. We declined and waited and waited and waited.

Called back around 7pm only to find out that the oil change STILL had not been done and they hadn't checked out one problem we had asked them to. So two days without our car to do an oil change and change out two tires. BIG FAIL. We were new customers and told them up front that we needed work done on another vehicle depending on how things went with this one. That won't be happening. I have no confidence in the work, or even that the work has been done. You need to be able to trust your mechanic.

METAIRIE, LOUISIANA -- My front 2 tires were balding and the right one had the inside of the tire coming out. I had to call my parents and ask them to help me out since I couldn't afford new tires. I initially wanted to go to the Goodyear by my apartment since my back 2 tires were Goodyear. I had asked my parents to just send me the check (since I know most auto places like to screw over women I was going to have my boyfriend with me). But instead, they called me to tell me to go to Tire Kingdom since they were having the buy 4 tires for the price of 2 sale.

They had some set up where my parents would go to the one by them to pay for me. I wasn't comfortable with this but my parents insisted I do this. So, I went and lo and behold I get a phone call telling me my BATTERY was out of juice... would not jump start or anything.

The funny thing is that I had no problem with my battery at all. Of course, the manager claimed he'd never screw over his customers, etc. But, what I was afraid would happen, happened. Here is a young girl, whose parents are paying for the bill (and aren't there in person) so they knew my parents would buy me a new battery so I wouldn't be stuck without a car. Real nice.

MOORESVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA -- I was taking my vehicle to this shop because I had a credit account with them and was out of work at the time. I have since found another shop, Peebles Automotive to work on my vehicle. I found out that TK charged me 4 times the cost of the parts when they did the work and a little over a year later, only a year!!! I had to have the brakes and rotors replaced again. Found out that they use the CHEAPEST parts you can get... beware of these people. The shop I go to now is SO much better, a lot more reasonable and very friendly staff.

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA -- This was my second bad experience at this location. A year ago I had tires installed and they were grossly improperly aligned after waiting many hours. Last week I returned to have tires rotated and was happy to see a new crew. I was told the struts were bad so I had them replaced. After returning home I googled "tire wear from bad struts". Something didn't add up and visited the next day several other mechanics to get confirmation that the struts indeed needed replaced. I'm sorry to say I never got confirmation. When I returned to ask for old struts, they were already picked up by scrap guy. What are the chances. These guys are crooks. BEWARE!

MIAMI, FLORIDA -- I had previously gone to Tire Kingdom to do some tire changes. Never will I make that mistake again. If you do not know too much about cars, I recommended you avoid this place. Every times I went in, I ended up paying literally 100% more than what they would tell me over phone. Best part about the situation was that a day later the tire popped. I called in and they told me that they would replace it free of charge. I set up a date to go to get my new free tire but I wasn't able to make it so I ended up going 4 days later, and when I got there they said that I didn't buy a warranty and that I would have to pay for the new tire.

One year later I call over the phone to go again for new tires, they told me the tires I wanted were in stock and would fit my car's rims. When I got there, they denied I ever called and made me pay double the price I was quoted over phone. And on top of all this, they made me wait 2 hours for them to change the tires on my car. Mind you it was a Tuesday morning and the place was empty. I will never make the same mistake again. Please avoid this place for your own good.

Went in to Melbourne FL location where ** treated us very unfairly. We waited three hours for our tire change. Then when the car was ready they informed us that the alignment machine was broken. They still insisted on charging me for the alignment $125 and that I should go to another one of their locations to get the work done! ** was especially rude and goading about the whole affair. Honestly the worst consumer experience of my life, total ripoff, can't believe that people / companies like this are allowed to deal with consumers. Avoid this company at all costs.