“They should’ve triple checked.”
A mother of three was left baffled after getting her car back from a dealership service center. Her experience is raising questions about who’s to blame when a shop makes a mistake.
TikTok user @MomZillato3 explained in a series of videos that she initially believed she was at fault for the tire mix-up. According to her, she read the specifications off the original tires on her car to a sales rep at the dealership service center.
However, after they were installed, she says employees claimed she read them the wrong measurements.
In her post about the tire situation, she says, “Took it off the dealership, drove about five minutes, and realized it was sounding very loud and just not driving right. Went back and they took a look and said, ‘You called us and gave us the wrong tire measurements. These tires are too big.’”
“Pretty sure when I called to order them, I just read straight off the old tires, gave them those numbers, and that was it.”
The mom says she was at a loss on how to address the matter. Because the dealership claimed she specifically requested tires of a different size, she wants to know if she’s on the hook to pay for them.
“Monday we’re going in to get the right size tires, and I don’t know. Do we take the old … bad size and try and resell them, and just eat some of the costs?” she asks. “They weren’t cheap. They were very decent, all-weather, long mileage tires. So, now what? I just kind of want to know other people’s opinions.”
Further developments suggested that perhaps she wasn’t in the wrong to begin with. In an update, she shows how bad the tires’ fit really is and how little room there seems to be to rotate without scraping the wheel well.
“Look how tight these tires are,” she says.
In a caption for the post, she speculates that she may have given the tire shop the wrong model number. But the mom says she couldn’t believe any service tech would see the tires and surmise they were the appropriate fit for her vehicle.
“I can’t imagine the mechanic would’ve put these on, and not went like, ‘Wait a minute.’ Just look at them now. They’re so tight! I think they’re even hitting it,” she says.
Automotive tire and service company SunAuto wrote about some of the drawbacks and potentially hazardous situations drivers can encounter while cruising around on bad tires:
As stated by several commenters and @MomZillato3, always refer to your owner manual to figure out which tires are best suited for your vehicle. Bridgestone also posted a helpful write-up for drivers that highlights how these correct measurements are often emblazoned on the sides of tires.
Many tire manufacturers allow customers to filter which sets of rubber will fit their vehicles. All you need to do is select the year, make, model, and trim level of your car, and the site will populate with a list of tires.
If you purchased the wrong size tires for your car, you do have options. People on a Reset Era forum told a car owner who mistakenly bought the wrong tire size that they were at fault, but their best bet was to try to resell the tires and take a financial hit. They could also try to return them if the tread wasn’t significantly degraded.
However, if the tire shop made the error, then the fault is on them. In that instance, forum writers urged people to return to the shop and inform them of the error. Similarly, if a buyer purchases tires that visibly don’t fit once they’re affixed to a vehicle, they can check the return policies for the tires they purchased.
It’s important to note that each store has its own return policy. For instance, Walmart allows unused, unmounted tires to be returned within 90 days. This could prove problematic for drivers who only learn of the error after the tires are installed.
The GMC owner’s discussions regarding her tire fiasco continued in exchanges with other TikTok users. Some commenters believed that she was in the wrong, as the tire shop simply ordered the type of tires she requested and then installed them on her vehicle.
“You told them a number. Then they told you a price. You said ok so they ordered them,” a user wrote. However, the mom of three responded that it was evident the tires weren’t the right ones for her vehicle, as the car was “unable to be driven.”
She added in another comment that she corroborated the tire’s size from two sources.
“The tire size I read was on the original tire and the door jamb,” she said to another person who urged her to reference the vehicle’s door jamb for correct tire measurements.
Ultimately, @MomZillato3 says that the tire shop was able to remedy her rubber woes.
“They replaced the tires this morning, no issues,” she says.
Motor1 has reached out to @MomZillato3 via TikTok direct message for further comment. This story will be updated if she responds.
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