Faulty Machinery becomes my problem

<p>I went to Tyres2000 in Midrand on the 7th of January to have them fit 4x new 195/50-15 Dunlop SP Sport tyres on my Corsa. I went to this branch as our company has an account there, and we take all our tyre requirements to them, for our truck fleet, and personal vehicles. I phoned on the 6th to get a price, as I am on budget and would be paying cash, and was happy with the deal I was given. Costa helped me with the price, and further procedures, like fitment, and even up-sold me a wheel alignment, which I paid for as well.</p> <p>As they were busy doing the wheel alignment, I went to have a look at how they do it, as I am a curious fellow. I noticed a new mark on one of my rims, and upon more in-depth investigation, saw that 3 of my rims have fresh scratches on them. And they were not small scratches, and they were deep, as the paint was coming off. Now these are standard Corsa GSI rims (or mags if you may), and yes, they were not in an immaculate condition, but they were still in a very good condition, hence why I noticed these scratches immediately, as I am attentive that way. So I went over to Costa, and mentioned the scratches, after which he came over and saw the scratches. He was highly disappointed, and asked the worker who fitted the tyres to the rims what has happened, to which he got no answer. He was very apologetic, and said that they will have to repair the rims at their cost. He said he will discuss it with his manager, and phone me on Monday the 9th. I went to the store on Monday, as the vehicle was pulling left after the wheel alignment was done by them. The manager was there, and we showed him the scratches, after which he took the worker who fitted the tyres to the tire-changer machine and asked him, what went wrong. The worker then showed us all that there are some problems on the machine, being: 1: The mounting head was missing a roller wheel to prevent it from going too far onto the rims; 2: the clamp that clamps the rims was off-balance, so the rim was running in an oval route, and not perfectly in a circle, which pushed the rim closer and then further from the mounting head.</p> <p>These 2 issues created the scratches along 35% of the rims inside edge (on the face of the rims). These scratches were on 3 of the rims, why the worker did not stop after the 1st rim got scratched, he cannot answer. So I was told to bring my car in, then they will replace one rim with my spare, and have that rim repaired. Once the one is done, they will replace it, and change the spare with another rim, and repair that one, and so forth and so forth. Now NOWHERE did anyone mention anything about me having to pay any amount towards this. NOWHERE was it mentioned that ONLY 3 rims are their responsibility, and not the 4th. I am a sales rep, so I am driving around quite a lot, and as it is the beginning of the year, there was no time to pull in and let them take a rim as proposed. Unfortunately, my car broke down last week, and was at our workshop, so I asked our mechanic to remove all 4 rims, so I can take it to them to get repainted, as I was told that was what Tyres2000 Midrand would organise because of the damage that their staff member and their faulty machinery made. I took them on Monday the 23rd of January, they removed my tyres off of the rims, and asked me to take my tyres with me for safe-keeping, took my number and off I went. I popped into the store on Wednesday 25 January as I was in the area, and they said the rims will be done that afternoon, and I can bring the tyres in on Thursday morning. When I got to the store on Thursday, I was approached by the manager (Mike I think his name is) and was basically told that he wants me to pay half of the bill. My reaction to this was one of shock, as this was not discussed with me earlier. I said to him, that I am willing to pay for 1 rim, as it was not damaged by the worker/machinery, and he said to me I have 2 options – pay half (2 rims’ repair) at cost, which was R500 and he will give me 2 free wheel alignments (which keeps my car pulling left when it didn’t before), or pay for one rim at R650 retail. Not much of a choice. Nothing was discussed with me regarding any payments that I might have to incur before any repairs were done. His excuse was that he did not expect me to bring all 4 rims at once, and would have spoken to me as each rim goes in, but then he had my number, and was quite aware of the fact that I dropped off all 4 rims, and that they went in to their rim repair go-to-guy. I understand that my rims had some marks on them, but it did not have scratches on them that were anything to the likes of the scratches that their faulty machine together with their worker made to my rims. If he had spoken to me beforehand, and discussed the matter before they had it fixed, I would not have had a problem with it, and I would have happily paid the R500. But my rims were literally held hostage by this manager, and his arrogant attitude left me with no other choice but to pay the half, otherwise he will not let my rims out of his shop.</p> <p> </p> <p>I feel that I was forced into a corner by this manager, and that he was trying to cover up for their own faults by making me pay for it. If he handled the situation differently, I would not have had a problem with paying for the non-damaged rim to be re-sprayed with the rest, so they all look the same.</p> <p> </p> <p>He also had a very “I-don’t-care” attitude when I mentioned to him that we bring quite a bit of work in to his store from our company’s side. He’s answer was: “Not really”. Now I have worked with customers my whole life, in retail, manufacturing, counter sales, etc. – and I have never said anything to that effect to any of my clients. All clients are important, even the small ones, but that does not seem to be the case at Tyres2000 Midrand.</p> <p> </p> <p>I hope that we can come to a resolve on the above matter, and expect an answer regarding what will be done to resolve this issue. I am one very unhappy customer, and will never take any of my personal business to that shop again.</p>